I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie. Seven Authors That I Love.
Reading is a passion. While all readers have a favourite genre, but no style is truly out-of-bounds if it is well written. And the best authors aren't limited to a single genre.
H.P. Lovecraft
When someone mentions Mr Lovecraft they automatically think The Call of Cthulhu. While I love practically everything he's done (I got my boyfriend to get me the $40 Complete works for my birthday one year) my personal favourite is The Cats of Ulthar. Grumpy old couple killed by a gang of cats for murdering a kitten sounds like justice to me.
The first book of Kelley Armstrong's I found was in a discount bin. It sat on my bookcase for a while until I found the sequel... in a discount bin. Turns out they were the first two books in her Women of the Otherworld series, which ended up being over 13 books long (13 in the main series, 5 books of short stories, and 2 YA trilogies). SO MUCH CONTENT! And it's all good. She also has several other YA books including the Age of Legends trilogy which, if I'm honest, is my favourite of all her work.
Ms Grant's books are about advanced medical technology and, in the case of the Newsflesh series, zombies. They're fascinating, in-depth, and original. Even when she writes about popular, and sometimes overused, subject matter.
Charlaine Harris
The HBO show True Blood brought Ms Harris' Sookie Stackhouse Series to a larger audience. I started reading the series at the release book three. Basically, I liked Eric the vampire before it was cool. She has written several really good series including The Grave series and most recently The Midnight Texas series both of which are set in the same world as Sookie.
Most people are familiar with the Robert Langdon books that include The DaVinci Code. While I enjoyed that series ( I loved the end of Inferno) my favourite D.B. book has to be Digital Fortress. There was one line that continues to stick with me, "it's hard to reach for the stars when your feet hurt." Preach.
Gregory Maguire
Maguire's books take well-known tales and twist them. His most famous work is Wicked, which was made into a musical (and it is AWESOME!) and spawned 3 sequels: Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz. My personal favourite is Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister where there is an amazing twist at the end that makes you rethink the entire book.
No book list would be complete without Mr King. Without him, we wouldn't have horror classics like The Stand, It, and The Shining. But he is also a well-rounded writer with the suspense thriller Misery, the action-packed The Running man, and The Body that the film Stand by Me was based on. My favourite book of his, however, it the autobiographically based book On Writing. Reading about how he came up with the concept for Carrie was inspiring and gave me a greater insight into how the writing process actually works. This book was a great help in my own writing.
When it comes to books keep an open mind. Explore new authors and new genres. Search bargain bins and second-hand stores. You'll thank me for it.