Today's post is a little different. Catherine Egan is the author of The Witch's Child Series. I recently reviewed the first two books in the series, Julia Vanishes and Julia Defiant. The third book in the series, Julia Unbound, is about to be released. I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to feature a guest post with Catherine Egan where she will be discussing her favourite books and books that inspired her throughout her writing journey.
Before jumping into it, if you'd like to check out my reviews for the first two books
you can find them here:
In my adult life, no books have obsessed me or shaken me up more than Elana Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (a quartet starting with My Brilliant Friend), following two girls from a poor neighborhood in 1950s Naples through to middle age.
Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince boasts possibly the coolest world-building of any SFF novel I’ve ever read, while also being a gorgeously written coming-of-age story about love, art, and revolution. Love is the Drug was also awesome.
All of Rachel Hartman’s novels: Seraphina, Shadow Scale, and, most recently, Tess of the Road, which is the recovery-from-trauma-road-trip story I didn’t know I needed, but oh, I really needed it. Evil confession: if I could steal another author’s genius, it would be Rachel Hartman’s.
The book that made me cry the most: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, about (partly) a girl raised with a chimpanzee as her “sister.”
I have loved every novel that Kazuo Ishiguro has written – each one so different and yet so distinctly, unmistakably him. The one I’ve read most recently is always my favorite, so, for now, the terribly sad, haunting, knights-and-dragons tale, The Buried Giant.
I adore everything by Shirley Jackson, especially her deeply creepy novels, my favorites being We Have Always Lived In The Castle and The Haunting of Hill House.
Kiersten White’s gripping, bloody, gender-bent Vlad the Impaler historical YA novels are sheer genius. I ate up And I Darken and Now I Rise (I actually read And I Darken on the beach, which is sort of a weird experience) and I can’t wait for Bright We Burn.
Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s Illuminae and Gemina are visual extravaganzas – these are books you really need to get in hardcover – utterly original and riveting space adventures coming to a thunderous conclusion in Obsidio.
I worship Zadie Smith, who seems to me the perfect model of what a writer should be: curious about everything, deeply engaged in life and teaching and the books of others, while also occasionally putting out a brilliant book that is completely different from everything else she’s written.
Birdie by the delightful, incomparable Tracey Lindbergh took me on a deep journey, one that I’m feeling the need to revisit.
I love short fiction, and a few of my favorite short story writers are Helen Oyeyemi (Everything that is not yours is not yours), Kelly Link (I can’t choose a favorite among her books, but Stranger Things Happen was the first I read and so has a special place in my heart), Karen Russell (Vampires in the Lemon Grove), Dana Johnson (Break any woman down and In the not quite dark), and of course the ultimate master of the short story, Alice Munro.
Everything by Megan Abbott is so utterly absorbing that you need to set aside a good several hours and read her books in one sitting because you will not be able to put them down.
Celeste Ng – Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I never told you.
I Capture The Castle is my favorite book that I read when I was a teenager and still adore.
When I was a kid, I was a full-on Diana Wynne-Jones fangirl – especially her Chrestomanci books. Louise Fitzhugh (The Long Secret in particular) made me think for the first time about what good writing was, and what a book could do.
I could go on and on (and on… and on…) but I guess I have to finish this list at some point, so I’ll wrap it up with Margo Lanagan, whose short fiction I love, but I’m even more in love with her two fantasy novels, Tender Morsels and The Brides of Rollrock Island.
Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince boasts possibly the coolest world-building of any SFF novel I’ve ever read, while also being a gorgeously written coming-of-age story about love, art, and revolution. Love is the Drug was also awesome.
All of Rachel Hartman’s novels: Seraphina, Shadow Scale, and, most recently, Tess of the Road, which is the recovery-from-trauma-road-trip story I didn’t know I needed, but oh, I really needed it. Evil confession: if I could steal another author’s genius, it would be Rachel Hartman’s.The book that made me cry the most: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, about (partly) a girl raised with a chimpanzee as her “sister.”
I have loved every novel that Kazuo Ishiguro has written – each one so different and yet so distinctly, unmistakably him. The one I’ve read most recently is always my favorite, so, for now, the terribly sad, haunting, knights-and-dragons tale, The Buried Giant.
I adore everything by Shirley Jackson, especially her deeply creepy novels, my favorites being We Have Always Lived In The Castle and The Haunting of Hill House.
Kiersten White’s gripping, bloody, gender-bent Vlad the Impaler historical YA novels are sheer genius. I ate up And I Darken and Now I Rise (I actually read And I Darken on the beach, which is sort of a weird experience) and I can’t wait for Bright We Burn.
Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s Illuminae and Gemina are visual extravaganzas – these are books you really need to get in hardcover – utterly original and riveting space adventures coming to a thunderous conclusion in Obsidio.
I worship Zadie Smith, who seems to me the perfect model of what a writer should be: curious about everything, deeply engaged in life and teaching and the books of others, while also occasionally putting out a brilliant book that is completely different from everything else she’s written.Birdie by the delightful, incomparable Tracey Lindbergh took me on a deep journey, one that I’m feeling the need to revisit.
I love short fiction, and a few of my favorite short story writers are Helen Oyeyemi (Everything that is not yours is not yours), Kelly Link (I can’t choose a favorite among her books, but Stranger Things Happen was the first I read and so has a special place in my heart), Karen Russell (Vampires in the Lemon Grove), Dana Johnson (Break any woman down and In the not quite dark), and of course the ultimate master of the short story, Alice Munro.
Everything by Megan Abbott is so utterly absorbing that you need to set aside a good several hours and read her books in one sitting because you will not be able to put them down.
Celeste Ng – Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I never told you.
I Capture The Castle is my favorite book that I read when I was a teenager and still adore.
When I was a kid, I was a full-on Diana Wynne-Jones fangirl – especially her Chrestomanci books. Louise Fitzhugh (The Long Secret in particular) made me think for the first time about what good writing was, and what a book could do.
I could go on and on (and on… and on…) but I guess I have to finish this list at some point, so I’ll wrap it up with Margo Lanagan, whose short fiction I love, but I’m even more in love with her two fantasy novels, Tender Morsels and The Brides of Rollrock Island.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know some of Catherine Egan's favourite books.
Make sure to check out The Witch's Child series and to read my reviews of the first two books:
Keep an eye out for my review of Julia Unbound, the final book in the series, being released August 28th!
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