Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Authors I’d Love to Meet.  I remember doing a similar topic last year, but the great thing about being addicted to books is that I’m always discovering more authors that I’d love to meet.  I’m always interested in meeting authors that I think I could not only chat with about their books, but that (assuming I didn’t just sit there and flail speechlessly because I’m meeting my favorites), I could also have real conversations with about what’s going on in the world socially, politically, etc. and how real world events shape what they’re writing about at any given moment.  For those who are interested, here’s my list of authors from last year:  Top Top Authors I’m Dying to Meet.

And below are ten more authors that I think would be equally fascinating to meet someday…

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10 Authors I’d Love to Meet

1. ALICE HOFFMAN

Alice Hoffman is the author of Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic, Faithful, and many more, and she has been a favorite of mine for years. Her prose is so lyrical, yet so natural and effortless at the same time.  I’d love to talk to her about where she gets her inspiration from for the magical stories she writes.

“Books may well be the only true magic.”

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2. LIANE MORIARTY

LIane Moriarty is the author of the best selling Big Little Lies, which has also been made into a very popular TV series on HBO.  I’d love to chat with her about her success.  Did she ever imagine that she would basically become a household name when she was writing Big Little Lies?

“The good thing about writing a novel is that you’re creating an imaginary world and can take a break when you need to.”

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3. LEIGH BARDUGO

Leigh Bardugo is the author of two of my favorites series, the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology.  I’d love to talk to her about how she came up with the whole idea of the Grishaverse, as well as her writing process.

“I think the first trick to writing a feminist work is to write plenty of women.  That way you get to write characters, instead of worrying about paradigms.”

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4. MICHELLE OBAMA

I just adore Michelle Obama.  She’s so intelligent and an all around class act, and I’m beyond excited that her book is coming out soon.  I’d love to meet her not just because of her status as a former First Lady, but just because I think she would be so fascinating to talk to about pretty much any topic.

“Failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience.  Don’t be afraid to fail.”

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5. GEORGE R. R. MARTIN

I think it would be somewhat intimidating to meet George R. R. Martin, but I’d still love to, mainly because I’d love to ask him about his process and if he ever has regrets about killing off some of his characters.

“I have a huge emotional attachment to characters I’ve created, especially the viewpoint characters.”

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6. TOMI ADEYEMI

Tomi Adeyemi is the author of the immensely popular Children of Blood and Bone novel.  I’d love to meet her and talk about what comes next for the characters I fell in love with in the first book of this series.

“I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star.  I want her to know that she’s beautiful and she matters, and she can have a crazy magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger.”

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7. BECKY ALBERTALLI

I’d love to meet Becky to thank her for writing wonderful books filled with some of the most relatable characters I’ve ever come across.  I can’t wait to read her upcoming collaboration with Adam Silvera.

“People really are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows and maybe it’s a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other.” (Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda)

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8. KATHERINE ARDEN

Katherine Arden is the author of one of my favorite series, The Winternight Trilogy.  I’d love to talk to her about her inspiration for this series and to see if she would give me a sneak peek of the final book, which I’m dying to get my hands on but it doesn’t come out until January 2019.

“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.” (The Girl in the Tower)

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9. DAN BROWN

Credit: Dan Courter

I’d love to meet Dan Brown, mainly just to see how many more ideas he has for Robert Langdon books or if he’ll be introducing a new series anytime soon.

“I’m fascinated by power, especially veiled power.  Shadow power. The National Security Agency. The National Reconnaissance Office. Opus Dei.  The idea that everything happens for reasons we’re not quite seeing.”

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10. RICK RIORDAN

I’d love to meet Rick Riordan to thank him for writing books that have made my son love reading.

“Being a hero doesn’t mean you are invincible.  It means you are brave enough to stand up and do what’s right.”

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Question:  So there’s my 10.  What authors are you dying to meet?  Would any of mine make your list?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Books to Pull You Out of a Reading Slump.  Ugh, reading slumps are the absolute worst.  I’m so thankful that I don’t often fall into them, but when I do, it can be pure misery.  Because I hate slumps so much, I’m more than happy to recommend what I consider to be slump busting reads.  One of the most effective ways I’ve been able to pull myself out of a slump is to switch up what genre I’m reading.  That variety helps me a lot, so I’m going to recommend a few books from different categories and because I want to be as helpful as possible to anyone who is slumping, I’m even going to give you a few more than ten recommendations. 🙂 (All synopses are taken from Goodreads.)

