The Case for Returning to an Author

In the past three years, I’ve become intentional about the books that I commit to reading. I am not guided by an auto-buy author list, but by the magnetic pull of certain writers and themes. If I see a new book by them, you bet it will make it to my TBR pile. Today, let’s delve into the enchanting realm of these authors—how I stumbled upon them and what quality in their debut or sophomore works ensures that I return to their writing. Let’s begin.

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Embarking on the Joy of Returning

There’s an unmistakable joy in revisiting the worlds crafted by familiar authors. Whenever I pick up Georgette Heyer, I am transported back to cool afternoons in a scorching Indian summer when I would read with Amma and Abu. Each book discussed here carries its own unique memories. Get ready for some love letters!

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Debut Authors that Impressed

Debut novels are not supposed to be perfect but when they are convincing and memorable, it is hard to believe that there aren’t more books by the author already! The author may have experiences in other formats of writing such as short stories, but a novel is a longer piece of work and for it to stick in my memory, it has to stand out amongst the 100+ titles I read in a year. 

When I first read the synopsis of Lessons In Chemistry on a NetGalley promotion email, I said out loud, “Oh hell yes! This is going to be fantastic!” My instinct to take a shot at this story was right. This book is brilliant and devastating because it is a true raw human experience. Bonnie Garmus beautifully portrays the life of a single mom scientist, grappling with the injustices of a man made world. I can’t wait to see what Bonnie creates next.

“What if you didn’t have to live with your worst memories?” Another book whose synopsis caught me right away was Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin. The approach of the book around returning memories that were erased is an interesting plotline. I had so many questions! What was this technology that made the memory removal possible? How did that affect society? How did people react to it? Deeper questions on the individual level of what it means to erase a memory? Tell Me an Ending had the angle of technology and big corporation as well as the experience of losing memories and the effects of that choice on self and others. The plot was well articulated. I am eagerly awaiting the next book by Jo Harkin. 

Rory August’s The Last Gifts of the Universe is a literary science fiction. Scout belongs to the only existing civilization out there. They are an archivist, someone who travels the universe to collect information and distil it into knowledge and insights. Unfortunately, all planets that archivists have been to so far have an uncanny commonality: they are all long dead and it seems to be at the hands of the same thing. Through Scout, I felt the loneliness of this existence. We have all experienced it in life but the weight of it as a civilization is hard to fathom. Rory does an amazing job of portraying this through Scott and their adventure. 

Our Wives Under the Sea was poignant, emotional and harrowing. I loved the writing in this book. Haunting, reflective, depicting the heaviness that life is when things aren’t right, this book presents the tragic story of a woman welcoming her wife home after a long absence but soon realising that her wife is no longer who she used to be. What happened in the depths of the sea? Why did Leah disappear for 6 months rather than return in 3 weeks, as was the plan? Why does her body seem to be dissolving away? Our Wives Under the Sea is a story of grief and loss, of loving someone so much and grieving them. Can’t wait to see what Julia Armfield writes next.

One last debut I must mention is A History of Burning by Janika Oza, one of the best books I have ever read. I love multigenerational sagas and this one is done so well! A character focused story that spans a century, this one gave me lots of insight into British rule in India and how it took Indians to Africa. In the last hundred years a lot has changed. People have moved from their homeland, put roots in other places, sometimes, they have been exiled from these very places. A History of Burning is a story of survival, of loving life for its bright and simple moments, of facing the darkness when it comes for us and always moving forward. I love its deep roots in culture and family values, intertwined with the drive to want better for the children. Another story of true human experiences that has me convinced to read another book by the author.

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Established Authors whose Backlists I want to Explore

Is that strange? To love an author’s work so much that I want to pick their first book or really any other books of theirs that are already out? 

