I - 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: I

John Irving

Slim pickings for today, so one author and two books, but this first was a no-brainer for me when it came to this list.  I can't remember exactly how old I was when I read Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, probably 13 or 14, but that book has never left me.  I find myself at odd times just thinking about different aspects of the story.  It was so good, so moving and touching, I can't get myself to read anything else Irving has written.  I know that is stupid, but it is true.  At the time, I hadn't been through much in my life, but now, I think I would have a totally different reaction to the book.  I've seen films of some of his other works (though I can't say how close they are to the original story) and again, thought-provoking, touching, and sometimes leaving you thunderstruck.  The writing is intelligent and reminds me of wading through a dense and beautiful forest, seeing and experiencing things that can change how you think once you read the other side.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

I have already highlighted the author of this, the first Gallagher Girl book, here.  But this book is one of those that is so fun and light and yet reminds me of a precipice that you stand on as a reader, looking down into the sea of trouble below.  The reason is that the events of each book after this are a little darker and more dangerous, and the carefree lives (at least as carefree as the lives spies-in-training can get) of the characters are never going to be the same after this first part of their story is over.  It makes me nostalgic, kind of how reading the first Harry Potter book does, knowing that the girl narrating this story is not going to be the girl who narrates the last one.  It is bittersweet, and I love it.

In the Hand of the Goddess

Again, another Tamora Pierce book, but man, I love them!  This is the second in the Song of the Lioness quartet and shows our brave MC, the Lady Alanna, completing her journey to knighthood disguised as a boy.  Not only that, but Alanna grows up as a woman as well, and we see the beginnings of things to come for her in the rest of the series.  The writing, as always with Pierce, is simple yet enthralling, giving detail without dragging the story down.  Seeing Alanna victorious at the end of this book was heartening after all she had to go through to reach her goal.