Favorite Authors by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Not too long ago, an author I know on Facebook, asked her followers who their three favorite authors were. It took me a minute, but I did come up with a list of four authors, the problem is it was far from accurate. She would have gotten a different answer if she specified a genre.

I have a ton of favorite authors, all depending on the genre.

For instance, my three favorite mystery authors are Dick and Felix Francis and Jana Deleon, which is interesting because the Francis father and son duo write straight mysteries. In contrast, Jana Deleon writes closer to cozy mysteries but it's more on the misadventure level or maybe a “fish out of water” scenario. To put it frankly, the Francis duo writes intense mysteries and Deleon writes hilarious stories.

Now on the other hand, if she had picked the genre of romance, well, there are so many sub-genres, but I’ll stick with two. In the sub-genre of LDS romance, my favorite is Sharon Downing Jarvis, with an apology to my Facebook friend who originally asked the question, because that is her genre too! And my favorite sweet romance author is Linda Goodnight. If I had to come up with three, I’d say my favorite on a more secular level would have to be Muriel Jenson, but I think that is because she has a very accurate description of what it is like to have twin babies, she’s also kind of lighthearted about it.

Now for children’s authors, I guess I could say J.K. Rowling because the Harry Potter series is supposed to be in that category, but I tend to think of her works as more in the fantasy genre, so I’d go with Gertrude Chandler Warner for children’s author. And yes, she is a mystery author, but also a children’s author. Judy Blume could also be considered a children’s author for at least some of her work, but my favorites of hers are more in the YA romance category.

I have Agatha Christie, Ken Follett, and James Patterson in my mystery collection as well, and they are all excellent authors in their own right.

Another favorite author of mine is Jason Wright author of Christmas Jars and Richard Paul Evans author of The Christmas Box, though I admit I like works of both men that fall into different genres than these, it is these books that introduced me to their wonderful writing skills.

I also like biographies and autobiographies though the majority of those I have are for past and present General Authorities of my church, I do have a few on historical figures and even current celebrities; however, in this case, I can only think of one favorite autobiography, that would C.S. Lewis. But I also could mention that I like Emma Bombeck’s books a lot and I have several.

And I could name so many other authors mostly because I’m so widely read.

In the category of historical fiction, I’d have to with G. Lund. Yes, he is LDS historical fiction but well, all of my historical fiction is LDS, since the only other stuff I have in that genre are by the Yorgason brothers.

Though I do have at least one book by the Yorgason brothers that is non-fiction, and I couldn’t begin to name all the inspirational non-fiction LDS authors I have, so I’m not going to try.

I have one favorite author who is the aunt of a friend of mine. I in fact learned of her through his wife. The author is Julie Helm, and her book is The Crooked Swan. It is such a sweet story, you should read it.

Now in the fantasy genre, I’ve already named two; J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, except I like his autobiography more than Chronicles of Narnia. The other author I have in this genre is Frank L. Baum for obvious reasons.

And this list doesn’t even mention Dorothy Gillman, Mark Twain, Frances Hodson Burnett, or Victor Hugo.

In short, I am a writer and as such I am a reader and I really like a lot of different genres. I mostly write romance in both sweet and YA, but well one of my supposedly sweet romances is actually speculative fiction. I don’t even think I have any books in that genre, so I don’t know how that happened.

And then there is my sci-fi, except on that level I do have a few favorites. Starting with Gene Roddenberry and William Shatner. I might add I like Leonard Nimoy too but his falls in the autobiography and poetry genres.

And yes, I am a big fan.

Konnie’s list, however, would be totally different from mine.

Anyway, Happy writing everyone!