New Authors Challenge 2009 update

January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.

Hosted by Literary Escapism.

I aimed to read 50 new authors, adding book titles upon completion with starred ratings and links to those reviewed:

Joyce Carol Oates (The Gravedigger's Daughter)****

Linda Rader Overman (Letters Between Us)****

Debra Dean (The Madonnas of Leningrad)*****

Dionne Brand (What We All Long For)****

Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin)*****

Muriel Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog)****

Jayne Pupek (Tomato Girl)*****

Amy Dickinson (The Mighty Queens of Freeville)

Dianne Hammond (Hannah's Dream)****

Juliette Fay (Shelter Me)***

Chris Cleave (Little Bee)****

Lauren Groff (The Monsters of Templeton)****

Andrew Davidson (The Gargoyle****+

Jan Elizabeth Watson (Asta in the Wings)****

Mathew Johnstone (I Had a Black Dog)*****

Patrick Somerville (The Cradle)****

Isabel Allende (The Sum of Our Days)****

Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran)****

Sjon (The Blue Fox)*****

Hillary Jordan (Mudbound)*****

David Grann (The Lost City of Z)

Banana Yoshimoto (Kitchen)****

Poppy Adams (The Sister)****

Joan Clark (An Audience of Chairs)*****
Michel Tremblay (The Fat Lady Next Door is Pregnant)***

Barabara Hall (The Music Teacher)****

J.M.G. Le Clezio (The Interrogation)***

J.M.G. Le Clezio (The Prospector)*****

Frances De Pontes Peebles (The Seamstress)*****

Andromeda Romano-Lax (The Spanish Bow)****+

Irina Reyn (What Happened to Anna K.)****

Kate Chopin (Awakening and Selected Stories)***

Henrik E. Sadi (Jenford: A Short History of Upland)***

Steven Galloway (The Cellist of Sarajevo)*****

Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of Udolpho)***

Julia Leigh (Disquiet)***

Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge)****

Karel Van Loon (A Father's Affair)***+

Steven Thayer (The Leper)*****

Davis Adams Richards (Mercy Among the Children)*****

Spencer Quinn (Dog On It)***+

Tamar Yellin (Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes)*****

Anne Carroll George (This One and Magic Life)***+

Brian Lynch (The Winner of Sorrow)*****

Rosine Nimeh-Mailloux (The Madwoman of Bethlehem)*****

Helen Garner (The Spare Room)****

William Fiennes (The Snow Geese)****
William Fiennes (The Music Room)****

A.S. Byatt (Possession)*****

Bernardo Atxaga (The Accordionist's Son)****

Janwillam Van De Wetering (Hard Rain)****
_______________________________________
Total 50

Carpentaria****+ by Alexis Wright
Last Night in Montreal**** by Emily St. John Mandel
Wanting***** by Richard Flanagan
The Great Lover**** by Jill Dawson
Belong to Me**** by Marisa de los Santos
Becoming Abigail***** by Chris Abani
Home Repairs by Liz Rosenberg
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover
Thrity Umrigar (The Weight of Heaven)
Deirdre Madden (Molly Fox's Birthday)
Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Angel's Game)
Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat)
Samantha Harvey (The Wilderness)
Luis Alberto Urrea (Into the Beautiful North)
Toni Jordan (Addition by Toni Jordan)
Sue Gee (The Mysteries of Glass)
Akira Yoshimura (Shipwrecks)
Jean-Dominique Bauby (The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly)
Rachel Stolzman (The Sign for Drowning)
Mary Novik (Conceit)
Adrian Plass (Silver Birches)
Alastair Campbell (All in the Mind)
Emily Perkins (Novel About My Wife)
Stanley Middleton (An After-Dinner's Sleep)
______________________________________
Total 75

Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader)
James Sandham (The Entropy of Aaron Rosclatt)
Evie Wyld (After the Fire, a Still Small Voice)
Tim O'Brien (In the Lake of the Woods)
John Bemrose (The Last Woman)
Stephanie Barron (The White Garden)
Barbara Kingsolver (Lacuna)
Edward Hogan (Blackmoor)
Dan Chaon (Await Your Reply)
Heather McGowan (Duchess of Nothing)
Emily Arsenault (The Broken Teaglass)
Herta Muller (The Appointment)
_____________________________
Total for the year 87

May 30 update:

I reached my original goal of 50 authors that were new to me and revised my goal to read 75 new authors in 2009. I clearly have no difficulty with trying new authors. I hope this challenge will be repeated in 2010. I enjoyed it very much.