Top Ten Tuesday (9)

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I Wish Would Write Another Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!

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Whew. This list was kind of hard because every time I thought of an author, I’d think of two more who didn’t qualify because I know that they have new things coming soon. Authors, if you could be just slightly less productive so that I can make this list, that would be GREAT. (Just kidding.) Here goes!

In no particular order…

J.K. Rowling. Because obviously. The genius lady who created Harry Potter and Hogwarts and Expecto Patronum and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is basically set for life, but I’m HOPING that she will find herself just BURSTING with more awesome words that she MUST write down simply because she can’t stop telling stories. Because if the whole world was making one of these lists, I’d bet she’d be on most of them. Pretty please, Jo? I’m not asking you to make an unbreakable vow, here. Just more books. 

Jandy Nelson. Jandy, here, is a little tease! She’s given interviews on what she’s writing next, and there IS a book listed on Goodreads, but alas there is no other word of it. What’s the 411, Ms. Nelson?? I CRAVE her words! They are gorgeous and thoughtful and real. When her next book comes out, I will be BESIDE MYSELF. Embarrassingly giddy. You all *might* not be able to stand me for a little while. 

Jacqueline Kelly. (Let’s here if for the “J”s!) I read her first book, THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE, three years ago, and it’s been stuck in my brain ever since. Characters like Callie are rare in their spunky timelessness and endearing gumption. I loved her to bits and pieces, and I’ve been stalking Jacqueline’s website ever since to see what might be coming next. I got BUPKUS. Literally nothing. *sad face*

Rebecca Wells. THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD was a book I read in high school that INSTANTLY made me want to be southern, Louisiana specifically. This book and Steel Magnolias (sob!). I wanted to live on a bayou (we kind of have these in Jersey, except they’re just called swamps and they kind of smell, so…), address groups of people as “y’all”, drink like a lush, and have be-all, end-all, there-for-me-always friends. It’s been a couple of years since she wrote her last book and I don’t know if she’s going to write another. But I’d be happier than a coondog on a bare leg if she’d write something new, y’all. (Just practicing my south mouth!)

Jeanne Birdsall. (Seriously. The “J” names. UNINTENTIONAL.) This one is a little bit of a cheat because I know that she’s writing another Penderwick’s book. But I know also that they take her a long time, and having her on this list is merely my insignificant plea to maybe, if she could, pretty please finish the next one a little faster? I just love the Penderwick’s so much that I can’t stand the wait! Oi! Don’t make me get all Mick Hart on you, Jeanne!! Or maybe Sabrina Starr could help you? (I <3 Jane.)

Alison Goodman. LOVE HER. I put her on here because I didn’t think she had written anything since EON/EONA, and while that is true, lo and behold, she’s working on “something new” and then POSSIBLY writing more Eona?!?!? STOP IT. I’m still leaving her on here, though, because it HAS been awhile and it seems like we’re going to be waiting for a little while longer. Worry not, my friends. Whenever her new book does come out, I’ll be ON IT. ESPECIALLY if it’s more celestial dragons!

Deborah Heiligman. HEY-O! NONFICTION CURVEBALL!! Have you guys read CHARLES AND EMMA? It was so brilliant. I often have a harder time with adult nonfiction because it’s incredibly detailed and occasionally dry (there ARE exceptions, of course). If I had endeavored to read an adult biography of Charles Darwin, my eyes might have bled and my brain might have died. But Deborah’s book about Darwin’s studies, which eventually became THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, told through the lens of his family life and marriage to his FANTABULOUS wife, Emma, was so smart and informative without being overwhelming. I’d read anything she wrote any day.

Suzanne Collins. How might she follow up THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy? I don’t have the faintest idea, and frankly, if I had to make that decision I’d be terrified. How do you follow up a story that had such mass appeal and success? Hopefully with something just as AWESOME. But whatever she decides to do, I HOPE that she does write something new. Suzanne has such a gift for tension and DRAMA. BRING IT. Soonish, maybe? 

Sherman Alexie. *Sigh* THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN was breathtaking and hilarious and sad and AMAZING. I loved every word because it tells so many difficult truths in this really heart-breaking/heart-fixing way. Sherman Alexie is a GENIUS. I’ll read all of his words forever and ever.

Edith Pattou. I just read her book EAST this past year and I fell in love with it’s gorgeous prose and the wonderfully wild Rose. Even though EAST was itself a retelling of an old tale, it felt like I was reading a story that was spoken for centuries and generations and only just written down. It was just so lovely and magical and evocative. EAST is one of the reasons that fairy tale retellings are THE BOMB, but I’d read anything Edith writes, fantasy or not.