It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post! And I’m very excited about writing this post because I actually had to sit and deliberate, and choose by very top 10 choices! If you want to see who made the cut…keep reading!

For those of you who don’t know, here is a quote from The Broke and the Bookish, the genuises behind this weekly meme!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post and, if you want to, add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s posts (typically put up midnight EST on Tuesday) so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It’s a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Aaaaand this week’s prompt is:

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016

I’ve had many such “first meetings” in 2016 because this was the year in which I finished all of the work for my Master’s, and it is also the year in which my love for books and reading really returned to me. Those of you who have read some of my later posts will know that after I finished university as an undergraduate, I did not want to look at books for a while, much less read them. I took a little longer than most to complete my Bachelor’s degree because I had started in one major (Psychology), which turned out being a disappointment to me, had to take some time to re-figure things out (especially what I wanted to do career-wise). By the time I realized that English was the perfect choice for me, I had to nearly start from scratch with the courses required for me to finish with a Bachelor’s degree in English. By the time I finished, I had graduated with honours, but was completely burned out regarding books and reading.

Strangely enough, while working on completing my Master’s, despite having to read many more books and articles at once than I’d had to while completing my Bachelor’s, my love for books was somehow rekindled. I cannot explain it to you, but it all started with my reading Jane Eyre before my graduate courses began in September of 2015, and how much I loved the rich language in that book, and the experience of finishing while also enjoying a book.

While I cannot explain what happened, however, I can say that I am extremely glad and grateful that my love for books has returned to me, because I had started to become worried. A part of me had been missing, and I am very happy to have it back.

But, anyway! Back to my top ten new-to-me authors which I read in 2016!

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 – ONE –

Stieg Larsson

Something about Larsson’s writing is just so raw and captivating. This book had been listed as a suggested reading in a crime fiction course I took from Jan – April of this year, and even though I had enough work on my plate, I decided to take this book on as well. I ended up liking it so much, that I wrote my term paper on this book, and more specifically Larsson and the book’s main character, Lisbeth.

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– TWO –

Agatha Christie

Yes, I know it’s very shameful that I had not read any Agatha Christie until this year, and that even when I did so, it was for the same crime fiction course which I mentioned above, haha. This was a very short and quick read, but for some reason it felt like a longer book, in a good way. Christie had me guessing until the very end, and I am excited to read more of her work, and soon!

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– THREE –

Charles Dickens

Those of you who read my last week’s Top Ten Tuesday post will know how I feel about Charles Dickens! He is definitely a new favourite, and I am angry with myself for waiting until this year to read any of his work. Although, maybe I wasn’t ready to understand and therefore appreciate his work until this year. This has happened to me before, with other books, and I now have to re-read them from my new, and more adult, perspective.

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– FOUR –

Sarah J. Maas

This is another author who I had not even heard of before 2016 (mainly because I hadn’t been part of the book scene for a while). But I am so glad that I listened to the suggestions of multiple bookstagrammers and picked this book up. The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is now one of my favourite stories of all time, and I cannot wait for the third book to come out next May! I may just die from anticipation.

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– FIVE –

Jay Kristoff

Nevernight is in my top 5, if not my top 3 for this year. And Jay Kristoff is definitely one of my new favourite authors now. While I’ve only read this one book by him, it was written with such care and with such detail that I just fell in love. I plan on reading the Iluminae Files, which he co-wrote with Amy Kaufman, next, and then the first trilogy which he wrote. I’ll need something to tide me over until the sequel in this amazing new series!

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– SIX –

Marissa Meyer

This one should come as no surprise, as I have been raving about Cinder and Scarlet since I read them a few months ago. Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles are re-tellings of classic fairytales, but in a sci-fi, dystopian setting. These books are amazing (well, the two out of the series that I have read so far), and I remember constantly gasping at how well Meyer would integrate details from the fairytales, which I had not believed would make an appearance, or would not fit in the futuristic world which she has created.

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 – SEVEN –

Heather Tucker

This choice really shouldn’t come as a surprise either, since The Clay Girl may very well be my #1 favourite book of 2016. It has also made it into my top 5 books of all time, and let me tell you, competition for those five spots is intense! Tucker’s writing is just incredible. It was beautiful, lyrical, heart-breaking, as well as heart-warming. I will never stop recommending this book to others, and I actually just found out that there will be a sequel!!! I am over the moon right now.

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– EIGHT –

Marisa Silver

When this book was pitched to me, I was very intrigued by the cover, and then even more intrigued by the description. But when the book arrived in the mail and I read the very first page, I knew that this would become one of my favourites. Silver has perfect control over the language and events in her book, and when you combined that with magic and a folkloric style, you have yourself a great book. I look forward to reading more of her work.

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– NINE –

S.J. Kincaid

While I was sad to hear that this book would be a stand-alone, it did not in any way take away from how much I enjoyed it. Kincaid’s writing and story pulled me in from the start, even though I hadn’t been sure whether I would enjoy the plot (judging from the description on the back). But I was very very pleasantly surprised. I am excited to see this book turned into a movie, and I hope that they do it justice. I also hope that Kincaid writes more books like this!

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– TEN –

Jen Sookfong Lee

And finally, number ten. This is the book which I most recently finished (last night in fact), and while it took me longer than usual to read a book of this length, it has nothing to do with a lack of quality to the plot or writing. I was simply very busy with Christmas shopping and job interviews! This was a very good book, but I will not say any more about it since I want to be left with enough to say in my review (which is coming soon!) Lee has definitely become one of my favourite authors, and I look forward to reading more of her books!

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– HONOURABLE MENTIONS–

Because I could not bring myself to ruin the perfection that is a top 10 list, by making it a top 11 or top 12, I have decided to add two honourable mentions. I simply could not leave these two authors out, and I hope to read more of their work in the future as well! It is my hope that Erin Bow writes more books, as I truly enjoyed her Prisoners of Peace duology. And as for Leigh Bardugo, I am already on the fist book of her Six of Crows duology, and I hope that she will also write more fantasy books as the ones I have read by her thus far!

Erin Bow
   

Leigh Bardugo
   

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ARE THERE ANY NEW-TO-YOU AUTHORS WHICH YOU CAME ACROSS IN 2016 AND WHO BECAME NEW FAVOURITES? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!