Top Ten Tuesday #404

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these. As I mentioned last time, I had my first Spanish evening class last week and it was so much fun, everyone was really lovely and I hope I’ve made some new friends, I’m really looking forward to going for the next nine weeks. I also have my first 2023 book event on Thursday, I’m going to Leigh Bardugo’s London Hell Bent tour stop and I’m so exciting because it will be my first time meeting Leigh after sadly having managed to miss her every time she’s been in the UK over the past few years. Finally the dates lined up! I was really bummed when she toured for Ninth House that I was working and wasn’t able to get down to London for the event, so I’m so pleased I’ll actually be able to make it this time!

Anyway, as always, today’s TTT is courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Today is another annual January topic, we’re talking our Top Ten New To Me Authors We Discovered In 2022. Now I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in how many new authors I read in 2022, and there definitely aren’t enough to fill a whole list (as I count for these lists authors I read for the first time AND would like to read again, as it’s not really worth my while including authors where I didn’t enjoy their books much and likely won’t read them again). So much like last year, I’m going to be splitting my list into two: New To Me Authors I Discovered In 2022, and New To Me Authors That I Want To Read In 2023. Here we go:

New To Me Authors I Discovered In 2022:

1. Chanel Miller

My favourite book of last year was Chanel Miller’s memoir Know My Name, it was such a powerful, riveting read. She hasn’t published anything since, but she did express in the book that she’d like to write more and she’s a really great writer, so if she ever does write any more books and gets them published I’d definitely be interested in reading them!

2. Heather Marshall

Looking For Jane was another of my absolute favourite books of 2022, it’s one that I’ve not been able to stop thinking about since I read it. It was such a powerful story and highlighted in such a brilliant way just how massively important reproductive rights are at a time when I think many people need a reminder! I also really loved the characters, such brilliant and nuanced women. It was such an impressive debut novel and considering that the debut is usually author’s weakest book and they get better with experience…….woah, I can’t wait to see what Heather Marshall comes up with next. Her website says her next book is due out in 2024, and you can bet I will be waiting incredibly impatiently for it.

3. Lauren Graham

Little unusual maybe to include an actress turned writer in here, but I absolutely loved Lauren Graham’s essay collection, Talking As Fast As I Can last year, it was so funny and I just had a blast reading it. I’ve actually already read her second book of essays, Have I Told You This Already? this year, and I also enjoyed that, though I would say I thought Talking As Fast I Can was better. I know she’s had a novel published as well, so I’m thinking I might try that.

4. Maya Rodale

Maya Rodale was actually on my list last year as one of the new authors I was looking forward to reading in 2022, so I’m glad I enjoyed her book enough that she made it to the other side of the list this time! I really enjoyed The Mad Girls of New York, Maya Rodale captured Nellie Bly’s story beautifully and although her back catalogue of historical romance doesn’t massively appeal to me (not being a romance lover), I would definitely read more historical fiction from her, especially if she decided to write more about Nellie Bly, which given that The Mad Girls of New York is listed as “Nellie Bly #1” on Goodreads, seems like a distinct possibility!

5. Freya Marske

Freya Marske was also on my list of new authors I wanted to read in 2022 when I did this topic last year, so another success! I read 4 out of the 6 authors from that list in 2022, and 2 of them ended up here, so 50% success rate isn’t too bad! I will admit, I didn’t love A Marvellous Light as much as I was hoping to, but I still enjoyed it and I loved the characters so much that I definitely want to see more from them. I’m hoping to get round to A Restless Truth sometime this year.

New To Me Authors I Want To Read In 2023:

6. Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s new release Homecoming was on my most anticipated releases list a few weeks back and so many people mentioned how good they’d found other books of hers in the comments on that post, that it’s made me even more excited to dive into one of her books. I love historical fiction and I love mysteries so this should definitely be a great one for me. Plus after having been to Australia, I’m super excited to read both more books set there, and more books by Australian authors.

7. Lynn Cullen

Okay, I’ll admit, these are all from my most anticipated releases list from a few weeks ago! I absolutely love novels which allow me to learn about women from history who do not get the credit or spotlight that they deserved, so The Woman With A Cure sounds right up my street. I have to admit, I’d never actually heard of Dorothy Horstmann till I saw the synopsis for Lynn Cullen’s book, but I’m super excited to learn more about her and her contribution to the development of the polio vaccine.

8. Mandy Robotham

I’m always looking for WWII novels that take a different angle on the war (as I’ve read a lot about the British/French/German experience) and though Robotham’s upcoming novel The War Pianist does partly take place in London, the bit that intrigued me was the side of the story that takes place in Amsterdam as I’ve never read anything about the experiences of the Dutch in WWII. I’ve also not really read much about the “pianists” (radio operatives) that this book focuses on, so I’m hoping I’ll learn a lot through it. Robotham seems to have written quite a few WWII novels, so if I like this one, it seems like there will be more waiting for me!

9. Brianna Labuskes

Brianna Labuskes’ upcoming release is completely up my alley: my favourite genre niche of WWII fiction is WWII fiction that has some kind of relation to books or libraries and this one definitely fits that bill as the story of three women fighting against censorship of books across three different time periods and in three different cities. I’m particularly intrigued to learn more about the German Library of Burned Books in Paris as this is something I’d never heard of until I read the blurb for Brianna’s book. Her other books seem to be largely mystery-thrillers, so I’ll be intrigued to see how she does with historical (not that I’ve read any of her other books to compare!).

10. Alice Slater

My only debut author this time! As soon as I accidentally came across Death of A Bookseller, I added it to my TBR, it sounded like such a fun read. I love anything to do with books and bookshops and add in a healthy dose of crime and deadly obsession and I think it will be an absolute blast. I’ve seen really good things about this book already, so I’m excited to get my hands on it when April comes around.

And there we have it! Those were my favourite new-to-me authors of 2022, plus some new authors I’m looking forward to reading this year. Have you read anything from any of these authors (aside from Alice of course, since this is her debut year!)? Did you like their books? What new authors did you discover last year? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, and we have a freebie week this time, so as part of one of my goals for 2023, I’m going to be doing Series I Need To Finish in the hopes that having it written down will give me a push to actually finish them this year. I did do the same topic back in 2020, but never fear, because I definitely have 10 more books from series I need to finish that I can include (and to be honest, most of the series I included on the previous list are still unfinished *cries in bookworm*).