Today, I’ll be linking up with Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this post is also a part of A Month of Favorites hosted by Girlxoxo, Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge.
I should just say up front that getting this list down to 10 authors was incredibly difficult because I read more new to me authors this year than I ever have before (thanks to my fellow bloggers’ great recommendations)!
Top Ten New to Me Author Discoveries
*I did not include debut authors since they are new to everyone, not just to me. And, I honored my favorite debuts of 2014 last week!
Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Bittersweet is another of my all-time favorite beach reads and I recommended it to all my friends this past summer, most of whom said they couldn’t put it down.
Greg Iles
Natchez Burning had me flying through 800+ pages of Civil Rights violence…and I can’t wait for the second book in the series (The Bone Tree…coming in 2015)!
Brian Morton
While Florence Gordon wasn’t one of my favorite books of 2014 (I did like it, though), I adored Morton’s tight writing style. I will absolutely read his next book.
Chris Pavone
The “24”-style structure of The Accident had me on the edge of my seat. I promptly added The Expats to my TBR list…now I just need to get to it!
Hannah Pittard
Reunion was a slump-buster for me and I loved Pittard’s irreverent writing. This is one of my most recommended books of the year.
Joanna Rakoff
I loved that My Salinger Year was more a coming of age story than a story about the man himself and Rakoff’s humor, irony, and appreciation for the ridiculous really sold me.
Tom Rob Smith
I liked The Farm a lot (though it won’t make my Best of 2014 list) and it made me want to read Smith’s Child 44 Trilogy, which I hope to make time to at least start in 2015.
Emily St. John Mandel
With Station Eleven, Mandel made me love a post-apocalyptic story, which is not usually in my wheelhouse.
Beatriz Williams
Read A Hundred Summers and The Secret Life of Violet Grant this year…and A Hundred Summers is one of my all-time favorite beach reads!
Gabrielle Zevin
I don’t have words for The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry…just an absolutely perfect book.
Who are some of your favorite new to me authors of 2014?
Chris Pavone’s writing can be riveting! I only read one of his books, and now I forget which one, but it was absolutely action packed. A wonderful escape!
I have The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, and Station Eleven, both of which I hope to read sometime soon. But, probably not before 2015. 🙂
Greg Iles is a great writer, I agree. I didn’t read Natchez Burning, though. Glad to see your post of great writers!
p.s. Your mention of Tom Rob Smith reminds me I must put him on my list, too. Loved Child 44 so much! And, I hear the other two (I think) in that “series” are equally good.
(I hope my comments are coming through. They always seem to just disappear when I hit enter.)
No worries – all your comments are coming through…I just have to approve them before they show up! I can’t wait to read Child 44…it’s on my 2015 backlist list!
I really enjoyed STATION ELEVEN, too. I read a lot of post-apocalyptic novels, but this one was different from the others. Very well-written and just kind of quiet, I guess. Glad I’m not its only fan!
Judging from all the Best of lists coming out, it has a lot of fans! But is also appealing to those who don’t usually get into that genre.
I just added Station Eleven to my wish list today! Brian Morton is one of my favorite discoveries of the year and Beatriz Williams is a favorite, too. Bittersweet is on my kindle… plan to read it this winter.
I’m going to have to put my list together now…
Getting ready to write my Florence Gordon review right now!
Favorite new to me authors would be JoJo Moyes (Me Before You and The Ship of Brides) and David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas). Will definitely be looking for more of them next year.
I love Moyes – if I’d put together this list in 2013, she would have been on it! I haven’t read David Mitchell, but it seems The Bone Clocks has been getting a lot of accolades.
I added Reunion, Station Eleven and The Storied Life…to my ever growing TBR pile after reading your reviews. I’m currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir also based on your review (so far loving it!)
Great! And I’m sure you’ve heard Martian is being made into a movie with Matt Damon. I feel like Station Eleven would make a good movie too…
Sarah, this is fantastic list; mostly because I want to read all of these – ha! Selfish, I know, but I’m honest about it! I’d totally forgotten about The Accident; I remember when it was released and I thought it sounded really interesting. I’ve pinned it so that I will remember it! Great post!
Station Eleven is at the top of my To-Be-Read pile. I just finished The Good Lord Bird by James McBride last night and I am very excited to start Station Eleven tonight. I do like a good post-apocalyptic story (see: The Road), though, so it’s not a stretch for me.
Now, if I were to read a romantic novel, that would be a stretch.
I haven’t read Florence Gordon yet, but it sounds so good!
I loved Reunion and Station Eleven, as well.
Oh yes, book blogging can be so rewarding…and so dangerous for the bookshelves. I recently added Station Eleven to my ereader and need to remember to read it! The only from your list I have read is AJ Fikry and I adored it as well.
Sarah: over the weeks I think you’ve sold me on reading The Salinger Years. I must get that. I was a bit disappointed with ExPats but perhaps you’ll like it. cheers.
I’ve heard mixed things about The Expats, but I also heard mixed things about The Accident…so I’m going to at least give it a shot!
I like your list. I’m going to have to try My Salinger Year and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry! Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
I have heard a lot about Reunion and definitely want to add it to my TBR list, especially if it is one of your top recommended book this year! Thanks for exposing me to some new authors- haven’t heard of a lot of these but I can’t wait to check them out!