Moyan Brenn Recommended Reading: Authors on WordPress.com
Authors Claire Fuller, V.E. Schwab, and John Scalzi all make their online home on WordPress.com. Check them out!
Looking for summer reading suggestions? Or perhaps winter reading suggestions, should your hemisphere be the Southern one? Look no further than these three authors who — like you — make their online home at WordPress.com.
Claire Fuller
Claire Fuller‘s debut novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, has been called “impossible to put down” by Amy Gentry at the Chicago Tribune.
Claire began writing at age 40, after co-leading a marketing agency for many years. The book has been shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, which is awarded annually to a first novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom.
Claire is a prolific blogger who likes to share her flash fiction and offer writing advice. Why not pick up a copy of Our Endless Numbered Days and then see if your location is on Claire’s upcoming events list?
Here’s a synopsis of Our Endless Numbered Days:
Our Endless Numbered Days is the story of Peggy Hillcoat, who is eight in 1976, and spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother’s grand piano.
After a family crisis which Peggy doesn’t fully understand until later, her survivalist father James, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. And so her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival and a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.
Peggy isn’t seen again for another nine years.
Victoria (V.E.) Schwab
V.E. Schwab writes fiction for adults, young adults, and middle grade kids. The author of seven books, her latest adult title is called A Darker Shade of Magic.
On her blog, V.E. Schwab shares her books’ origin stories, insight into her writing process, and even short stories. We particularly enjoyed her unique About page adjunct listing her favorite words. V.E. Schwab, too, has list of upcoming appearances.
Here’s a synopsis of A Darker Shade of Magic:
A Darker Shade of Magic is a fantasy series that takes place in a series of parallel Londons — where magic thrives, starves, or lies forgotten, and follows the last of a line of blood mages and a pickpocket from Georgian London as they combine forces to save the worlds — all of them.
John Scalzi
Author John Scalzi makes his home on the web at Whatever. A New York Times best-selling author of a whole mess of books, short stories, and nonfiction pieces, Scalzi publishes frequently on his blog, often highlighting other authors in his excellent series The Big Idea. He’s also famous for taping bacon to his cat.
Scalzi’s latest book is Lock In. Here’s a synopsis:
In the exceedingly near future, a virus sweeps the globe, killing some, ignoring most, and for about 1% of the population destroying the neural connections between body and brain. These few are fully aware, but cannot move or respond to stimuli. They are “locked in,” suffering from what’s known as Haden’s Syndrome.
John Scalzi’s got a few upcoming appearances you might want to know about.
And now, over to you
Who are your favorite authors? Which book(s) do you find hard to put down? Share your recommendations in the comments.
WordPress.com News 
My favourite WordPress author is probably http://graemeshimmin.com/
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I’m an author on WordPress as well. My book, Orville Nix: The Missing JFK Assassination Film was named best book of the year in the JFK niche by esteemed professor Donald Wilkes. You can find the review here: http://flagpole.com/news/news-features/2014/12/19/film-altered-eyewitness-ignored and my website is http://www.gaylenixjackson.com
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If you ask me, my preferences always change.
The moment I read blogs of new author I find that great. If next moment I read someone else’s I find that interesting.
But the authors you have mentioned are really great and would read more written by them.
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I recently read City of Thieves by David Benioff. Couldn’t put it down.
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Are you referring to the same David Benioff who’s involved with the television adaptation of Game of Thrones? If so, I didn’t know he adds “author” to his list of career highlights! I’ll have to go in search of the book. Thank you for the recommendation!
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Yes, the same person. I hope you like the book.
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Authors I find impossible to stop reading include: Elizabeth Bevarly, Karen Kendall, Kristin Higgins, James Patterson, Rachel Gibson, Susan Anderson, Wendy Wax. Anyone who writes with humor and understanding of the human condition is always on either my TBR or Read list.
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We have our own suggestions for summer readings!
Wattpad has a lot to offer.
https://theclosetplebeians.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/readers-utopia-wattpad/
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My vote goes to Susan A. Holmes, author of “Deadly Ties” a Waterside Kennel Myster at http://www.dogmysteries.com
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Books about our today’s disaster capitalism!
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I love great writers, and i also love books written base on a true story, though it may not have a happy-ever-after ending, but i contains a cutting edge of reality, on how precarious life can be,and how in a blink one can loose it all, and it also teaches that one should leave in the moment as if it is his/her last, and at the end you will come to realize that you can’t turn back the hands of time, and it is only the innocent ones that are truly the happy ones.
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Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. One of the most beautifully written books of all time, superb language– and characters which will live forever…
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Anything with Terry Pratchet is worth picking up 🙂
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I have many favorite authors and enjoy reading new and emerging writers. Some of my favorites: James Lee Burke, Jody Piccoult, James Patterson, Stephen Hawking, John Grisham, Ryan Lockwood (I just read his new book-“Below”). I follow James Scott Bell, always a great resource for writers. I could go on and on…Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
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Loved Our Endless Numbered Days and reviewed it here on my blog Word by Word.
