Alphabet Authors

So, now I have finished my alphabet. It was fun looking at all the letters and trying to find my favourite author among them.  In the end, only Q and X are missing.

Some of them were really easy (e.g. Jane Austen), others were harder because I could have named several authors for the letter. And then there were those where I really only had read one or two by an author with that name but though I liked the books, I might not have chosen them for this challenge, had there been someone else.

Find the individual lists here:

A is for Jane Austen

B is for Pearl S. Buck

C is for Albert Camus

D is for Charles Dickens

E is for Nora Ephron

F is for Ken Follett

G is for Günter Grass

H is for Victoria Hislop

I is for Laura Ingalls Wilder

J is for James Joyce

K is for Barbara Kingsolver

L is for Wally Lamb

M is for Thomas Mann

N is for V.S. Naipaul

O is for Joyce Carol Oates

P is for Orhan Pamuk

R is for Carlos Ruiz Zafón

S is for Mary Scott

T is for Leo Tolstoy

U is for Lyudmila Ulitzkaya

V is for Mario Vargas Llosa

W is for Alice Walker

Y is for Malala Yousafzei

Z is for Stephanie Zweig

So, my authors came from France (1), Germany (3), India (1), Ireland (1), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (1), Peru (1), Russia (2), Spain (1), Turkey (1), the UK (4) and the USA (7).

Alphabet Authors ~ Z is for Zweig

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

This is the last letter in my alphabet. I had no problem whatsoever to choose the author. Stefanie Zweig is one of my favourite authors ever, she has written so many great novels with quite some different backgrounds, all of them part of her life.

Zweig, Stefanie "The House in Rothschild Lane" (GE: Das Haus in der Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #1) - 2009 
- "The Children in Rothschild Lane" (GE: Die Kinder der Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #2) - 2009
- "Coming Home to Rothschild Lane" (GE: Heimkehr in die Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #3) - 2010
- "A New Start in Rothschild Lane" (GE: Neubeginn in die Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #4) - 2010
- "A Mouthfull of Earth/Soil" (GE: Ein Mundvoll Erde) - 1980
- "Home was Nowhere. My Life on Two Continents" (GE: Nirgendwo war Heimat. Mein Leben auf zwei Kontinenten) - 2012
- "It started back then in Africa" (GE: Es begann damals in Afrika) - 2004
- "Nowhere in Africa" und "Somewhere in Germany" - 1995+1996 * Book Club Questions - Nowhere in Africa - Somewhere in Germany (GE: Nirgendwo in Afrika + Irgendwo in Deutschland) - 1942
- "Owuor's homecoming" (GE: Owuors Heimkehr) - 2003
- "The Dream of Paradise" (GE: Der Traum vom Paradies) - 1999
- "Reunion with Africa" (GE: Wiedersehen mit Afrika) - 2002 

Facts about Stefanie Zweig:

Born    September 19, 1932 in Leobschütz, Upper Silesia
Died    April 25, 2014 in Frankfurt/Main (aged 81)

Her Jewish family fled to Kenya in 1938 when she was five years old. After the war, her father was offered the position of a judge in Frankfurt and they "returned" to Germany. Stefanie Zweig became a journalist and wrote first children's books and later many others. A lot of her works are based on her own life as a Jew both in Africa and in Germany. Her most successful book "Nowhere in Africa" was made into a film and received an Oscar for best foreign language movie.

Find here all my German reviews.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ Y is for Yousafzai

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

Y is not a letter with many authors but I knew immediately which person I wanted on this list, even if she only wrote one book - so far.

Yousafzai, Malala

- "I am Malala. The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" - 2013 (with Christina Lamb)

Facts about Malala Yousafzai:
Born    July 12, 1997 (age 27), Mingora, Swat, Pakistan 

Married Asser Malik 2021

In 2012, she was shot because she opposed Taliban restrictions on female education in her home country of Pakistan. She has since become an international symbol of the fight for girls' education.

She has received numerous international awards for her work.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi  received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." She is the youngest laureate in history

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here. and the Peace Prize winners here.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ W is for Walker

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

There are several authors I like who begin with the letter W (Mika Waltari, Jan Weiler, Colson Whitehead, P.G. Wodehouse) but I absolutely love Alice Walker and believe she deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature. Therefore, she is my author for the letter W.

