Top 10 Tuesday: Connie's Favorite Authors

We have been MIA from the Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday for the past couple of weeks, but today we are back and in full force! This week, Connie gives us her top 10 favorite authors!

1. George Orwell -- Everything this man comes up with is inspired, and, at least in the case of 1984, life-changing. But Animal Farm? How about his short story, "Shooting an Elephant"? George Orwell is probably a reason why I will never write fiction, because his masterpieces are far too intimidating, that any efforts I could ever make would be laughable. (my review of 1984 here)

2. Virginia Woolf -- Please tell me this isn't coming as a shock to you. I'm obsessed. When I read Virginia Woolf, I understand myself better. (my review of Orlando here)

3. JK Rowling -- You know how sometimes you rewatch a movie as an adult that was a favorite of yours during your childhood, and then you're really disappointed to see all your warm, fuzzy feelings about it vanish, because you've realized it's rubbish? Harry Potter's not like that. The more I read it, the more I appreciate the story as well as Rowling's downright brilliance (not to mention her sense of humor). I have some serious respect for this woman. On another note, check out her lengthy interview with Oprah here. Seeing this made me want to write up a ten-page tribute to this woman.

4. Charles Dickens -- All right, he gets a bit wordy at times, and he may have made some disparaging (though admittedly clever) comments about Mormon women, but A Tale of Two Cities is one of the best books I've ever read. Great Expectations, if you can forgive the second book, is actually very nice as well.

5. C.S. Lewis -- No one has ever made religious writing, especially about Christianity, so accessible. (my review of A Grief Observed here)

6. Oscar Wilde -- He may be weird, he may be a "dandy," but he is also master and commander of the satirical play. The Importance of Being Earnest, anyone? Plays don't get much funnier. Plus, he married a woman named Constance, so he has to have good taste. (PS that's my real name)

7. Khaled Hosseini -- Both of Hosseini's novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns are beautiful works of fiction. His interest in and understanding of human relationships translates into touching and at times heart-wrenching stories that are well worth the read. By the way, I highly recommend seeing the movie version of The Kite Runner, and I just found out that rights were obtained to also make his second novel into a movie! Hopefully it's done as well as the first.

8. Alexandre Dumas -- What a storyteller! Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers. Just wonderfully told, seriously enjoyable stories. (Oh yeah, and there's a Constance in this one, too. Wow, my author selection is making me seem incredibly vain)

9. Roald Dahl -- Dude's weird, but dude tells a great twisted story. Think "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Lamb to the Slaughter" (my personal favorite), "The BFG".

10. JD Salinger -- Before James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause, there was Holden Caulfied, the American teenager embodied, understood, in this 1951 masterpiece. Fun fact: JD Salinger never gave anyone the rights to make A Catcher in the Rye into a movie, and now, after his passing, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his family does not betray his wishes and sell out.

Check out next week's Top 10 Tuesday, when Ingrid takes on her Top 10 books she'll never read.