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It's easy to pick up new and shiny books by buzzy authors, but this week, we are returning to our favorites with a book by an author you read in 2018 or 2019. Maybe you started a series that didn't finish, or maybe you want to catch up on a favorite author's backlist. However you choose to approach this prompt, you're sure to love what the author has in store for you!

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Suggestions:
This is a personal prompt that will require you to search through your TBR. Check out the authors of the books you read in 2018 and 2019, and do some research to see if there are any who have books that you haven't read yet, whether it's in their backlist or a new publication by a loved author.

ATY Group Listopia

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Optional Questions
1. What are you reading for this category?
2. What did you previously read from this author?
3. Which book did you enjoy more?

For me, it comes down to John Scalzi, Stephen King, Caleb Carr, Juliet Blackwell, or Ron Chernow.

I think I'll go with Redshirts by John Scalzi.



I previously read , , and by him.

One of my all time favorite novelists is John Sandford, so I will read the next in his Virgil Flowers series (whichever one I am on by this point in the year).

I stay fairly up-to-date with my favourites so I'll be keeping an eye out for new releases. I do have a few authors with backlist options; Sarah Moss, Emma Newman, Seanan McGuire, N.K. Jemisin, Courtney Summers and Adam Roberts.

One of my favorite books of 2019 was My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, so I may read America's First Daughter for this.

Milena, America's First Daughter is on my short list for this prompt as well!

In the past two years I've enjoyed books by a bunch of authors I have options for on my shelves...

Janice Galloway (All Made Up, This is Not About Me)
Ian McEwan (Amsterdam, Enduring Love)
Margaret Atwood (Bluebeard's Egg, Bodily Harm, Cat's Eye)
Joanne Harris (Five Quarters of the Orange)
Anne Bogel (Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything)
Jon McGregor (So Many Ways to Begin)
Liane Moriarty (The Husband's Secret, What Alice Forgot)
Donna Tartt (The Little Friend)
Kate Atkinson (When Will There Be Good News?)

Last year I re-read the Outlander series to prepare for the new season and book that are coming out this year. I just finished An Echo in the Bone right before Christmas so I put off starting Written in my Own Heart's Blood until today. That is my choice for this topic.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon is my favorite book series that I've come across. I've read the books so many times the first and third books have had to be replaced since they fell apart. 

I loved The Enchanted and The Child Finder so looking forward to The Butterfly Girl

1. What are you reading for this category?
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

2. What did you previously read from this author?
The Last Time I Lied

3. Which book did you enjoy more?
I enjoyed more the first book I read from this author.

I have 24 books on my TBR that could fit this prompt, from a wide range of authors. But I need an audiobook, which narrowed it down to:
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari and
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay.
I guess we'll see what I'm in the mood for when I finish my current audiobook!

1. What are you reading for this category?
A Long Long Way
2. What did you previously read from this author?
The Secret Scripture and The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty
3. Which book did you enjoy more?
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty has been my favorite so far, but all of these are 5-star reads.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

2. What did you previously read from this author?
Circe

3. Which book did you enjoy more?
Circe is one of my favorite books, so it's not surprising that I enjoyed it more than Song of Achilles.

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena
Last year I read the Unwanted Guest by Lapena and the previous year I had read A Stranger in the House. I loved all 3 of the books but I think the twist was biggest on Someone we Know


/review/show...

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot

2. What did you previously read from this author?
Middlemarch

3. Which book did you enjoy more?
I thought The Mill on the Floss was easier and less dense. The plot line is easy to follow. I rated it 4 stars. Middlemarch was more difficult to read and more accomplished. I rated it 5 stars. I enjoyed them both for different reasons.

What are you reading for this category? Men We Reaped:A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward
What previous book did you read? Sing,Unburied,Sing 9/10/2018
Which book I’d you like the most? I like all of her books..

I read Jane Gardam The Hollow Land for this prompt. I've read most of her novels, and her short-story collection, The Stories was a reading highlight last year.

Although The Hollow Land is marketed as a children's book, it has far wider general appeal. It deserves to be better known, not least for the descriptions of land and weather in rural Cumbria (UK).

I read Once Upon a River. In 2016 I read The Thirteenth Tale and really enjoyed it. They were completely different and I enjoyed both of them very much. I don't think I could pick a favorite.

Brandon Sanderson is my go-to because of just how prolific he is and I love them all. I originally had The Rithmatist penciled in but accidentally read The Emperor's Soul first. Excellent as usual.

I read Book 3 of the Dublin Murder Squad series, Faithful Place, in December and LOVED it and decided to keep reading the rest of the series this year. I counted Book 4, Broken Harbor, for the mystery prompt and now I'm counting Book 5, The Secret Place, for this one. I adore this series so much!

Of the three, I think I still love FP the best--it was just SO GOOD.

Emily - I love the Dublin Murder Squad series too! In the Woods is my favorite, but I enjoy her other darker and more unsettling ones too, like FP and BH. Last year I enjoyed the Witch Elm, which technically isn't part of the series but is still tangentially related and maintains that creepiness.

I opted to read another Nathaniel Hawthorne book after enjoying The Blithedale Romance a lot last year. I picked up his Twice-Told Tales and read a story a night, which took a little while to get through, but I found it well-paced. I can't say I loved every story on its own, but taken together as a collection, they say a lot about the talent and interests of the author as a young man. Five stars.

In 2019, I read A Guarded Heart by Heidi Kimball and loved it, so I went with Where the Stars Meet the Sea for 2020. I think it like Where the Stars Meet the Sea more.

