Monday, January 27, 2025

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors Discovered in 2024

 


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024. Last year, I read books by a total of 29 new-to-me authors, which accounts for about a third of the books I read. I suppose that number should not surprise me, but it does.

And here's my list of my 10 favorite new-to-me authors. The authors are not listed in any order.


Kate Wilhelm

I read The Hamlet Trap, the first book in the Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn mystery series, first published in 1987. Kate Wilhelm has written two mystery series and many standalone novels in the mystery and science fiction genres. She was married to Damon Knight, a very well-known author of science fiction. Kate Wilhelm's fiction was first recommended to me by Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom.


Willa Cather

My Ántonia is the first book I have read by Willa Cather and I now understand why other readers are so effusive in their praise for this book and its author. There are so many interesting aspects to this book: life on the prairies and in the small towns; the descriptions of backbreaking work on a farm; the difficulties of the immigrants who move to the Nebraska prairies, most of which cannot speak much English.


Gabrielle Zevin

I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Zevin in early 2024. That book was about two young people who worked together to create video games. The story does focus on video games and the process of creating them, but it is about many other things: relationships, families, judgement and misunderstandings, and ambition. Later in 2024 I read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and enjoyed it too.


Catherine O'Flynn 

I read What Was Lost, the author's debut novel, which was published in 2007. A ten-year-old girl, Kate, lives with her grandmother; her goal is to be a detective, and run her own detective agency. She has few friends, hates school, and entertains herself with investigating cases that she has made up. One day she disappears and most of the story focuses on how this event affects other people in her neighborhood, over the following years.



Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove was Backman's first novel, published in 2012, but I did not read any of his books until 2024. Ove is an older man, nearing sixty, whose wife has recently died. He has decided that he does not want to go on living without her. This story is alternately humorous and sad, and I loved it. I will be reading more books by this author.


Joseph Kanon

Defectors was the first book I have read by Joseph Kanon, and it definitely won't be my last. The story focuses on a group of American and British spies living in and around Moscow during the Cold War, after defecting. Frank is a US spy who defected to Russia in 1949. Simon, his younger brother, had to leave his job in intelligence to work in publishing after Frank's defection. In 1961, Simon is in publishing and has been allowed to come to Moscow to work with Frank on publishing his memoirs. I loved the exploration of family relationships, but the story has plenty of action also. I have six more of Kanon's books on my shelves.


Young-ha Kim 

I read Your Republic is Calling You. Published in 2006, the setting is South Korea. It was a different kind of spy fiction and I liked it very much. The story takes place over the course of one day in the life of Ki-Yong, a South Korean with a wife and teenage daughter. Except that he is really a North Korean spy who has been in Seoul, working as a film importer for over 20 years, and has now been recalled to North Korea. 


Karen Joy Fowler

The Jane Austen Book Club was not what I expected but I liked it very much. The book was less about the Austen books than I would have liked, but I enjoyed the individual stories about the members of the book club. I liked the different way the story was told and how the back stories were worked into the story gradually. It made me want to go out and find more books by Fowler.


Anthony Trollope 

Until this year I had not read anything by Trollope. I chose The Warden, the first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series. I had gotten the impression that Trollope's writing was humorous but I failed to see the humor in this story at first. It seemed that all would end very sadly. As the story continued, it lightened up and I became immersed in it and did enjoy the humor of the situation. And I was happy with the ending.



Samantha Harvey

I read Harvey's Booker Prize winning book, Orbital, which depicts one day in the life of six astronauts on the space station, watching the sunrises and sunsets and monitoring a typhoon threatening inhabited islands. It is short, about 200 pages, and very meditative. The difference between Harvey and the other authors on this list is that I don't know if I want to read anything else she has written. I will certainly try other books by her and be interested to see what she writes in the future.





18 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

good discoveries. I should see who I read for the first time this year

Lydia said...

My Antonia was excellent!

Aymee said...

I've been wanting to read A Man Called Ove for some time now. Hopefully this year!

Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you.

Kay said...

I've read books by Kate Wilhelm, but it has been many years. Think she had a series - Barbara Holloway books. I just looked and it's been over 15 years since I read one of hers. I'm fairly certain that I've read the Karen Joy Fowler book, but I can't find it on my list. Maybe it's just the 'Jane Austen Book Club' title. I might have read something with a similar title. A lot of your reading was with new authors this last year!

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

Yours is the first list today that includes several authors known to me: Harvey, Fowler, among them.

Susan said...

A MAN CALLED OVE is one of my favorite novels of all time! I love it. I also really liked THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY when I read it years ago. Funny enough, I just watched the movie last night. It's sweet.

Happy TTT!

Kelly said...

I've read a few of these and two are on my TBR - Orbital and The Warden. I'll probably save The Warden for my next Classics Club list.

Pam @ Read! Bake! Create! said...

A Man Called Ove is one of my favorite books. I adored Ove, and cried at the end.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/authors-i-read-multiple-times-in-2024/

TracyK said...

Pam, I know what you mean about A Man Called Ove. When I finally got interested in the book and read it, I was sad that it had taken me so long.

TracyK said...

Patti, I am glad I discovered these authors finally, most of them are not new authors. I like this doing this particular topic because I want to remember which authors were new each year, and I am always surprised.

TracyK said...

Lydia, I expected My Antonia to be a slog and I was so wrong. I should have been paying attention to Willa Cather's admirers all these years.

Margot Kinberg said...

I do like this meme, Tracy. It's a nice encouragement to try new authors. And I'm so happy to see Catherine O'Flynn on your list. What Was Lost is one of the most excellent books I've read. I still think about it over ten years after I read it. Oh, and you've reminded me of a few authors (like Trollope) that I want to read...

Hamlette (Rachel) said...

Willa Cather is a revelation, isn't she? I particularly like Death Comes to the Archbishop.

I need to read more Trollope. I've read a few of his short stories and liked them a lot.

My TTT is here for this week, if you are curious.

TracyK said...

Aymee, I am sure you will enjoy A Man Called Ove when you get to it. And I found a couple books on your Top Ten list that I want to read.

Cath said...

I would say The Warden is not as humorous as other books in the Barsetshire series. And 29 new authors is excellent! I'm now wondering how many I read last year, I don't think it would be 29.

TracyK said...

Cath, I am looking forward to more books in the Barsetshire series, although they are all longer. But I am confident now that I will enjoy the writing.

I was surprised I read so many new-to-me authors, and of course some of them did not thrill me. But I was very impressed with the majority of them.

TracyK said...

Kay, I was liked the first book I read by Wilhelm, and I bought two more books in that series. I did look for the first Barbara Hollaway book, but had a harder time finding one. I will definitely try that series some day.

TracyK said...

Anne, I definitely will read more by Karen Joy Fowler, but I have not yet found one for my TBR. I checked out your unique Top Tuesday post and it was a very interesting approach.