Oh, there are so many! But since I’m limited to word count
here, I’m going to keep it to a past and a present pick.
To those who know me, my pick of the past will come of no
surprise: Emily Bronte. Wuthering Heights
is my favorite novel of all time, and Heathcliff is undoubtedly my favorite
villain—I mean…hero. Emily Bronte wrote with bold passion—unashamed and
advanced for her time. Her descriptions of thwarted love and longing, and the lugubrious
setting of the Yorkshire moors still give me shivers. Gothic romances are right
up my alley anyway. I still get all
tingly with the image of Catherine Earnshaw standing in the midst of a storm on
the moors calling out “Heathcliff!” I am a sucker for tortured love affairs.
My admired author of the present is Nicole Baart. Her
writing, although much less torrid and tempestuous than Bronte’s, is no less
bold, and I love the serious and literary tone of her writing. She is a brave
Christian author who ventures into subject matter that has previously been considered
taboo in Christian fiction. Love her. Check out her novel Sleeping in Eden. It’s a mystery and a love story with all-around intelligent
story-telling. It also has a fabulous cover! I am a sucker for great book cover art.
Hopefully another letter of the alphabet will
allow me to brag on another author or book for whom I have admiration!--"Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." Ecclesiastes 12:12-13