Walker, Alice 

- "The Color Purple" - 1982
- "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" - 1983
- "Now is the Time to Open your Heart" - 2004
- "The Temple of My Familiar" - 1989
- "The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart" - 2000

Facts about Alice Walker:
Born    February 9, 1944 (age 81), Eatonton, Georgia, USA as Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker 

Married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal in 1967, they have one daughter (Rebecca who is also a writer) and divorced in 1976.

She received some honorary degrees and fellowships plus a lot of literary awards including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for "The Color Purple". 

Besides being a brilliant author, she is also a social activist, i.e. for the Civil Rights Movement, animal activism and pacifism.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ V is for Vargas Llosa

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I haven't read many authors whose names begin with V but this was an easy one, the author in question received the Nobel Prize and I like every single one of his books.

Mario Vargas Llosa

- "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (E: La tía Julia y el escribidor) - 1977
- "The Feast of the Goat" (E: La fiesta del chivo) - 2000 *

- "The Storyteller" (E: El Hablador) - 1987

Facts about Mario Vargas Llosa:
Born    March 28, 1936, Arequipa, Peru

Died     April 13, 2025 (age 89), Lima, Peru

He has been married twice and has three children.

He is a citizen of three countries: Peru, Spain, Dominican Republic.

He is also a political activist and has supported several different political parties, even ran for the presidency in Peru in 1990.

Mario Vargas Llosa received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

He also received a lot of other awards, i.a. the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 1996.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ U is for Ulitzkaya

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

U was a difficult letter because not many authors' names start with it. So, I haven't read that many books with a U writer.

Well, there is one very talented and great Russian author:

Lyudmila Ulitzkaya

- "Imago" or "The Big Green Tent" (RUS: Зеленый шатер = Zelenyi shater) - 2010
- "Medea and Her Children" (Медея и её дети/Medeja i eë deti) - 1996

Facts about Lyudmila Ulitzkaya:
Born    February 21, 1943 (age 81), Davlekanovo, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

She has been married three times, her current husband is Russian sculptor Andrey Nikolaevich Krasulin. She has two sons with her second husband.

Since 2022, she lives in Berlin, Germany.

She won many prizes, i.a. the Austrian State Prize for European Literature for her work, French prizes like Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, National Order of the Legion of Honour, the German Erich Marie Remarque prize and the Günter Grass prize along with many Russian, Chinese and other prizes from around the world.

She is anti-Putin and strongly opposes the Russian war against the Ukrane.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ T is for Tolstoy

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

When I had to decide which author I would pick for the letter T, I had to think about Leo Tolstoy right away. He is just one of the greatest authors ever and these are the books I read:

- "Anna Karenina" (RUS: Анна Каренина = Anna Karenina) - 1877 *
- "Collected Works. The Stories" (RUS. Gesammelte Werke. Die Erzählungen) - 1886
- "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (Смерть Ивана Ильича/Smert' Ivána Ilyichá) - Der Tod des Iwan Iljitsch - 1886
- "War and Peace" (RUS: Война и мир = Woina i mir) - 1868/69

Facts about Leo Tolstoy:
Born     9 September 1828 Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire

Died     20 November 1910 (aged 82) Astapovo, Russian Empire

Married 1862 to Sophie Behrs

They had 13 children of whom eight survived childhood.

He never won the Nobel Prize for Literature or Peace even though he was nominated for both several times.

He was liked and admired by many other authors, especially by Fyodor Dostoevsky whom he greatly admired likewise.

In Russia, he was regarded as a Christian anarchist and excommunicated. However, there are statues of him all over the world. However, the Russians also printed two coins with his portrait, 100 rubles (in gold) in 1991, 1 ruble in1988.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ S is for Scott

I found this idea on Simon's blogStuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

Mary Scott was my first "adult" author, the first author I discovered in my teens who had not written for children.

I have written about her before (see here: New Zealand novels) but I had to include her in this challenge. There are obviously other authors that begin with S that I also really like (Elif Şafak, Rafik Schami, Jan-Philipp Sendker, and more) but Mary Scott was my first real "favourite". My favourite was the Susan and Larry Series but all her other books are also fantastic.

