Heather's Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is the creation of The Broke and the Bookish, each week they post a list and one of their writers answers.  This week's topic is Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition, so click the jump to read my list.

*It should be noted right off the bat that I don't know how well received some authors are in different areas, nor do I have the time to look through their entire online following to gauge how big they are.  These are simply authors that I've observed not getting enough love in my opinion.*

01 Jonathan L. Howard - GoodReads is a godsend to a reader like me, it gives me a chance to constantly find new books and authors I otherwise wouldn't have heard about.  Howard is one of those authors.  I'm not sure how many people have heard of his Johannes Cabal series, but I know I never did until I poked around GR a bit, and thank God I did because I wound up really loving his books and humor!

02  Dan Rhodes - Rhodes has about 52 fans on GoodReads and his page includes a blurb about how there are nearly 14,000 writers with the same name, and to be honest, I'm kinda hoping that some of those people who liked the other Rhodeses (that looks a bit funny XD) got confused because I think (this) Rhodes is one to look out for.  This is Life had me cackling and feeling for the characters and keeping an eye out for more Rhodes books in the future.

03  Patrick Ness - Is there another Young Adult author who writes so candidly about pain and war and dealing with it, all with an unflinching eye?  Ness initially came to my attention with A Monster Calls and I was really gripped by how the book looked at the loss of a parent and how it affected Conor.  Then I read The Knife of Never Letting Go, and the writing of war and the world around Todd was a really nice change from the usual.  It's a very bleak and dark story, but it's absolutely worth checking out.

04  Gail Carriger - Carriger has recently become a favorite with her delightful Parasol Protectorate series and the first entry into her Finishing School  young adult series, Etiquette & Espionage.  I realize that she's not entirely small and I have actually heard her spoken about outside of GoodReads, but she didn't come to my attention until I saw a friend reading Soulless earlier this year.  Needless to say I'm very glad I looked at the book's page.  I eagerly await any new material from Carriger.

05  Terry Pratchett - (full disclosure:  Pratchett's one of my favorites, I've read everything and I own nearly everything, I know he's celebrated but since this is about how that I feel deserve more recognition, he's here anyway) I don't feel like he's brought up enough or enough people have really read his stuff.  I find myself recommending him all the time because I believe he's amazing and shake and cry when I see he has a new release coming soon, but a lot of the time I know people see the size of Discworld and balk or they just feel like he goes on a "maybe" pile and never come back.  Just, ugh, he's incredible, I swear.  The man blends humor and thought provoking and touching moments all in one.

06  Jasper Fforde - Can I once again mention how I never heard of him until GoodReads?  Fforde's books are incredibly fun and imaginative and something you'll get a kick out of if you read a lot.  My most recent read of his, his Young Adult series The Last Dragonslayer, was a fun romp into an alternate current day setting where magic lives and dragons exist and I loved every letter of it.  Why hadn't I heard about him before?

07  Kate Atkinson - Granted Life After Life was a bit draggy in some places, but wow, she has a way with language.  I definitely felt like I was back in early 1900s and I cheered for Ursula when she set things right and my heart broke for her when her life took a bad turn.  It's been a while since I read something as long as LAL and there wasn't a point where I felt it was taking me ages to make progress.

08  Jerome K. Jerome - "But he's not underrated at all, Heather!"  Maybe not, but again unless I had been reading around the internet and saw Pratchett list him among his influences, I probably wouldn't have downloaded everything he wrote (it's public domain and free on Amazon, hop to it!) and became a fan.  He does write a good amount of humor, but there are various places in his works where things are just beautiful (the description of night in Three Men in a Boat?  That passage gives me shivers with how beautiful it is).

09  Dorothy Parker - Again, you're saying, "not at all underrated!  She's huge and regularly quoted!"  True, but I've seen a lot of the people quoting her admit to not reading her, which is a shame.  Parker managed to write about not only the disappointments women face in relationships, and scathingly criticize society, but various civil rights issues of her time (and let's be real, our time too).  Clothe the Naked is in fact one of my favorite stories from her, and it does not contain a trace of her trademark humor, just the story of a blind child and his grandmother.  So do yourself a favor the next time you shop for books, pick up a copy of The Portable Dorothy Parker.

10  Sylvia Plath - You might be think I'm being cliche, but The Bell Jar resonated with me.  Up until one line, I had been on the fence about it, willing to admit it was good but not completely sold on the modern classic people say it is.  But that one particular line completely changed how I felt and made me cry.  I believe The Bell Jar is considered quintessential reading, so I know people have heard of her, I just don't know how many allow their opinion of her works to be colored by her suicide and how people romanticize it.