FAVOURITE BOOKS
I used to have a mammoth, totally unmanageable list of young adult books, graphic novels, novels for adults, and non-fiction here. The truth is that I read so much (you can see what I'm reading on Goodreads) that I can't keep the list current so from now on I'm sticking with my all-time fiction favourites (I hardly ever reread anything but some of these I've even read twice!), a smattering of graphic novels I really enjoyed and a brief list of recommended reading for writers. Oh, and I couldn't resist including a jumble of young adult and middle grade authors who have written some really great stuff!
SOME FICTION FAVS
★ A History of The World in Ten and a Half Chapters (Julian Barnes)
★ The Robber Bride (Margaret Atwood)
★ Crow Lake (Mary Lawson)
★ Deaf Elephants (William Benton)
★ An Ocean of Minutes (Thea Lim)
★ Atonement (Ian McEwan)
★ I Like You (Sandol Stoddard Warburg)
★ A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
★ The Hollow Places (T. Kingfisher)
★ Chilly Scenes of Winter (Ann Beattie)
★ Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)
★ The Chrysalids (John Wyndham)
★ Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger)
★ The Age of Miracles (Karen Thompson Walker)
★ Longbourn (Jo Baker)
★ Hotline (Dimitri Nasrallah)
★ My Best Friend's Exorcism (Grady Hendrix)
★ La Perdida (Jessica Abel)
★ Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Alison Bechdel)
★ The Best We Could Do (Thi Bu)
★ Black Hole (Charles Burns)
★ Ghost World (Daniel Clowes)
★ The Summer of Love (Debbie Drechsler)
★ The Bunker by Bruce Mutard
★ Lost at Sea (Brian Lee O'Malley)
★ Paul Moves Out and Paul Has a Summer Job (Michel Rabagliati)
★ Persepolis 1 and Persepolis 2 (Marjane Satrapi)
★ Skim and This One Summer (Mariko Tamaki)
★ Blankets (Craig Thompson)
★ Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos, and Me (Lorina Mapa)
★ Thornhill (Pam Smy)
★ The Arab of the Future (Riad Sattouf)
★ Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Kate Beaton)
I'm not a big fan of books about writing so the below are mostly market guide recommendations but the two books on screenwriting and the one on comics are useful if you don't naturally think in screenplay or comic book format.
★ Crafty Screenwriting by Alex Epstein
★ Writer's Market Online (various editions)
★ Children's Writers' Artists' Yearbook (various editions)
★ Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
★ Making Comics by Scott McCloud
★ Formatting & Submitting & Your Manuscript by Jack Neff, Don Prues, Glenda Tennant Neff
★ Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (various editions)
★ The Writer's Handbook (various editions), Barry Turner, editor
★ My Best Friend's Exorcism (Grady Hendrix)
GRAPHIC NOVELS
★ Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Alison Bechdel)
★ The Best We Could Do (Thi Bu)
★ Black Hole (Charles Burns)
★ Ghost World (Daniel Clowes)
★ The Summer of Love (Debbie Drechsler)
★ The Bunker by Bruce Mutard
★ Lost at Sea (Brian Lee O'Malley)
★ Paul Moves Out and Paul Has a Summer Job (Michel Rabagliati)
★ Persepolis 1 and Persepolis 2 (Marjane Satrapi)
★ Skim and This One Summer (Mariko Tamaki)
★ Blankets (Craig Thompson)
★ Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos, and Me (Lorina Mapa)
★ Thornhill (Pam Smy)
★ The Arab of the Future (Riad Sattouf)
★ Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Kate Beaton)
FOR WRITERS
★ Crafty Screenwriting by Alex Epstein
★ Writer's Market Online (various editions)
★ Children's Writers' Artists' Yearbook (various editions)
★ Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
★ Making Comics by Scott McCloud
★ Formatting & Submitting & Your Manuscript by Jack Neff, Don Prues, Glenda Tennant Neff
★ Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (various editions)
★ The Writer's Handbook (various editions), Barry Turner, editor
YA & MG AUTHORS
Kwame Alexander | S. K. Ali | Laurie Halse Anderson | Rebecca Barrow | Judy
Blume
| Coe
Booth | Akemi Dawn Bowman |
Steve Brezenoff
| Jennifer Brown | Carol Rifka Brunt | Laura
Buzo | Deb
Caletti
|
Kate Cann
| Lucy
Christopher
| Carol
Clippinger
| Rachel
Cohn
|
E.M. Crane | Cath Crowley
| Tanita
S. Davis
|
Denise Deegan | Lara Deloza | Sarah
Dessen
|
Trish Doller
| Jenny
Downham
| Kirsty
Eagar
| Nick Earls
| Jennifer
Echols
| Sara Farizan | Alex
Flinn
| Moira Fowley-Doyle | E.R. Frank | Hilary Freeman | Alma
Fullerton | Rita Williams-Garcia | Kathleen Glasgow | John
Green
| Paul
Griffin | Janet Gurtler | Jenny
Han
| Brent
Hartinger
| S.A. Harazin
| Tanuja Desai Hidier | Simmone Howell
| Catherine
Ryan Hyde
| Justina Ireland | Tiffany D. Jackson | Jennifer
Richard Jacobson
|
Denise Jaden | A.
M. Jenkins | Kathleen
Jeffrie Johnson
| Varian
Johnson
| Patrick
Jones
| Tara
Kelly
| Deborah
Kerbel
| Aditi Khorana |
A. S. King | Jo
Knowles
| Nina
LaCour | David
Levithan
| Gina
Linko | Saci Lloyd
| E.
Lockhart
| Cynthia
Lord
| Barry
Lyga
| Chris
Lynch
| Carolyn Mackler | Sarra
Manning
| Melina
Marchetta
| Goldy Moldavsky | Jaclyn Moriarty | Hannah
Moskowitz
| Catherine
Gilbert Murdock
| Walter
Dean Myers
| Lauren
Myracle
| Blake
Nelson
| R.
A. Nelson
| Patrick
Ness
| Michael
Northrop
| Joyce
Carol Oates
|
Lauren Oliver
|
Mary Pearson
| Susan
Beth Pfeffer
| Ben Philippe | Rory Power | Yvonne
Prinz
| Amy
Reed |
Beth
Revis
| Karen Rivers | Geoff Rodkey | Meg
Rosoff
| Laura
Ruby
| Carrie
Ryan
| Alex
Sanchez
| Lisa
Schroeder
| Victoria Schwab | Elizabeth
Scott
| Mindi
Scott
| Cynthia
Leitich Smith |
Sherri L. Smith
| Sonya
Sones
| Rebecca Stead | Maggie
Stiefvater
| Heather Duffy Stone
| Nic Stone | Lauren
Strasnick
| Nova
Ren Suma
| Courtney
Summers
| Angie Thomas | Rob Thomas
|
J. H. Trumble
|
Jenny Valentine
| Siobhan
Vivian
| Eric Walters | Renée Watson | Garret Freymann-Weyr | Daisy Whitney | Laura
Wiess
| Ellen
Wittlinger
| Virginia
Euwer Wolff | Jacqueline Woodson | David
Yoo
| Sara
Zarr
| Lara
Zeises | Ibi Zoboi