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Books That Will Bust You Out of a Reading Slump

CONTEMPORARIES

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli:  Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas:  Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang:  A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases–a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice–with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan–from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he’s making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…

FANTASY

Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by J.K. Rowling:  Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry’s first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab:  Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas:  Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

MYSTERIES/THRILLERS

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty:  Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn:  Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

UNSUB by Meg Gardiner:  A riveting psychological thriller inspired by the never-caught Zodiac Killer, about a young detective determined to apprehend the serial murderer who destroyed her family and terrorized a city twenty years earlier.

Caitlin Hendrix has been a Narcotics detective for six months when the killer at the heart of all her childhood nightmares reemerges: the Prophet. An UNSUB—what the FBI calls an unknown subject—the Prophet terrorized the Bay Area in the 1990s and nearly destroyed her father, the lead investigator on the case.

The Prophet’s cryptic messages and mind games drove Detective Mack Hendrix to the brink of madness, and Mack’s failure to solve the series of ritualized murders—eleven seemingly unconnected victims left with the ancient sign for Mercury etched into their flesh—was the final nail in the coffin for a once promising career.

Twenty years later, two bodies are found bearing the haunting signature of the Prophet. Caitlin Hendrix has never escaped the shadow of her father’s failure to protect their city. But now the ruthless madman is killing again and has set his sights on her, threatening to undermine the fragile barrier she rigidly maintains for her own protection, between relentless pursuit and dangerous obsession.

Determined to decipher his twisted messages and stop the carnage, Caitlin ignores her father’s warnings as she draws closer to the killer with each new gruesome murder. Is it a copycat, or can this really be the same Prophet who haunted her childhood? Will Caitlin avoid repeating her father’s mistakes and redeem her family name, or will chasing the Prophet drag her and everyone she loves into the depths of the abyss?

HISTORICAL FICTION

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn:  In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini:  “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.” 

Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir’s choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah:  In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are.

France, 1939.  In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real–and deadly–consequences.

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What are some books you would recommend as slump busters?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Books You’d Mash Together (pick two books you think would make an epic story if combined).  As per usual, as soon as I started thinking about this topic, I promptly forgot everything about every book I’ve ever read and just sat there drawing a blank.  After a while though, I came up with a few mashups that I thought would make for entertaining reads.

10 Book Mash-Ups That I’d Love to See

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1.  A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab   +   TO KILL A KINGDOM by Alexandra Christo

Lila Bard and Princess Lira in the same book, with a little Kell and Elian thrown into the mix.  Enough said!

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2. SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli   +   FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

I think my favorite fanboy and my favorite fangirl would end up being great friends if they were to ever meet.

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3.  SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo   +   CRESS/THE LUNAR CHRONICLES by Marissa Meyer

Mainly just because I want to watch Carswell Thorne drive Kaz and her team up the wall, haha!

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4.  STALKING JACK THE RIPPER by Kerris Maniscalco   +   THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Arthur Conan Doyle

I’d love to see Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell try to match wits with Sherlock and Watson.

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5.  WARCROSS by Marie Lu   +   READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline

Virtual reality to the extreme!

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6. THE GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE by Mackenzi Lee   +   HUNTING PRINCE DRACULA by Kerri Maniscalco

Mainly because I think it would be great fun to watch Audrey Rose and Felicity work together.

8.  A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas   +   SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo

I think it would be epic to see Rhys and his team join in the battle to take down The Darkling!

9.  LEAH ON THE OFFBEAT by Becky Albertalli   +   NOT THE GIRLS YOU’RE LOOKING FOR by Aminah Mae Safi

Mainly just because I think Leah would really shake things up with Lulu’s circle of friends if she was in the mix.

10.  NEVERNIGHT by Jay Kristoff   +   THE CRUEL PRINCE by Holly Black

I personally think that Mia and Jude would make a pretty killer team, literally!

Question:  What are some book mash-ups that you would love to see?