Interviewing authors is one of my favourite ways to find their books that they are most proud of. Episode Thirteen is the first book I have read by Craig DiLouie. In answer to my question, “Tell me about writing horror. Have there been scenes, in Episode Thirteen or your other books, that were too spooky or scary as you wrote them?”, he said:

Probably the most harrowing story I’ve ever written is Suffer the Children. In this novel, a parasite kills the world’s children, but if they are given a little human blood, they can return to life exactly as the children they once were. […] I put the parents in that book through the wringer. In that story, I faced all of my worries and existential fears as a father. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever written.

Craig DiLouie, Interview Link

I want to read these toughest things ever written!

Daniel Aleman’s debut novel, Indivisible, won awards but my introduction to his work is through Brighter than the Sun, a moving tale about the responsibilities on one young girl’s shoulders and how she begins to balance family expectations with pursuing her own dreams. When I asked him what drew him to a story about immigration for his first book, he said:

I started writing Indivisible in 2017, during a time when there was a lot of talk surrounding immigration. As many of us may remember, most of this rhetoric was deeply negative, and I couldn’t help but feel like there was a disconnect between what I heard on the news, and what I could see when I looked at myself, my family, and my community. When I began working on Indivisible, my intention was to write about immigration from a purely human standpoint, and to deliver a story that talked about immigrant families in a compassionate, sincere way.

Daniel Aleman, Interview Link

After this, how do I not put Indivisible on my TBR? 

But how often do you get to talk to an author and get convinced to read their other books? Sometimes, the story I have read is all I have access to. I am excited to read Lily Brooks-Dalton’s debut and future novels because The Light Pirate, her second fiction novel, left a deep mark on me. Never before had I lived in a book. The Light Pirate brings together the tension of natural disasters with the beauty of life. There are many bitter realities in this book: the pain of losing loved ones, unfinished, empty memories because they passed away, distress because the world is changing too fast, marvel that it is changing, the strength to survive no matter what. I want to live again in Lily’s stories. I cried so much in this one, I want to be moved again. I am excited to make time for Good Morning, Midnight.

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Authors I have already Returned to

So far, I have told you about authors and books that I haven’t returned to yet. Now, I want to pivot and share about those that I did make time for a second time. 

Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for A New Day was one of the first books I got as a review copy and she is one of the first authors I found the courage to interview. I have met characters that loved music, that made music and engaged with music at a higher level, but before A Song for A New Day, I never met anyone who lived music. I read it in 2019 and it’s 2024, and I still haven’t met someone like Luce. I love the future Sarah imagines and We Are Satellites is close to my heart as it offered an insight at what life would look like if a brain implant to make us highly functioning, multi-tasking humans, became available to the general public. Following a family composed of two mothers, their teenage son who is the only person in his class to not have an implant, and their 10-year old daughter who is epileptic and cannot get an implant, I will be returning to this book again. 

Constance Sayers is another author I want to highlight. A Witch in Time, her second book, was my introduction to her work. I enjoyed the mix of time travel, historical fiction and horror in that book. Constance’s latest release, A Star and the Strange Moon, touched on the same genres but through the lens of an actress stuck on the set of her film.  I love the worlds and characters that Constance creates and I just got my copy of her debut, The Ladies of the Secret Circus. There is a unifying character in all these books and as a seeker of easter eggs, I am excited to meet this character again.

I haven’t chatted with Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai but she is the sweetest author I know on Instagram. Whenever I talk about The Mountains Sing or Dust Child, she has shown her gratitude. The Mountains Sing was Nguyễn’s first book in English. It depicts a beautiful relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter, against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Dust Child looks at the linked history between Việt Nam and the United States of America. Consequences of wars and the societal devastation they leave behind are realities that are hard to read but important to explore in my reading practice. I have had the pleasure of discussing both of these books with Ariel and Dust Child is a favorite buddy read for us.

Since I moved to Canada, I have been interested in Canadian history and in the bookish circles here, Genevieve Graham is adored. History is not just limited to war – political, socioeconomic change, international relationships, all these existed before the wars and continue to exist after. The Forgotten Home Child, the first book I read by Genevieve, is about some of the steps that were taken by England authorities to curb poverty and unemployment and give people, children especially, a new shot at life. But is that what really happened? It exposed me to a history of Canada, and the world, that I did not know about and then led me to another side of Canadian and Jewish history, Letters Across the Sea. I look forward to catching up on Genevieve backlist and latest releases.

