Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
Charles Portis. True Grit is one of my favorite books. I own both The Dog of the South and Norwood. No reason not to read them, right? Ha.
Carol Shields. She’s another terrific Canadian author (along with Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood and Mavis Gallant), and if you’ve read The Stone Diaries, you know how good it is. It won the Pulitzer in 1995. I have her novel Unless on my shelf (sitting next to the aforementioned Norwood and The Dog of the South, of course).
Ali Smith. I read The Accidental back in 2009 and have always meant to pick up more of her work. I’d like to pick up one of her story collections, and her book of essays Artful.
Laurie R. King. I really enjoyed The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, which starts the Mary Russell series. (I think it’s a well-established fact on this blog that I am terrible at reading series.) I loved the way King writes and enjoyed Mary as a heroine, and I’d love to go along on more of her adventures. I also have a copy of The Bones of Paris waiting for me (which I realize is the second in a series, and no, I haven’t read the first one).
Colm Toíbín. I loved Brooklyn—I felt like I was in the hands of a master storyteller who can craft a beautifully simple, artful tale. Lucky me, I have an early copy of his latest novel, Nora Webster (pub. October 7) to read in the next few weeks.
John Banville. I’ve read The Sea, and I have several of his books on my wish list, including The Infinities and the mystery Christine Falls (penned as Benjamin Black).
Iain Pears. Stone’s Fall is probably one of my favorite books I’ve read in the past five years. Right after I read it I bought a used copy of An Instance of the Fingerpost, which I still have yet to read. I’m also intrigued by his Jonathan Argyll series—a mystery series involving an art historian! (And yeah, a series.)
A.S. Byatt. I read The Children’s Book several years ago, and have always wanted to read her other well-known work, Possession. Given how long it took me to read The Children’s Book (no fault of the book, I just kept stopping to look up references), I suspect I’ll need to be ready to commit to a long haul. (An a completely unrelated note, The Children’s Book wins my vote for prettiest cover.)
J.G. Farrell. A while back I joined a blogging series called Spotlight Series, where we were given the option to review volumes from the New York Review of Books Classics Series. I chose The Siege of Krishnapur. Of course, that book is part of a series, the Empire Trilogy (told you it was a well-established fact about me and series). I bought the first book, Troubles, sometime last year, and you know the rest.
Ron Rash. I read Serena last year. Rash is a storyteller of dark Appalachian tales. I’ve been dying to pick up his latest short story collection, Nothing Gold Can Stay. I’ve almost bought it several times, but for some reason I’ve managed to show actual restraint.
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The Evening Reader 
Carol Shields….Republic of Love. Wonderful.
A.S. Byatt…A Virgin in the Garden. Gorgeous and dense.
And the Johnathan Argyll series! Great!
And finally…the Toibin I love…The Master. Just about perfect.
I feel the same way about Toibin! And Ron Rash – I haven’t read anything by him yet, but Nothing Gold Can Stay has been on my reading list for a while.
I should re-read The Stone Diaries. I read it over ten years ago and thought it was completely amazing. I read Unless not long after that but was underwhelmed by that one. I think I tried The Republic of Love as well, but couldn’t get on with it at the time.
I have read others in the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King, and for me, the other books are good but can’t equal the first. I think I am in the minority in that opinion, however. Most other fans seem to find each subsequent book better and better.
I forgot how pretty the cover of The Children’s Book was! I liked it but didn’t think I was likely to ever reread it (so long!), so I didn’t buy a copy. Still, every time I see that cover I think about how gorgeous it would look on my shelves.
Pat, thanks for the additional recs!
Tanya, Serena is so good, but I’m a little worried about the movie. I love Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, but it’s a very dark story…they’ve surprised em before. I hope they do it again. Anyway, I can definitely recommend the book!
Christy, I’ve read The Stone Diaries a few times, and it always yields something new, in addition to just being a good story. I confess I read about 30 pages of Unless several years ago and set it aside, but I’ve done that with plenty of books that I ended up loving later. As for the Mary Russell series, you are not the first person I’ve heard say that, but you’re right that most people seem to love them.
Jenny, I actually won it in a giveaway hosted by the lovely Ana. Lucky me!
The only Byatt I’ve read is Possession, another one that takes awhile to get through. I hope you enjoy it whenever you get to it!
I keep forgetting that Serena is on my e-reader! Glad to hear you’d go back for seconds of his works. And Stone Diaries. I just didn’t get it. I’ve kept it for one day when I might revisit it and hopefully like it more. Ha!