I mostly follow avid readers on WordPress, and in particular those who like to read across cultures and also translated fiction.
I like following the reading choices of the author Charlotte Gordon, who recently published the biography Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley.
She is also a WordPress blogger, see the link below.
Charlotte Gordon, Author
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I recommend my own book.
I’m a WordPress author. My new book, “Africa” (available as an audio book, ebook and in print) is my latest publication. It comments on Black History Month, a reflective month that historically has been dominated by figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Thurgood Marshall. But besides Harriet Tubman, how many women share the name recognition of the aforementioned men? The work aims to reconnect the African-American culture with its African roots by portraying the rise and fall of three generations of African women. “Africa” pays tribute to the strength of strong black women.
http://www.hgrobert.com
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Alianne Donnelly
is one of mine. =) Also Rebekah Lewis. Both have websites on WordPress.
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I love fantasy. My favorite fantasy author right now is Jaye L. Knight. My favorite series by her is The Ilyon Chronicles. It’s thrilling and amazing. 😉
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A MUST READ!! The Other Side of the Track by Driago Olinde http://driagoolinde.wordpress.com/my-book A MUST READ FOR ALL AGES!!
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I love reading about great writers who have books out there. They are an inspiration and a reminder of where all writers started off.
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So many favorites, including Terry Pratchett, Amy Peterson (nonfiction, including From Zero to Four Kids in Thirty Seconds), G. Miki Hayden (including science fiction and mysteries), Hal Colebatch and Matthew Joseph Harrington (science fiction), …
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I have 2 WordPress blogs and if you like romance and suspense my book, “Dawn’s Light” will keep you on the edge of your seat. My other suspense novel is “Pursuit” will do the trick, too.
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There are a lot of indie authors on WordPress, who have created some worthwhile works: Michelle Proulx, Jack Eason, Nicholas Rossis, Charles Yallowitz, Ali Isaac, Edeana Malcolm and many more. I’m one of them too: Audrey Driscoll, author of the Herbert West Series. We all blog about writing and other topics. Both our blogs and books are worth checking out.
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I’m currently reading “The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life’s Hard” by Kara Tippetts
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hardest-Peace-Expecting-Grace/dp/0781412153
I love reading her blog at http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com
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“The Assassination of Michael Collins: What Happened At Béal na mBláth?”
by S M Sigerson
“..a valuable contribution to the literature on Michael Collins”
– Tim Pat Coogan
An in-depth study of the death of Michael Collins, hero of the 1916 Easter Rising, and leader of Ireland’s War of Independence.
This book offers a startling new perspective on one of history’s most notorious unsolved mysteries: his fatal shooting in 1922, while Commander-in-Chief of newly-independent Ireland. Its controversial reconstruction of events at Béal na mBláth may be shocking to some: yet demonstrably fits the known facts and eyewitness accounts.
This is the first book on this famous “cold case” in decades; carrying on where John Feehan’s landmark edition of 1991 left off. It presents the most complete overview of the evidence ever published; as well as an itemized catalogue of the various witnesses’ mutual contradictions and corroborations.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714
Read excerpts at this blog:
http://www.collinsassassination.wordpress.com
Best Reads of the year – Rabid Readers Reviews
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2015/01/05/best-rabid-readers-reviews-reads-of-2014/
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One of the best book series I ever read was John J Horn’s Men of Grit series.
It is historical fiction about a British colonel fighting in Siberia who is discharged by a corrupt general. He finally has builds a new life and then it crumbles.
The end of the last book made me cry. Very few stories can do that.
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Awesome suggestions. I haven’t thought to follow any authors yet. 😊
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My favorite writer and etruscologist il Paolo Campidori. He wrote 10 book, about culture, art, actuality, and recently two books about etruschi in Toscana, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Umbria, Campania. Their names are “Capire vli etruschi” (To understand etruscans) and “Simbologia and origins of etruscans 2012-2011. Some cope are still available. Paolo has wrote these books after 40 (forty) years of study in this argument. He has studied particularly the language and the symbology of this people, and the Author propose very new ideas and hypothesis about last discoveries in etruscan laces: Vulci, Tarquinia Veio, Fiesole, Florence, Prato, Vetulonia, Piopulonia, Perugia, Felsina, etc. The books have each use hundreds pictures made by the Author of the book. The price of each book is 25 Euros (or equivalent in dollars) plus postal or shopping costs. Books have 200 and 208 pages. The books are sewed and cover is in cartoon.
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Those who love rock music books and bios as much as I do, will likely love the one I’m almost done reading: Viv Allbertine’s new memoir “Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys”. It’s a real live-wire account of growing up in Englad during the 60s and a ground level view of the punk revolution from her time as guitarist for the all-female Slits. It will be featured in my upcoming next entry in my “Books That Rock” series at my site
rickouellettereelandrock.wordpress.com
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My favourite authors at the moment are Maria V Snyder and Teri Terry. My dream is that one day, somebody will say the same thing about me!
