B - Authors from A to Z Challenge

Authors from A to Z is a posting challenge hosted by 

Heather at Proud Book Nerd. The challenge is simple: each day for the month of June (except Sundays) share your favorite authors whose last name corresponds to the letter for that day.  For more info, click the photo!

How I'm participating in the challenge:

I am trying to highlight at least three authors (YA or otherwise) per letter, some current favorites, others future favorites. If I cannot come up with three, I will substitute favorite books that start with the letter of that day. If that doesn't work, then just for fun I am going to list songs that start with the letter of that day. And if that doesn't work, well, it will be a surprise!

Today's Letter: B

David Baldacci

Have you ever seen that Clint Eastwood movie Absolute Power? Yes? No?  Well, either way, that movie was based on a book by this guy. And as great of a movie as it is, the book is even better.  Why?  Because Baldacci is a master thriller/suspense writer.  He is also just a great writer in general.  Even his non-thrillery books have twists.  And to top that, the characters are fleshed out, whether they are an aging thief on the wrong side of a corrupt president or a girl growing up without her parents in the hills of Appalachia.  The stories are fully formed as well, and they suck you in and leave you wanting more at the end.

Holly Black

I didn't realize Holly Black was one of my favorite authors until I had to think up authors for this challenge.  That happened a lot, actually.  When it comes to this popular author, I've read quite a few of her books (without really realizing she had her hand in them all) and when I look back, I liked each and every one.  I did a review of Tithe early on here on the blog, and while I didn't exactly care for parts of the story, overall I found the world creatively wrought and most of the characters interesting.  Same thing for the first in the Curse Workers Series (review of White Cat coming...sometime).  And as for the Spiderwick Chronicles, I loved every minute of them.  So yeah, Holly Black keeps me coming back for more!

Alexandra Bracken (Future Favorite)

Quite a while back I had the opportunity to read the first chapter of Brightly Woven, and I loved it.  The writing was beautiful, the world intriguing, and I liked the MC right off.  As I am lax in actually keeping up with reading the things I would like to (I'm more of a I'll-read-it-when-I-happen-upon-it kind of gal), I have yet to read the rest.  But I know I will love it.  Since it is a fantasy, I probably wouldn't haven't given it a chance without a sample read (which is weird, because I love fantasy...I just forget I love fantasy until I read a good one) but Alexandra Bracken impressed me so much in those few pages and made me fall for the genre all over again.  I hear she has another book, this time a futuristic one, coming out sometime in the next two years, so that will be going on my to-read list as well (and I'm definitely not into futuristic stories...yet).