Why Isn’t Everyone Reading…?

I’ve been having a few conversations with friends recently about the best under-the-radar books. Books that aren’t getting the huge buzz, for reasons that remain a mystery. Some of the books I’ve been thinking of are old books, some are new. Some are by seasoned authors, some are debut.

Why isn’t everyone reading Megan Whalen Turner’s Attolia books? Everyone I know who has read them is Capital-O Obsessed. The recent announcement that she’d be writing a new book set in that world *did* set off a huge flurry of blog-located squeeing, but it was a drop in the bucket of the tidal wave of talk for, say, Catching Fire. A few months ago, Justine threatened to never speak to me again unless I read The Thief nownownow, so I bought it, and then Sailor Boy stole it to read on the metro and I haven’t seen it since.

I should really find that book. People adore it.

Why isn’t everyone reading anything Betina Krahn puts on a piece of paper? Why aren’t people BREAKING INTO HER HOUSE and stealing her grocery list? Her first Harlequin Blaze Historical, MAKE ME YOURS, is hitting the shelves at this moment (Amazon shipped me my copy yesterday) and it’s as delicious as everything else she’s ever written. I just love her heroines. They’re smart and spunky and capable — really all these things, not just lip service to the qualities. And the heroes are simultaneously flummoxed, infuriated, and secretly totally loving it. I can’t get enough. Plus, she’s just so funny. She has this incredibly witty way with words. An rather bawdy example from her latest, in which the heroine is teasing the hero by dragging him into dress shops to try on sexy black silk gloves:

“Infernal woman. He’d barely escaped the shop before his John Thomas turned into a full blown Jonathan Thomasville.”

Too funny! Oh, I wish I could write historical romances like Betina Krahn!

Why isn’t everyone reading DULL BOY, by Sarah Cross? This debut novel is one of the best books I’ve read all year. Everyone I know who has read it postively loves it. I’ve spoken about it in detail before, but this book is really something special.

I want everyone else to be feeling the love for these books that I feel! I want everyone else to be talking about it so I have wonderful fangirl conversations to listen in on! Why isn’t everyone else reading them too!

What about you? What authors, what books, do you wish everyone else were reading, and why should they be reading them?