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I would say look further than the three authors 🙂
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I offer my book for your consideration, “In the Midst of Our Storms: Opening Ourselves to Christ in Liturgy.” One may guess from the title, and rightfully so, that it’s about churchy stuff. Bingo. I wrote about liturgical theology, studied scriptural passages, and analyzed a couple basic Catholic rituals.
If you’re still with me on this, here’s the deal. It’s my “Irish-Existentialist” approach to all this. In other words, I propose that liturgical participation can bring to light those parts of our lives we all tend to avoid and set us in the kind of relationship with Christ in which we don’t have to pretend as much. Hypocrisy is our most basic temptation (mine, too). What if we lived with less pretense? What a concept!
There’s a thumbnail sketch of my effort. You can find more about it at my website, <> Thanks. And congratulations to so many other WordPress authors! –roc,sj
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I really like the gay stories of Anthony McDonald although I’m not sure whether he’s a WordPress author or not. His range of titles including the wonderful ‘Adam’ is available on Amazon Kindle.
I’m a WordPress author and have just released ‘GAY MOMENTS: My Beautiful Boyfriend.’ It’s about an overweight student who sees himself as a bit of a loser until he is befriended by a troupe of young drag queens.
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I published my first novel in March this year through Amazon Kindle and paperback. The first book of a trilogy called “Deceit of the Empire” Book one “Voyage to Africa” set in the 19th century about the British Empires’ ruthless thrust into Africa from Cape Town. l would love to hear some feedback.
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Kaye George’s Death in the Time of Ice is the first in her People of the Wind series. It’s a mystery set in a Neanderthal tribe in North America. Kaye did extensive research, and an editor told her it’s better than Jean Auel’s novels. http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/p/more-info.html
Kaye George’s Choke, the first of her Immy Duckworthy mysteries, is over-the-top and hilarious. Especially the scene with the letter opener. http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/p/duckworthy-mysteries.html
Anything by Katherine Paterson. Jacob Have I Loved. The Great Gilly Hopkins. They are NOT just for kids. And they don’t have happily-ever-after endings. They end realistically but hopefully, with the protagonist facing further challenges but believing he or she has the ability to face what real life will bring. Also very funny in a way adults will appreciate on their level too. http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/paterson
A. S. Byatt’s Possession. Talk about not-put-downable. Literature with a smashing mystery. It makes academic research sound exciting (as it can be, but not like this). https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/13/specials/byatt-possession.html
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann Marie Macdonald, mystery, history, realistic, literary, set on an air force base in southern Ontario, post-World War II peace time, from the points of view of two members of a military family. Very slow for the first fifty, maybe a hundred, pages (and rightly so), but when it picks up, there’s no stopping. Based loosely on a case in the Canadian system of justice. A devastatingly beautiful novel. It should get much more attention than it’s had so far. http://annmariemacdonald.com/works/novels/the-way-the-crow-flies/
And–why not?–recently published by Wildside Press, Murder on Wheels: Eleven Stories of Crime on the Move. Two of my stories appear in it: “A Nice Set of Wheels” and “Hell on Wheels.” http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Wheels-Ramona-DeFelice-Long/dp/147940554X
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My husband just finished The Way The Crow Flies and raves about how much he loves it!
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My favorite author is Leslie Marmon Silko, a Native American from Laguna Pueblo. Her short story, Yellow Woman, haunts me–I have read it over and over.
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I love reading these comments As a new writter and new to Blogging I wanna know is there anything on dreamers? If so let me know happy writing happy reading!
Xo!
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I love the science fiction series of Jack Campbell. Good writing, some amazing plot twists, and unusually good use of humor. His latest is Leviathin.
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I enjoy suspense, mystery, and thrillers. Some in particular are Lee Childs, James Patterson and Lisa Jackson.Also like entertainment and light-hearted humor such as Bill Bryson and Augusten Burroughs.
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In a shameless act of self promotion, I offer this link to my Amazon author page. My novels are of the mystery/thriller genre featuring an aging sheriff working in the panhandle of Oklahoma. Most folks seem to like the stories.
http://www.amazon.com/Warren-Williams/e/B006JBQFWQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
I have two blogs on WordPress. One is geared towards writing,
http://warrenwilliamsnovels.wordpress.com/ while the other is just for fun.
https://imagoner2012.wordpress.com/
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My “desert island” book is Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin. My first edition hardback copy that my husband gave me resides on my bedside table, for whenever I need a fix.
Right now, though, I’m totally immersed in the Outlander series. Hmmm…Winter’s Tale is also about time travel!
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Here’s a nonfiction WordPress author – http://GranvilleSawyer.com , his book “College in Four Years: Making Every Semester Count” is perfect for this season of graduations and new beginnings. It helps prepare students – and parents – for college success.
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I’m a developing author on WordPress as well. I have started writing a story Love I(N) Arranged Marriage. Please view the first part and let me know your suggestions :).. https://wordpress.com/post/92749333/3/
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