Top Ten Tuesday: Check Um' Out

Top Ten Tuesday appears each week over at The Broke and the Bookish.  The topic this week is : Top ten authors who deserve more recognition.

I am going to look at some individual books here, because I haven't read enough of some of these author's works to claim that all of it is good:) Many of these authors do get some recognition (awards or academic recognition), but they don't get "buzz" or much attention in the blogosphere that I've seen.

 10.  I feel like poetry is pretty underrepresented on my blog.  Philip Larkin is one of my favorites.  Elizabeth Bishop is another. Both are accessible poets whose work is enjoyable on a narrative level as well as being pleasurable because of the language.






9. Tom Wolfe:  With Wolfe I have read a few: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Bonfire of the Vanities and I Am Charlotte Simmons. I am always impressed by Wolfe's ability to immerse himself in a culture, whether he is writing fiction or nonfiction.  I mean, when I look at the disparities in the three books that I've read, I find it incredible that he has managed to capture each of these worlds so accurately. 



8. J.G.Ballard, Crash:  Ballard has written many other novels as well, but this is the only one I've read.  Crash isn't for everyone; it is extremely graphic.  However, I am impressed by the detail of Ballard's prose and from what I know, he is also a wildly diverse author. 




7.  Steven Millhauser, Dangerous Laughter: This book was on The New York Times 10 best books of the year a few years back, and one of Millhauser's other novels won the Pulitzer, so he isn't exactly an uncovered gem, but this is one of my favorite short story collections and I don't see it mentioned much. 





6.  Frank Norris, McTeague:  This is my favorite under-read "classic."  McTeague is strange and dark and not too long, and anyone who is taking a trip through the world of canonical literature and doesn't have it on his or her list, should consider adding it.






5. Maira Kalman:  I did see Kalman's book And The Pursuit of Happiness on another blog, and that's why I picked it up.  I had seen her illustrations in Strunk and White.  I find her delightful.




4. Cecile Pineda, Face:  This a seldom read book for fans of existentialist literature.  Pineda is a Brazilian author, and maybe the most unheard of author on my list.





3. Zadie Smith, White Teeth:  This is a pretty popular book, but I felt compelled to put it on the list because I don't read many reviews of Smith's work.  She also has two other novels and an essay collection.





2. T.C. Boyle:  I've read a few things by Boyle and I made the bold claim in one of my other posts that he is one of my favorite living writers.  I decided to show the image of Boyle's short story collection After the Plague because the title story in this collection is my favorite thing I've read by Boyle.  He is funny and political, so if you are into that, he is a good choice.






1. Graham Swift, Waterland:  This book is my go-to recommendation, especially for people with reading tastes at all similar to mine.  I wrote about it for the Literary Blog Hop a few months back and you can see that post here.