I read Summer Frost by Blake Crouch. I've previously read Dark Matter (last year) and Recursion earlier this year. Summer Frost was a shorter story and though I enjoyed it, it didn't have the same power as Dark Matter or Recursion.

I read Middlegame, after reading the first few books of Wayward Children last year. I loved Middlegame more and am looking forward to the recently-ish-announced sequel, but I also would like to return to the rest of Wayward Children.

I am reading The Wind off the Sea by Charlotte Bingham. Last year I read In Distant Fields. I don't have a preference for either book as I have found all the books I have read by Charlotte Bingham to be excellent.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
2. What did you previously read from this author?
I had first read Three Daughters of Eve
3. Which book did you enjoy more?
They are very different, but I think The Bastard of Istanbul. It is a beautiful story surrounding a family of women. Ms. Shafak is a wonderful writer.

1. What are you reading for this category? The Speed of Dark
2. What did you previously read from this author? Remnant Population
3. Which book did you enjoy more? I don't think I can choose. I enjoyed them both to the point that I may branch out into some of her other works that seem to be a different genre.

1. What are you reading for this category? Imperfect Women: A Novel
2. What did you previously read from this author? Our Kind of Cruelty
3. Which book did you enjoy more? I really enjoyed Our Kind of Cruelty but only found Imperfect Woman to be ok.

What are you reading for this category?
The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides


What did you previously read from this author?
The Marriage Plot, in 2019

Which book did you enjoy more?
I think it’s hard to choose, they’re both wonderful reads. My favourite of his remains Middlesex.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The King of Crows

2. What did you previously read from this author?
SO MANY THINGS. But I specifically am reading this because it's the last book in the series.

3. Which book did you enjoy more?
Honestly, I have no idea!

I read and enjoyed Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, but I think Homegoing was better.

What are you reading for this category?
I read Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout
What did you previously read from this author?
This was book 7 in the series , and I have read the preceding 6.
Which book did you enjoy more?
I am enjoying the series but do think this one was maybe not so good as some of the others. What I enjoy most is the banter between Wolfe and Goodwin, but there was not so much of this in this book.

1. What are you reading for this category?
The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson

2. What did you previously read from this author?
We Have Always Lived in the Castle

3. Which book did you enjoy more?
I enjoyed We Have Always Lived in the Castle more. It is one of my favorites. However, as a short primer on the Salem witch trials, which I knew very little about, it was very informative.

1. What are you reading for this category? Three Weeks in December by Audrey Schulman

2. What did you previously read from this author? Theory of Bastards

3. Which book did you enjoy more? Both were great, with their strong, but flawed, female scientist protagonists, captivating writing styles and terrific settings and tension-filled plots. And animals! But I have it to give it up to Three Weeks in December, which I loved a bit more because the parallel stories were so good. 'Three Weeks' featured great characters, two fascinating intertwining plots and backstories set a century apart, and lush, evocative settings in Africa.

1. What are you reading for this category? Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

2. What did you previously read from this author? The Forged Coupon

3. Which book did you enjoy more? I'm enjoying Anna more since it is a novel. The Forged Coupon is a novella (96 pages) but I gave it 5 stars so I apparently enjoyed it! I don't remember the story, though. I read Anna K decades ago so this is a re-read but I don't remember the details, only the ending.

1. Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexevich

2. Have previously read the unwomanly face of war and was absolutely mesmerised by it.

3. I enjoyed the unwomanly face of war more due to the breadth of topics discussed; voices from Chernobyl was quite singular and narrow in scope

For this prompt, I read The Institute by Stephen King. I've read many of his books, but in 2019, I read The Stand, and it was amazing. I didn't like this book as much as The Stand, but I did enjoy it.

I read Morning Star by Pierce Brown.

I read Red Rising last year and loved it. The next book in the series, Golden Son, I fitted in earlier this year and didn't like at all. Morning Star I enjoyed in parts and hated in parts. I just found the second and third books in the series too stressful to be enjoyable.

I read Sula by Toni Morrison. Beloved was one of my five star books in 2018. I was excited to read another Toni Morrison because I originally encountered her in English class in high school, but I don't remember particularly enjoying Song of Solomon, which is what we read. But I LOVED Beloved and especially loved Morrison's writing style, so I thought I should give her work another try.

The author John Green said this year that Sula is one of his old favorites, a book that he goes back to again and again, so I decided to pick it up. It's quite a short book, and I flew through it in a day at the end of the readathon. I really liked it, but not quite as much as Beloved. But it's definitely inspired me to continue reading Toni Morrison's books! I might even go back to Song of Solomon.

One of my favorites last year wasWhat the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon. It's set in Ireland. The writing was beautiful. She incorporated some poetry from Yeats, which fit the story really well. I can't read poetry by itself, but I love it sprinkled in with the prose.

I read several of her books this year. I really liked The Law of Moses even though the main characters were quite young. I re-listened to The Bird and the Sword which is really lovely and poetic on audio. (It was perfect when I wasn't feeling well.) I was hooked from the first couple minutes of the audio sample.

I didn't like The First Girl Child as much, but I think regular fantasy readers might appreciate it more.

1. What are you reading for this category?
I read My Name Is Anton by Catherine Ryan Hyde.


2. What did you previously read from this author?
Have You Seen Luis Velez?


3. Which book did you enjoy more?
Have You Seen Luis Velez. My Name is Anton is more of a romance, which is not typically my genre--it's so hit and miss for me.

I read Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews. I knew I wanted to read something by them because they are my favourite author.

During 2018 and 2019 I read 4 books by them, all of which I rated 5 stars. I also did a reread of the Kate Daniels series this year, of which the book I read for this is book 9 in the series. I'm looking forward to getting to book 10 in the new year, which is the only one I haven't read yet.