This Lindsay Davis sounds interesting. Sell me on it.Please.
Paul Auster and Stephen Millhauser. Very different styles, but both are masters at capturing psychological states and both have a unique voice. I think I’ve read every damn thing Millhauser has written and almost everything of Auster’s (can’t find his poetry, dang it).
Barbara Kingsolver, Ken Follett, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich.
I know there are more, and I’ll think of them as soon as I hit submit.
Sharyn McCrumb - Her Ballad series juxtaposes current Appalachian life with 18th and 19th century events. Still growning as a writer but definately worth reading.
YES! YES ! YES! I loved Lamb
James Burke
Jonathon Kellerman
Israel Finkelstein (yep thats his name… he’s an archaeologist)
Neil Asher Silberman
Martha Grimes tho I am getting disappointed in her lately
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Gene Wolfe
Stephen King
Roger Zelazny (before he walked off into shadow…)
Raymond Chandler (see above)
Another one for Neil Gaiman.
And for those of you Neil fans who haven’t read Stardust yet, when you do, see if you can spot Tori Amos in there somewhere…
GMRyujin,
Have you read To Reign In Hell, by Stephen Brust? Its really good! I am two books into the Vlad series myself.
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman stuff is totally mind-blowingly good, but American Gods just felt like so much potential that was never realized. I think it may be a British thing.
Oh, Douglas Adams, such a sad thing. I wish he could still be with us.
Ok, to the OP, my list would prolly look something like this:
Douglas Adams
JK Rowling (so far anyway!)
Tim Powers
Todd Wilbur - Top Secret Recipes (mmm, food)
Kurt Vonnegut
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman and Tim Powers have some stuff I don’t like at all, but their good stuff is SO GOOD, I will give anything they write a chance.
Stephen King
Diana Gabaldon
Davis wrote/is writing a series of detective novels set in Imperial Rome, during the reign of Titus. Marcus Didius Falco is the detective, an ex-army man who often reports directly to the Emperor. He’s not particularly well-off, but his girlfriend (later his wife) is upper class. The seruies is well-researched and written with wit. For the first several books she seemed to be starting a series of metals, then metals with gods:
Silver Pigs
Venus in Copper
The Iron Hand of Mars
Poseidon’s Gold
but then she dropped that idea – too hard to keep going, I guess.
She’s also writtten some non-Falco Roman fiction.
Another Ancient Rome detectivve series is by Steve Saylor. I haven’t read them (Pepper Mill has), but they’re set earlier, in the Roman Republic.
For me it’s John LeCarre. I buy anything he’s written on the first day it’s released.
I’m sure there are lots more, but these two spring to mind:
David Gemmell
Jim Butcher
The current list is:
Glen Cook
George R. R. Martin
Her research into the day to day life of Rome after the republic is excellent, which is nice, but the reason I keep going back is that she manages entwine a sense of politics and a lifestyle completely different from our own, without intruding on quick moving stories. Falco is an urban guy with street smarts, but that urban life is completely different than the one we know.
I’d probably buy the Lois McMaster Bujold Cookbook (and I’m the sort where if I have to actually boil water on the stove I consider it gourmet cooking).
David Sedaris
Dan Savage
Roddy Doyle-I’m even willing to read his biography of his grandparents, just not in hardcover.
Nick Hornby
Jamie O’Neill-given that At Swim, Two Boys took him, I think, ten years to write, I’d be surprised if his next book came out any time soon, but I’d pick it up as soon as I saw it.
Augusten Burroughs
Florence King-though I have no idea if she still writes at all. I actually only assume she’s still alive because I haven’t seen an obituary.
Thomas Cahill
Stephen Fry (in paperback)
Dick Francis (in paperback)
Terry Pratchett (hardback and ebay for ancillary items)
JK Rowling (pre-ordered at bookstore)
Douglas Adams (even got the Salmon of Doubt audiotape posthumously, and the fiendish game Starship Titanic). sigh…
Shouldn’t somebody say Cecil Adams?
I just read my first Terry Pratchett book and he is already on the list. First will always be the brilliant Iain Pears, his mysteries are wonderful and his more serious works are even better.
Well, I just bought Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook myself.
Haven’t tried a recipe yet*, but Bananana Soup Surprise looks interesting.
*I don’t cook much either, really. But I love Nanny Ogg.
I forgot **Janet Evonovitch{/b] wonderful characters.