New Favorite Authors

I haven't quite embraced the e-reader concept yet.  I still love holding a good book in my hands and turning pages.  Since I spend so much time on the computer, it's nice to switch to reading a "real" book.  Today I was reading through my facebook news and saw a post for one of my favorite authors, Francine Rivers.  I read several of her books last year for the first time and fell in love with her writing style.  I'm always on the lookout for knew authors and she quickly became one of my favorites.  I loved her books "Her Mother's Hope" and "Her Daughter's Dream".  I shared them with several of my reading friends and they too enjoyed reading them.  I think they really spoke to me at this time in my life as I look the the ever-changing relationship with my mother, sister and my daughters.  Karen White is another one of my favorites.  I found one of her books about a year ago and loved it.  When I love an author's writing style I tend to go and check out all I can find written by them.  I eventually read everything she wrote and now own all but one of them.  I've shared these among my reading friends and they too have added her books to their list of favorites.  Her books always have a bit of a mystery the main character is trying to solve based on an old scrapbook, old letters, old artwork or old houses.  She is writing the types of books I would love to write someday.  This past winter while browsing in a bookstore, I found a book called "Keys to the Castle" by Donna Ball.  I always read the first few pages of a book before buying it to see if it grabs my interest at the start and this one definitely did so I bought it.  Loved the book so as usual, I looked her up in the library and found her LadyBug Farm series as well.  The interesting thing about her is that she writes under several pseudonyms and one of them is "Donna Boyd" which is my maiden name.  I felt connected just from that little tidbit in the author preview page.  I stumbled upon a book "Life is a Verb" after listening to a Paperclipping Podcast.  This is another book that grabbed me from the beginning and is one whose style connected to the scrapbooker in me.  Loved this book too.  It's by Patti Digh and was a nice change of pace from fiction.  I found several quotes I loved in this one too.  I immediately ordered several of her other books and am working my way through those too.  I'm always looking for new great authors to follow.  There's nothing like a good book to enjoy while soaking in some sunshine. So if you're looking for a few good books to read this summer, check some of these out of your library.