Lucinda Riley - Lucinda Riley is one of my favorite dual time period historical fiction writers. I only discovered her 4 years ago, when the first book I read by her, "The Midnight Rose," was a 5 star read that went straight to my 2015 10 favorites list. It's taking some time to catch up on her books - first of all, they are REALLY long, and second of all, in addition to her older books, she really churns out the new books! And she also has some older books that were never published in the US that continue to be re-issued in the US. Her most recent new book, "The Moon Sister" came out in February and I just read it, and she has a re-issue, "The Royal Secret," coming out in May. I've read 7 of her books, and I think I have 5 to go that are currently available. I usually read her books with my two person book club ("GCBC") partner-in-crime Sarah.
Taylor Jenkins Reid - Love Taylor Jenkins Reid, a chick lit/contemporary women's fiction author who of late has moved a bit into historical fiction. Even though several people recommended her to me before that, I only first read one of her books two years ago, when "Maybe In Another Life" became one of my top 10 favorites of 2017. Earlier this year, I read her brand new book, "Daisy Jones and the Six," which I gave a 5 star review and will surely be one of my ten favorites of 2019. I've read 5 of her 6 books - and pretty much the only reason I haven't read that one is because it isn't available as an e-book from my library, nor has it gone on sale, and I don't like to spend more than a few dollars on books when I have such a backlog to read!
Beatriz Williams- Beatriz Williams is another favorite writer of dual time period historical fiction. I've read 7 of her 9 books, one of which, "The Secret Life of Violent Grant," made my 2017 top 10 list. Her next book, "Golden Hour," comes out in July. I'm lucky enough to have already gotten an advanced copy from Netgalley so I'l be reading that soon - unless I wait for it to actually be published so Sarah and I can read it together since she's another author we both love.
Jojo Moyes - I love Jojo Moyes, one of the contemporary women's fiction authors I always recommend to others. Somewhat surprising to me that she has never made one of my top 10 lists, but she is definitely a favorite nonetheless whose books I eagerly anticipate. I've read 8 of her books, including all of her books published in the last ten years or so (other than a short story collection I haven't gotten to yet), but I'm still working on her back catalog, which continues to be re-issued for US publication. Unfortunately most of what she wrote prior to "Me Before You" just isn't as good as the books she wrote afterwards, but I'm still working on reading them nonetheless. Indeed, she tricked me this year! I included her book "The Peacock Emporium" on my list of anticipated books of 2019, but little did I know that it was actually a book published 15 years ago that was only just being published in the US. Her actual next new book, "The Giver of Stars," is scheduled to be published in October. In the meantime, I still have the aforementioned short story collection and 3 older novels that are available in the US to get through.
Kate Atkinson - Kate Atkinson writes mysteries, historical fiction, and contemporary fiction. I've read 6 of her books, 3 of which have made my top 10 lists over the years ("Case Histories," "Life After Life," and "When Will There Be Good News.") I have 5 left to read. And her next book, "Big Sky," is one of my anticipated books of May/June and I'm already on the library waiting list for it!
Jodi Picoult - At one point, Jodi Picoult was one of my most favorite authors, with 4 of her books actually making it onto my top 10 favorites lists between 1999-2005. Then at some point I found her books started varying in quality a bit more and stopped making it as much of a priority to read them. However, I've picked up her last few books soon after they came out, and definitely want to go back and finish the books of hers that I haven't read. I've read 18 of her books. I have 6 adult novels and 1 young adult novel left to go.
Alice Hoffman - Alice Hoffman writes both contemporary fiction and historical fiction, often with some degree of magic realism. She has written a ton of books and I've been reading her since the early 1990s - what I have to catch up on of hers is a mixture of her oldest books, and some of the more recent books I missed. Similar to Jodi Picoult, she made a large impact on the early years of my top 10 lists, appearing 3 times, but not since 2004. I've read 16 of her books, and if I've counted correctly, I have 11 adult novels and 5 young adult/middle grade novels to go - that's going to take a while!
John Green - John Green is one of my favorite authors of young adult realistic fiction. I've read 5 of his 6 books (one of which, "The Fault in Our Stars," made my top 10 of 2012, but for some reason I never got around to reading his second book. I know the library has it, so I'll have to tackle it soon, just so I can cross him off my "must catch up on" list!
Sarah Jio - Sarah Jio mostly writes dual time period historical fiction, though a few of her books are just contemporary women's fiction without an historical angle. One of her books, "The Last Camellia," was on my 2015 10 favorites list. I've read 6 of her 8 books, and her next book, "All the Flowers in Paris" comes out in August.
Marian Keyes - Marian Keyes is one of my favorite chick lit writers. I've read all of her 12 novels which have been published in the US, but her publishers are torturing me because her last novel was published in Europe in 2017 but hasn't come out in the US! She also has I believe 4 different non-fiction memoir/essay books which I haven't read yet.
Harriet Evans - Harriet Evans is another favorite British chick lit novelist. I've read 5 of her 10 books (though one isn't available in the US) - she is perpetually on my list of authors to catch up on but somehow I haven't gotten around to reading the rest of her books yet, even though I think I have 3 of them.
Jane Green - Yet another chick lit author - I don't read as much chick lit as I used to, but it used to be one of my favorite genres and I still like to keep up with my favorite authors! I've read 15 of her books, and have 4 left to tackle. Her new book, "The Friends We Keep," is coming out on June 4th, another one of my most anticipated books of the next few months.
Sophie Kinsella - Sophie Kinsella is the final chick lit author on this list, though perhaps there should be an asterisk next to her name, since although I eagerly anticipate her new books, I don't actually intend to read her whole back catalog! I've read all 11 of her standalone novels, plus 2 of her Shopaholic novels. But I really didn't care for the Shopaholic books, so I don't intend to read the other 6 books in the series. I do plan to read her one young adult novel I haven't read, though.
Ann Patchett - Ann Patchett is a terrific literary fiction novelist. I've read 5 of her novels (2 of which, "Bel Canto" and "State of Wonder," made my top 10 lists), and one of her non-fiction books. I have two of her novels and two of her non-fiction books left to go.
Ann Packer - Ann Packer has written 3 novels, all of which I've read, and 2 of which made my top 10 lists ("The Dive From Clausen's Pier" and "The Children's Crusade.") She's also written 2 short story collections, which I haven't read yet.
Lauren Willig - Lauren Willig writes historical fiction which is on the light/chick lit side. I've read her whole 12 book "Pink Carnation" series which I loved, and one of her standalone novels - I have 3 standalone novels still to read, plus her new book coming out next month, another of my anticipated books.
Meg Wolitzer - Interestingly, I read two of Meg Wolitzer's novels long ago before she was famous, then missed a bunch of books before I started reading her again. Her two most recent adult novels, "The Interestings" and "The Female Persuasion" made my top 10 lists. Adding in her middle grade novel which I loved, I've thus read 5 of her books, and I have 4 adult novels, a young adult novel, and a middle grade collaboration with another writer still to go.
The crazy thing is that that isn't really the end of the list of authors I want to catch up on! There are literally dozens of additional authors who I theoretically plan to read all, or at least some more of, their books one day - many of which are already sitting on my kindle or bookshelf waiting to be read! But let's be real, there's no way I'll ever get to them all. So I'll just leave you with this list (and my first must read list), since these are the authors I'm most excited about.
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