Another Top Ten Tuesday (Posted on a Thursday - ok Friday): Automatic Buys

Image from The Broke and the Bookish

Sometimes Tuesday rolls around, and despite my best intentions, work and life get in the way, or I suddenly fall victim to a sinus infection (true story), and my Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted over at The Broke and The Bookish, doesn't get posted. However, this week's topic - the top ten authors on your auto-buy list - was too good to pass up. Who doesn't enjoy tooting her favorite authors' horns? I do it quite often as do other bloggers, and while I didn't participate on Tuesday, I enjoyed the variety of authors and genres on other bloggers' lists. I imagine that regular readers of this blog could create my list for this week's topic for me. The following authors have appeared on my blog numerous times in other top ten lists, in surveys, and in fan-girl esque posts squealing about a new release. I made a promise over a year ago to only buy books by my favorite authors; my shelves and my wallet were groaning and in need of a reprieve. I'm proud to say I've (mostly) stuck to this vow. With very few, if any, exceptions, the only books I've purchased have been by the following authors:

1. David Levithan - Although some of Levithan's recent work has been hit-or-miss with me, he has written some of my favorite books, including Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, and The Lover's Dictionary.  I finally procured a copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and I can't wait to start it!
2. Ellen Hopkins - Hopkins is the poster-author for a movement very near and dear to my heart - banned books.  Her unique writing style and ability to tackle tough issues with passion and grace reserves her a permanent spot in my book buying cart.
3. Nicole Krauss - Although Krauss has only written three novels, her second one, The History of Love, remains my all-time favorite book.  Ever.  That's serious love right there. 
4. Rick Riordan - Yes, he's technically a middle-grade author, but like Megan over at YA? Why Not?, who doesn't love an action-packed re-telling of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology?  Plus, I love recommending these books to reluctant readers (a.k.a. my husband, who, by the way, committed one of the most unfathomable acts in book reading history to me - he read all four books in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series but, to this day, has yet to read the fifth. How can you even?)
5. Maggie Steifvater - I'd read Steifvater's The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy and mostly enjoyed it, but she sealed the deal with The Scorpio Races.  This was my favorite book from 2012, and I am anxiously awaiting the release of The Dream Thieves - book two in The Raven Boys Cycle!
6. Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak is a staple of my banned books curriculum.  Like Hopkins, Anderson doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable issues that pepper most teens' lives.  I also highly recommend Wintergirls, which hasn't gotten has much play as Speak but is just as powerful and well-written.
7. J. K. Rowling - This is a no-brainer.  No series will ever, ever, match my love for the Harry Potter series.  Guys, I have written papers about these books.  Even though her newest adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, wasn't my cup of tea, the writing was tremendous.  It will take more than unsettling political fiction to displace J. K. Rowling from my auto-buy list.
8. Sarah Dessen - Dessen writes realistic teen characters so convincingly, and unlike Anderson and Hopkins whose teens face BIG ISSUES, Dessen deals more with the drama of everyday life.  However, while I've been participating in the Sarah Dessen Re-Read Challenge hosted by I Eat Words, I've discovered a depth to Dessen that I had forgotten about.  I think it can be easy to mis-characterize Dessen's books as fluffy summer romances, but in reality, her characters are very thoughtful and complex.
9. Megan McCafferty - McCafferty forever won my heart with Jessica Darling in the Sloppy Firsts series, and I've raved all over this blog about the significance of her dystopian satires Bumped and Thumped, which tackle with unerring wit and humor a very real epidemic in today's society - teen pregnancy.
10. Gayle Forman - Forman broke my heart and then lovingly stitched it back together in If I Stay and again in Where She Went.  I can't wait to begin Just One Day, which I've read excellent reviews of and which I finally got a hold of through my library.  (True auto-buy story: Dessen's new book The Moon and More comes out this June - just in time for my birthday! - and like I always do with Dessen and many of my other auto-by authors, I pre-ordered it.  I had a gift card to Barnes and Noble that covered both my pre-order of Dessen's book and my purchase of Forman's new book, Just One Day, that came out in January.  My order qualified for free shipping; however, Barnes and Noble's free shipping policy means the items are grouped into as few packages as possible.  Translation, my copy of Just One Day was not getting here until June.  JUNE people!!  I reluctantly accepted my bookish fate until this Wednesday when perusing the YA section of my school library, I stumbled across Forman in all her glory - Yay for libraries and new releases!!)

Hope all is well across the blogosphere.  Despite my lack of reviews, I promise I've been reading - a lot actually.  In order to catch up with my backlog, I think I'm going to do a mini reviews recap instead of several larger reviews.  Also the lovely and articulate Stormy at Book.Blog.Bake nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award for which I was totally surprised, grateful, and about a million other adjectives.  Be on the lookout for my "acceptance speech" soon!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!