The Author A-Z Tag

I saw this tag on Readsanddaydreams on Youtube, but it was originally created by Jen Campbell. Basically you go through the alphabet picking an author for every letter and quickly talking about a book of theirs you either have read or want to read. I thought that sounded like fun and a good way to talk about a lot of different books. So let’s do it!

A - Jane Austen. I love Pride and Prejudice, but if you want something a little bit shorter, try Persuasion or Northanger Abbey. All these are about love and social maneuvering, but Northanger Abbey has a bit more spark as it is a parody of the Gothic stories that were popular at the time. 

B - Kendare Blake. Anna Dressed in Blood. I don’t usually read scary stories like this, but I actually really liked it and the sequel is on my TBR. It’s about a ghost hunter who comes to town looking to vanquish this particular ghost. 

C - Suzanne Collins. I love The Hunger Games. The first book in particular. I wonder if she has written anything else? (Apparently she has written The Underland Chronicles…)

D - Charles Dickens of course. He can be wordy, but the language is flowing and the plot is intricate so I don’t mind. If you don’t know where to start try Nicholas Nickleby or David Copperfield. I think these two have the fastest plots so to speak and aren’t as wordy as some of his other books. 

E - Michael Ende. The Neverending Story. A childhood classic. I had the biggest crush on Atreju…It’s about a young boy who is bullied in school and he escapes through a book to a magical land. It turns out this land is in trouble and he is the only one who can save it. 

F - Gayle Forman. I love her If I stay duology. It’s about a girl who loses her entire family in a car crash and how she deals with it.  

G - Elizabeth Gaskell. I love North and South, and I’ve read a few of her other works, which were enjoyable too, although not as great as this. It’s about a young woman and her family who have to move up north in England from the south, and her struggles to come to terms with her new life. 

H - Joanne Harris. I absolutely fell in love with Blackberry Wine, but Chocolat is probably her best known book. Blackberry Wine is about a washed up English author who buys a house in France on a whim and how he comes to terms with his childhood while restoring the house. 

I - John Irving. The Hotel New Hampshire is on my TBR. I have no idea why I put it there, but apparently authors with names beginning with I are scarce, so this will have to do.

J - Dennis Jürgensen. I read Dystopia many a time when I was younger. I think it’s only available in Danish, but if you can read that, give it a go. It’s a fantasy novel about a young man and a young woman from two kingdoms at war. They enter a different world and has to save this world with the help of a band of creatures. 

K - Jack Kerouac. Everyone raves about On the Road, but I actually like Lonesome Traveler much more. It takes a while to get into his writing style, but once you do it’s beautiful. 

L - Marie Lu. I’ve read Legend and have yet to finish the trilogy. I will though, because I really liked the first book. It’s about a dystopian society where people are controlled down to the slightest detail. A promising young soldier is let loose to hunt a daring criminal, but it turns out they have more in common than they thought. 

M - Mary Mackey. I read The Year the Horses Came a good while ago, but as I recall I loved the entire trilogy. It’s about a Neolithic society that lives in peace until nomads from the East come riding in on their horses. 

N - Audrey Niffenegger. I love The Time Traveller’s Wife, but I must confess, what else I have read of hers, I didn’t really like that much. This book is about a man who travels in time. During these travels he meets his wife and that makes for a different kind of love story. 

O - Lauren Oliver. I adore Before I Fall, and I’m definitely going to read more of her books, even though I’ve heard mixed things about them. This book is about a young girl who gets stuck in a loop. She experiences the same day again and again and she tries to change the outcome to no avail. 

P - Amy Plum. I had originally picked Philip Pullman, but I feel like his works are pretty well known and Amy Plum’s series Revenants deserves more readers, because it’s really good! It’s about these people, revenants, who can die and come to life again and their mission is to protect the human race from evil. 

Q - Matthew Quick. I struggled a bit finding an author for Q but I came across Matthew Quick and thought his book The Silver Linings Playbook sounded familiar. It turns out I have seen the movie, and I remember it as okay. I might give the book a go and see if it’s any better. 

R - Erich Marie Remarque. All Quiet on the Western Front is one of my all-time favorite books, but he has a lot of other good ones too. This one is about a young German soldier fighting in World War I and his experiences on the front lines and on leave. 

S - Maggie Stiefvater. I love The Raven Cycle, as does everyone else, but I also really enjoyed The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. This trilogy is about a girl who meets a boy that turns out to be a werewolf, but not in the regular way. 

T - J.R.R. Tolkien. I do love me some Lord of the Rings. I had never even heard of this book until high school, but when I read it I loved it. Funnily enough I really liked The Two Towers, which seems to be everybody else’s least favorite…

U - Leon Uris. Mila 18 is about the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. I haven’t read it, but it sounds interesting, and historical fiction is usually pretty good. And I don’t know too much about this particular topic, so it should be interesting to learn more. 

V - Jules Verne. I read a number of his books when I was younger, but I don’t remember being all that impressed…

W - Tammara Webber. Easy is one of my favorite books. I reread it constantly. It’s about a girl who is saved from a sexual assault by a stranger who then keeps popping up in the periphery of her life.  

X - Xinran. Miss Chopsticks. I haven’t read this one but it seems interesting. A story about three sisters earning money to send back to their family, including a father who never valued them before. 

Y - Malala Yousafzai. I really want to read her book I am Malala, because she is an important voice again the oppression of women and I am trying to educate myself on the subject. 

Z - Markus Zusak of course. The Book Thief is a favorite and I’ve read it many a time. It is about a young German girl who is placed with a new family during World War II. Death brings its perspective to the story and it’s just really touching and different.