My 10 Authors in 10 Minutes

My friend Erin who writes so giftedly over at The Fierce Beagle sent me a meme on Facebook asking me to jot down my top 10 authors in 10 minutes. Don't spend too long thinking about it I was instructed and they need to be authors that have influenced you and whose books will always stick with you. Okay, I am up for it. But I have decided to post my list here on my blog mostly because navigating Facebook can sometimes be treacherous! I’ll stick to what I know and post it to my blog which is usually easier than Facebook in my world. (Although, my opinion on that might change since tonight I am meeting with some other local bloggers at the Ronald MacDonald house over in Winston Salem tonight. The plans are to talk about social networking and the worlds of Facebook and Twitter. I’ll let you know if I am able to expand my very basic knowledge of the two.)

Anyway, I thought I would do a good deed today and bake up some giant size Chocolate Chip Cookies and take them with me to the Ronald MacDonald House tonight as snacks for some of the families that might be staying there right now. Yesterday, Laura over at the Ronald MacDonald House in Winston-Salem posted a link on Facebook outlining what kinds of food and cooking help is welcomed there. Quick grab and go snack bags are appreciated and so I am going to make a batch of giant cookies and individually bag them and take them with me. You can look for my recipe here tomorrow. It makes the best cookies…I dare say better than Mrs. Fields and I cannot tell a lie…the recipe comes from the book that came with my Kitchen Aid Mixer. You might already have this recipe gem in your midst and not know it! I’ll post it here to my blog sometime tomorrow.

Okay, back to the task at hand and in no particular order here are my 10 Authors in 10 Minutes:

1. Jonathan Franzen ~ I just finished his new book Freedom. Excellent book.

2. Richard Russo ~ I read Empire Falls and loved it. And Bridge of Sighs was very good too.

3. Anne Tyler ~ I love her quirky characters and her beloved Baltimore.

4. John Irving ~ I picked up The World According to Garp to read for fun when I was in college.

5. Isabelle Allende ~ The House of the Spirits is still one of my favorites.

6. Jane Austen ~ I love every word that has ever dripped off of her pen. My favorite is Pride and Prejudice.

7. Pat Conroy ~ The Prince of Tides…just incredible. A great Southern writer. I even have his cookbook!

8. Joyce Maynard ~ I just finished her autobiography. She’s a gifted writer and writes candidly about her relationship with J.D. Salinger. I am reading her book Labor Day right now too.

9. David Sedaris ~ Hillarious! And my favorites are his stories set in North Carolina.

10. Khaled Hosseini ~ The Kite Runner. I won’t watch the movie. And I also loved his A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I love to read but I seem to do it in spurts. I will read book after book and then for a period of time I won’t pick one up at all. Right now, I am in a reading groove. Hope it sticks! How about you? Do you read all the time or does it come and go in spurts like with me? Also, I am supposed to tag 10 other people and ask them to post what their 10 Author’s in 10 Minutes are. I am not naming names but I would love to see what your list looks like right off the top of your head! Don’t be shy. Feel free to post your list here or do your own blog post!