- Susan Emshwiller, Thar She Blows. A tender & funny tightly written novel about a mother in search of her teenage misfit son who has been swallowed by a whale. —Anne Anthony
- I have recently been given a copy of Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater. Written in the 90s it follows his tracking of the monsoon season from one end of India to the other. Funny, descriptive, sad and insightful, especially when dealing with the myriad of bureaucracies. This man can write. —Robert Mountford
- An author new to me and whose books I am devouring is Mick Herron. I love the Apple+ series Slow Horses, so decided to read the author’s original creation. Wow! I would pay serious money to sit through a seminary taught by Herron on the creation of spot-on metaphors and similes , and his use of humor is enviable. And because I just found her, I want to praise Elle Cosimano’s fast, funny, and happily improbable murder thrillers, the first of which is Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. Highly recommended. —Charlotte Hunter
- I'd like to recommend The Keeper: Soccer, Me and the Law that Changed Women's Lives by Kelcey Ervick. This graphic novel covers a lot of ground. Kelcey's experience as a goalie playing for her near championship high school team, her rediscovery of the sport after abandoning her interest in it, a history of women's soccer, a meditation on Title IX and her journey as an artist. She handles it all with aplomb and I found the book fun to read and fascinating. —Dan Bailes
- The author I discovered recently is Abraham Verghese. I read The Covenant of Water and then immediately turned around and found Cutting for Stone which I should finish by tonight. I'm absolutely gobsmacked by the level of medical and cultural detail of his stories. Highly recommend. —Lani
- The new-to-me author that comes to mind is Maggie Stiefvater. I finally placed The Scorpio Races on hold at the library in November after being reminded of it in a writer’s reading round-up and it was so good. A annual horse race set on an island isolated from the rest of
the world, but the horse are sea horse? Yes please! That sent me down a Maggie Stiefvater rabbit hole and to end 2023 I have also read Bravely, her sequel to Disney’s animated film Brave, and the first three books in The Raven Cycle series. (Just waiting for the 4th one of to be available on audio through the Libby app!) Her writing is beautiful and the stories are solid and good. Two other authors: I read Kristin Ardis’s debut YA/NA fantasy novel, Smoke and Light, as part of her street team this summer. Fantasy, rebels and rulers, memory loss, intrigue, a fantasy setting with some advancement in science/technology. Be on the lookout for this one coming in March 2024. And also Paul Regnier released Bard Tidings this summer. If you like playing Dungeons and Dragons, other role-playing games, humor, and endearing characters all set in the context of an adventure, you’ll enjoy this one too. —Tracy Erler
- I was attending a book festival and felt compelled (as one does) to read the authors I’d booked tickets to see. The only one I could get from the library was Daughter by Claudia Dey. I wasn’t happy. The topic was a daughter’s fraught relationship with her father. Not my bag. And she wrote it from the impossible POV of first person omnipotent. Whooeee was I set straight. Claudia has skillful yet subtle writing. Not only was I captured from the outset, I experienced that wonderful moment that comes only a few times in a reader’s life, in her climactic passage, I gasped and had to throw the book from me. —Julie Pithers
- T. Kingfisher! She writes addictively in all kinds of genres, but my favorites involve middle-aged protagonists with emotional baggage having adventures in a creative and well-designed fantasy world. Check out the Saint of Steel series to start. —Stephanie Ricker
- My favorite new-to-me author of 2023 is Caroline Noe. Her fantasy book, A Wolf So Grim and Mangy, is a true delight, filled with British wit and wonderful world building. She’s also a lovely, generous author, reading and reviewing other fantasy and sci-fi books on her Instagram (@carrieauthor) with great insight and care. She’s a joy to read and follow! —AM Scott
- My favorite new book: Runestone’s Promise by Mari Matthias!! —Erin Spaeth
- Best new author this year: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler: Wonderful!! —Susan McMullin
- As for your question about new authors, I think Mai Nguyen, author of Sunshine Nails is one not to miss. Her debut about a Vietnamese American family who owns a nail salon (something that’s very common in Vietnamese culture) and whose business/entire livelihood is threatened when a new salon opens up across the street was one of my favorite reads of the year. Her prose about the family and culture was so spot on. It was funny, raunchy and filled with strong & relatable characters. I really hope she writes more books! —Hoang Samuelson******
- New to me author: Maggie O'Farrell. Her novels include Hamnet (which I read) and The Marriage Portrait (still to read). I took a long time to read Hamnet because, at almost every paragraph, I stopped to gasp at the language and writing style, re-read it multiple times, write notes, and declare to myself over and over that I need to read the whole book again, even before I'd finished it the first time. If you're a writer, you need to read this book. It's the ultimate lesson on show don't tell, with multiple examples on every single page. —Judy Renouf
- I picked up my first book by Benedict Jacka in October and was done with his urban fantasy Alex Verus series by the beginning of December. —Amber Boudreau
- A really life-changing book that I discovered this year is David Hinton's WILD MIND, WILD EARTH: OUR PLACE IN THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (2022). This is a work of Taoism/Zen Buddhism which speaks not in riddles but in plain English. For years I'd been looking for a book that would reduce the anxiety that I, like ever so many others, feel when contemplating
the future. The open secret is to consider the Cosmos ("the ten thousand things"), not humanity, as the center of existence. On a larger scale, that's like taking your ego out of the center of your social relationships. An improvement in psychological health is absolutely
guaranteed. —Larry Hedrick
- I discovered Tara Laskowski. I read The Mother Next Door and loved it. She has a new book coming out this month called The Weekend Retreat. She read a chapter from it on a virtual Noir at the Bar and I can hardly wait to get my hands on it. —Jeanmaire Remes
- A new (to me) author I am loving is Allison Montclair. She has written a series, part mystery, part psychology, part light hearted comedy. Two clever, likeable women, one a bad ass former spy, and one connected to the aristocratic rich, both with wounds and trauma from the war start a marriage matching bureau in post WW2 London. The dialogue is as witty as Noel Coward, the character development and plot excellent. The first one is called The Right Sort of Man. —Lorraine Segal
- My new, favorite writer is Davon Loeb, author of the memoir The In-Betweens. Loeb, a poet; tells his story in a series of lyrical, flash essays. Beautiful prose, packed with craft, Loeb writes about family, racism, and trying to fit in as a biracial boy raised in a Black family in a mostly white suburb. Unique and masterful storytelling. —Andrea A. Firth
- New to me author: Alice McDermott! I think of her as a writer’s writer. This is based upon my reading of the first 14 pages of her new book, THE ABSOLUTION, (gorgeous cover), and perusal of her several earlier novels. Exquisite writing. —Ann Satterfield
- The new-to-me author that I want to recommend is Emily Itami, debut author of Fault Lines—a modern Tokyo retelling of The Awakening. It is heartbreaking and somehow unbearably funny, the perfect demonstration of the laughter that comes when tears no longer cut it. —Jess Feder