No surprises in the top ten books in demand this week. I thought you might like to know more about the authors of these popular books. Here are the first five authors.
1-Sue Miller. Remember The Good Mother (1986)? It was the tale of a recently divorced young woman whose two passions were her 4-year-old daughter and her lover. A heart-breaking custody battle is the centerpiece of the story. Sue Miller entered Radcliffe College at age 16, graduated at age 20 and was married two months later. She later divorced and worked at a variety of jobs as a single parent. Eventually a grant enabled her to concentrate on her writing and her first book was published. Miller writes with images that capture the emotional intensity of family relationships. The most recent of her nine novels is The Senator’s Wife (#1). Read an author talk about this popular book
2-John Grisham. Twenty one books published in nineteen years- the legal profession’s loss is the readers’ gain with this prolific output. The first was A Time to Kill, written as a hobby while a busy law practice in Mississippi filled most of his time. Grisham devotes time and money to charity- most recently the Rebuild the Coast Fund for recovery from Katrina. His undying passion is baseball and his literary success has enabled him to build six ball fields on his property. He is the local Little League Commissioner. His latest book: The Appeal (#2).
3-Sue Grafton. Published in 26 countries & 28 languages, Grafton has her female detective working her way through the alphabet of criminal cases. Grafton is a native of Kentucky and graduated from the University of Louisville with a degree in English Literature. She was writing, but also working at a variety of jobs, when she turned to screenwriting. She spent 15 years writing screenplays before she returned to novels. A is for Alibi was published in 1983. Main character private investigator Kinsey Millhone even has her own biography on Grafton’s website. In current demand is T is for Trespass(#3).
4-Ken Follett. 1978 was the year of Follett’s first big hit The Eye of the Needle. It won the Edgar Award and was made into an acclaimed movie. Four more widely-read thrillers followed. On Wings of Eagles was based on the rescue of two of Ross Perot’s employees during the Iranian revolution of 1979. It was made into a mini-series. His latest book, World Without End is a sequel to the 1989 Pillars of the Earth (#4) Tracing the building of a cathedral in medieval England, the two books follow the stories of all the people involved. Follett, born in Wales, lives in England, where he is involved in several charities and indulges his passion for Shakespeare by attending performances at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also plays bass guitar in a blues band. He continues to write novels of which around 100 million copies have been sold worldwide.
5-Geraldine Brooks. Australian born and raised, Brooks has a journalism degree from Columbia University and was a Middle East reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Her Nine Parts of Desire: the Hidden World of Islamic Women reveals the inaccuracies of many stereotypes and provides first-hand reporting on the lives of women who have been oppressed by the misinterpretation of Islam. Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for March, her novel about the Civil War. She and her family split their time between Sydney and Martha’s Vineyard. People of the Book (#5) traces the journey of a rare illuminated Jewish manuscript. To learn more
Five more authors tomorrow!