Autobiography:

"Days That Have Been" - 1966

Freddie-Trilogy:

- "Families are Fun" - 1957

- "No Sad Songs" - 1960

- "Freddie" - 1965
Susan and Larry Series:
- "Breakfast at Six" - 1953

- "Dinner Doesn’t Matter" - 1957
- "Tea and Biscuits" - 1961
- "A Change from Mutton" - 1964
- "Turkey at Twelve" - 1968
- "Shepherd’s Pie" - 1972
- "Strangers for Tea" - 1975
- "Board, but no Breakfast" - 1978 

Others:

- "Away From It All" - 1977
- "First Things First" - 1973
- "Haven't We Met Before?" - 1970
- "If I Don't, Who Will?" - 1971
- "It’s Perfectly Easy" - 1963
- "It Was Meant" - 1974
- "The Long Honeymoon" - 1963
- "One of the Family" - 1958
- "Pippa in Paradise" - 1955
- "Strictly Speaking" - 1969  
- "What Does It Matter" - 1966
- "The White Elephant" - 1959
- "Yes, Darling" - 1967
- "Yours to oblige" - 1954
Crime Novels written with Joyce West:
- "Fatal Lady" (Inspector Wright #1) - 1960
- "Such Nice People" (Inspector Wright #2) - 1962
- "The Mangrove Murder" (Inspector Wright #3) - 1964
- "No Red Herrings" (Inspector Wright #4) - 1964
- "Who Put It There?" (Inspector Wright #5) - 1965 

Books I didn't get to read:
"The Unwritten Book" 1957

Five collections of "Barbara" stories - 1920-1930s

Facts about Mary Scott
Born    Mary Edith née Clarke

           23 September 1888 in Waimate North, New Zealand

Died    16 July 1979 (aged 90) Tokoroa, New Zealand
Married Walter Scott 1914
4 children

Pen names: Marten Stuart and J. Fiat

She was the first woman to write about backblocks farming and probably also the first woman to write romantic comedies about New Zealand rural life which made her widely known in her own country and abroad.

See also: Lydia Wevers. 'Scott, Mary Edith', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1998, updated September, 2003. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ R is for Ruiz Zafón

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón was a wonderful author. From the moment that I read his book "The Shadow of the Wind", the first of his Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, I was hooked. I read all of his novels, whether they were written for young adults or adults, they were all fantastic. And I'm not even a big fan of fantasy or anything like that. But his stories were just fascinating. He left us far too early.

- "The Shadow of the Wind" (E: La sombra del viento - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1) - 2001
- "The Angel's Game" (E: El juego del ángel - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #2) - 2008

- "The Prisoner of Heaven" (E: El prisionero del cielo - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #3) - 2011
- "The Labyrinth of the Spirits" (E: El laberinto de los espíritus - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #4) - 2016
- "The City of Mist" (E: La Ciudad de Vapor - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #5) - 2020

- "Gaudí in Manhattan" (E: La Mujer de Vapor) - Gaudí in Manhattan - 2009
- "Marina" (E: Marina) - 1999
- "The Midnight Palace" (El Palacio de la Medianoche) - 1994
- "The Prince of Mist" (E: El príncipe de la niebla) - 1993
- "Watcher in the Shadows" (E: Las luces de Septiembre) - 1995

Facts about Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Born    25 September 1964 Barcelona, Spain

Died    19 June 2020 (aged 55) Los Angeles, California, United States

He received many prizes, i.a. the French Best Foreign Book Prize, the Canadian Prix de Associations des Libraires du Québec, the British Nielsen Award as well as the Ottakar's Award, the Spanish Protagonistas Award.

If he had lived longer, he might have even received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

His works have been translated into more than 50 different languages.
Because there are so many fans of his Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, we can now find plenty of maps of the important story landmarks for any fan who wanted to follow in the footsteps of the book's protagonist, Daniel Sempere. They even offer tours through Barcelona.

Here is Carlos Ruiz Zafóns homepage.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ P is for Pamuk

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

Orhan Pamuk belongs to my favourite authors. And here are all the books I read by him. Well, those are also all the books that have been translated into either English or German. I don't think I will ever learn Turkish well enough in order to be able to read a book in that language.