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Continuing a Series

We have talked about standalone works, but what about series? How many series have you started and never picked up the second book for? Which series do you eagerly await the next book for? 

Children of the Nexus series by S. Kaeth began with Between Starfalls, a story that tugs at the heartstrings. A missing child, imprisonment, one’s feeling of inadequacy… These are all tough themes to confront, and harder ones to write well. SK continues her brilliant writing and world building in the second book, Let Loose the Fallen. I am waiting for book 3 which is currently undergoing SK’s meticulous edits. 

Trudie Skies’ The Cruel Gods series is another favorite because of Quen. There is a Dr Seuss saying about reading everywhere: on a boat, with a goat, on the train, in the rain,… If I hadn’t been glued to this book over the winter holidays two years ago, I would have travelled places with it. I would have taken it to work or to the lake, I would have read it on the bus, I would have read it while walking to the bus stop and back (not always advised). Instead, I read it on the couch, on the bed, with a cup of tea, on the stairs, with my cats, with a pencil and sticky notes in my hand. And when I was not reading The Thirteenth Hour, I was daydreaming about it and for a little while, putting together a playlist. Book 2, The Children of Chaos, is out and Trudie has finished the draft of her third book, The End of Time. Will I get book 3 before I read book 2? It’s a challenge I will take on when I am ready.

Series are generally fantasy for me so it brings me much joy to highlight some post-apocalyptic Canadian indigenous speculative fiction here: I don’t know anyone who didn’t love Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. It is the most viewed book discussion on my blog. Set in a remote Anishinaabe community in Northern Ontario, Canada, as the world outside their community collapses due to an unspecified disaster, the residents must confront challenges such as isolation, scarcity of resources, and the breakdown of societal order. Moon of the Turning Leaves was the much awaited sequel that readers wished for and one fine day, Rice announced it. Oh the excitement was palpable on social media! I got my copy the day it was published, October 10, 2023. This is one of the books I will be prioritizing after my India trip.

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Waiting for More

Before I close this reflection, I want to give a shoutout to two authors whose debut novels were first books in duologies and so brilliant that I read them as the second book came out. 

Kylie Lee Baker’s The Keeper of Night series is a dark fantasy with a biracial protagonist. I will let Kylie describe what excited her about Ren, “It’s so fun to let a character embrace her dark side and not be the better person for once. I think society often unfairly expects people who are systematically oppressed to always respond with kindness and forgiveness in order to “deserve” sympathy. But I think that if society wrongs you, you have a right to be angry about it, and it doesn’t matter if that makes you unsympathetic to your oppressors. Ren really embodies that righteous anger.” I have already read and discussed Kylie’s new series, The Scarlet Alchemist, with Ariel here. I could not help comparing it to The Keeper of Night. I love it so much! 

I discovered Amber Smith’s The Way I Used to Be series while looking through new upcoming releases. I rarely read Young Adult but my interest was piqued when I saw a follow-up YA book almost 6 years after the first one. What did readers love about this one so much? What did the writer love about it so much to return to these characters? Evocative, emotional and poignant, both these books were read in a weekend. I will be following Amber Smith’s future works.

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Final Reflections and Invitations

When I am able to connect with authors, they become more than the name on the cover of the book. They are people with their unique experiences, hopes, challenges and dreams. I love having these authors part of my reading journey. Their worlds and ideas are meaningful to me and every chance I get to share about them, I do. 

Dear reader, as this literary reflection draws to a close, I have had a great time, revisiting books I have loved and dreaming about the ones I want to read. The act of returning to an author is a testament to the permanent imprints their words leave on our souls. In this article, I’ve highlighted authors that I have read 1-3 times. There are many other authors I have read 4+ times. I will write about them another day because all I want now is to hear from you:

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