- "My Father's Suitcase" (TR: Babamın Bavulu) - 2007

- "The Black Book" (TR: Kara Kitap) - 1990
- "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" (TR: Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları) - 1982

- "The Innocence of Objects" (TR: Şeylerin Masumiyeti) - 2012
- "Istanbul" (TK: İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir) - 2003
- "The Museum of Innocence" (TR: Masumiyet Müzesi) - 2008
- "My Name is Red - 1998 * 

- "The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist" (TR: Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı) - 2011
- "The New Life" (TR: Yeni Hyat) - 1994

- "Nights of Plague" (TR: Veba Geceleri) - 2021
- "The Red-Haired Woman" (TR: Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın) - 2016
- "Silent House" (TR: Sessiz Ev) - 1983
- "Snow" (TR: Kar) - 2002   
- "A Strangeness in my Mind" (TR: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık) - 2014

- "To Look Out the Window/Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature" (TR: Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat/Der Blick aus meinem Fenster. Betrachtungen) - 2008
- "The White Castle" (TR: Beyaz Kale) - 1985

Facts about Orhan Pamuk:
Born    7 June 1952 Istanbul, Turkey
He has received several prizes, i.a. the French Légion d'honneur Officier, the International Dublin Award, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis), and many more.

He was the first Turkish author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He was also awarded several doctorates, honoris causa, i.a. in Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburg as well as in Yale and other. 
After issuing a statement about the Armenian genocide and mass killings of Kurds, he was charged for publicly insulting the Republic. After eight world-renowned authors supported him, the charges were dropped.

He has one daughter (Rüya which means dream) with his first wife.

Quotes:

"My job is not to explain Turks to Europeans and Europeans to Turks, but to write good books."

"You know, there are people who love their fatherland by torturing. I love my country by criticizing my state."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

You will find more information on his homepage.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ O is for Oates

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc. I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

This was an easy letter for me. I have read so many books by this author, she is definitely one of my favourites. Joyce Carol Oates. And I say it again and again, give here the Nobel Prize for Literature.:

- "A Book of American Martyrs" - 2017
- "A Widow's Story" - 2011 (a memoir)
- "Big Mouth & Ugly Girl" - 2003
- "Black Girl/White Girl" - 2006
- "Blonde" - 2000

- "Cardiff by the Sea" - 2020
- "Carthage" - 2014

- "Daddy Love" - 2013
- "Dear Husband, stories" - 2009 (short stories)
- "The Falls" - 2004
- "The Gravedigger's Daughter" - 2007
- "Jack of Spades. A Tale of Suspense" - 2015
- "Little Bird of Heaven" - 2009
- "The Man Without a Shadow" - 2016   
- "Middle Age" - 2001
- "Mudwoman" - 2012
- "The Sacrifice" - 2015
- "Sexy" - 2015
- "We Were the Mulvaneys" - 1996

Facts about Joyce Carol Oates:
Born    16 June 1938 in Lockport, New York, USA

Husbands: Raymond J. Smith (married 1961; died 2008)

                Charles G. Gross (married 2009; died 2019)

She used to teach at Princeton University, received several honorary doctor awards and many literature awards for her writings, i.a. the O. Henry Award, the National Book Award, the National Humanities Medal, the Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement and the Jerusalem Prize. And five times she was one of the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ N is for Naipaul

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc. I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

There are letters where you have a huge choice of authors and then there are others where you don't find even one. Well, there is at least one great author that begins with N, even though I have only read three of his books. But they were all fantastic and he totally deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. V.S. Naipaul. And here are his books:

- "In a Free State" - 1971
- "A Bend in the River" - 1979
- "Half A Life" - 2001
- "A House for Mr. Biswas" - 1961

Facts about V.S. Naipaul:
Born    17 August 1932 in Trinidad and Tobago
Died    11 August 2018 in London, United Kingdom
He won several literature prizes, i.a. the Nobel Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, the Booker Prize. 

He was awarded the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago's highest national honour and received a knighthood in Britain.

V.S. Naipaul received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ M is for Mann

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc. I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

There are several great authors whose name start with M: Naguib Mahfouz, Pascal Mercier, or Toni Morrison spring to mind but in the end, it had to be one of my favourite German authors ever: Thomas Mann. And here are the books I read by him, there are still more to come which I will add whenever I have read it.

- "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (GE: Buddenbrooks) - 1901 

- "Tristan" (GE: Tristan) - 1901

- "Tonio Kröger" (GE: Tonio Kröger) - 1903

- "Death in Venice" (GE: Der Tod in Venedig) - 1912
- "A Man and His Dog" (GE: Herr und Hund. Ein Idyll) - 1918 
- "The Magic Mountain" (GE: Der Zauberberg) - 1924
- "Joseph and his Brothers" (GE: Josef und seine Brüder) - 1933/34
- "Doctor Faustus" (GE: Doktor Faustus) - 1943-47
- "Confessions of Felix Krull" (GE: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull) - 1954

Buddenbrooks also happens to be one of my favourite books. Ever.

Facts about Thomas Mann:
Born    Paul Thomas Mann 6 June 1875 in Lübeck
Died    12 August 1955 (aged 80) in Zürich, Switzerland 
During the Nazi regime, the Mann family had to go into exile. Thomas first fled to Switzerland, than to the USA.

He received several honorary doctorates from all over the world.

There is a 30 Pfennig postages stamp which was issued in his memory on the first anniversay of this death.

There are also memorial plaques in Lübeck, Weimar and Nida (Lithuania) and many artists have made paintings or statues from him.

Also have a look at my report about our visit to the Buddenbrook house in Lübeck.

Thomas Mann received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 "principally for his great novel, 'Buddenbrooks', which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ L is for Lamb

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

This was a tough letter to choose from I really love Mary Lawson but I read more books by Wally Lamb. Maybe one day, Mary Lawson will write more books and I can put together a list of hers, as well.

I got to know Wally Lamb with my Dutch book club, we read "She's Come Undone" and were wondering what the German and Dutch translations were (this was before you could look up everything on the internet). Anyway, we were quite surprised to find the titles that both meant something like Music of the Whales.

- "The Hour I First Believed" - 2008 
- "I Know This Much is True" - 1998
- "I'll Take You There" - 2016
- "She's Come Undone" - 1997
- "We are Water" - 2013
- "Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story" - 2009

But I just had to carry on reading his books, they are all fantastic.

Facts about Wally Lamb:
Born    October 17, 1950 in Norwich, Connecticut, US

He is married to Christine and they have three sons: Teddy, Jared and Justin

He grew up with older sisters and he claims, that's why he can write both male and female voices, which he does beautifully.

He is a University professor for English and has done a lot of prison work.

He received several prizes for his works of fiction and non-fiction.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ K is for Kingsolver

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

When I read my first book by Barbara Kingsolver, I knew I had found something great, an author I would love.

- "The Bean Trees" - 1988
- "Demon Copperhead" - 2022
- "Flight Behaviour" - 2012
- "The Lacuna" - 2009
- "Pigs in Heaven" - 1993
- "The Poisonwood Bible" - 1998 
- "Prodigal Summer" - 2001 
- "Unsheltered" - 2018

Non-fiction:
- "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" - 1990

Ever since, I have read several of her books, as you can see, and loved every single one of them. The Poisonwood Bible, the first one, is still one of my favourites, though The Lacuna certainly is just as great.

Facts about Barbara Kingsolver:
Born    April 8, 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, US
Married Joseph Hoffmann (1985–1992)

and Steven Lee Hopp (1994–present)

She has one daughter each by her two husbands, Camille born 1987, and Lily born 1996.
Apparently, she never wanted to be famous.

She received several prizes, The Women's Prize for Fiction for The Lacuna and Demon Copperhead and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Demon Copperhead plus many other prizes for literature and her activism for civil liberties and humanities.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Alphabet Authors ~ J is for Joyce

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

Sometimes, you read hundreds of books by one author, other times only a few but you still know he or she is one of the greatest authors ever. James Joyce is such an author. He has written some extraordinary works.

- "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - 1916  
- "Dubliners" - 1905 (short stories)
- "Ulysses" - 1922

Facts about James Joyce:
Born    February 2, 1882 in Rathgar, Dublin, Ireland
Died    January 13, 1941 in Zürich, Switzerland, aged 58
Married Nora Barnacle 1931

They had two children together, Girgio born 1905, and Lucia born 1907.
They moved around a lot from Zürich to Pula in Croatia, then Trieste, Rome, Dublin again, Zürich, Trieste, Paris, London and again to Zürich. They got married in London, so his son would get an inheritance when he died.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.