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Charlaine Harris first made USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list in 2003 with Club Dead, third in the Sookie series.
What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?
- Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontë
(literature and fiction, classics)
"Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. This book has everything: mystery, unrequited love, class war, illicit sex, madness, and a woman with an unswerving sense of moral rectitude. Jane is no beauty, she never twittered in her life, and she's devoted to thinking things over carefully before arriving at a rational decision. And yet she's a passionate woman underneath that drab dress that she's decided is suitable for her station. Jane is extremely conventional, and at the same time unconventional; a prime example of still waters running very deep. She rises above adversity every time, and she has a lot of adversity to rise above. Jane Eyre is the basic blueprint for thousands of books that followed. "
Source:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com
What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
- Neverwhere By Neil Gaiman
(fantasy)
"Gaiman's vision of an underground London that encompasses magic and evil, fantasy and good, is a book I've read again and again. The villain that eats ancient Chinese pottery is just brilliant. " - Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen
(literature and fiction)
"No one can write like Jane Austen, and there are reasons Pride and Prejudice is one of the most successful novels ever written. Mr. Darcy is changed by the love of Elizabeth Bennett just as she is changed by his love for her, though their initial impressions of each other are hardly favorable. I love Jane Austen's work, and this is Miss Austen at her best. " - Passage By Connie Willis
(literature and fiction, sci-fi)
"This book is about life after death, and I found it profoundly moving and mysterious. Connie Willis can write circles around almost anyone else, and she is one deep thinker. " - Guilty Pleasures By Laurell K. Hamilton
(fantasy)
"The first book in Hamilton's long-running Anita Blake series, Guilty Pleasures, sets the tone for the whole best-selling line. Laurell's trademark recklessness, imagination, and storytelling grip you by the scruff of the neck and never let you go. " - The Fourth Wall By Barbara Paul
(literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
"Barbara has never gotten her due as a writer, and this book will show you why. It changed the way I wrote women forever. I should have seen the parallel to Jane Eyre a long time ago; this is another heroine who lives largely in her own mind, a woman who reads and values intellect, yet a woman who can take action once she's convinced her course is correct. Also, Barbara's playwright is a woman who never thought about living on her looks. " - Lullaby Town By Robert Crais
(mystery and thrillers)
"Bob Crais's Elvis Cole novels are all wonderful. There are only degrees of more-wonderful and less-wonderful. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are the best private eyes in California, or maybe in the world. Crais knows Hollywood, humor and deep feelings, and he can write action. Nothing's better. " - The Eyre Affair By Jasper Fforde
(literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers, fantasy)
"Due to my love of Jane Eyre. Imagine being able to visit the book -- to actually be inside Jane Eyre. I couldn't imagine it, but Fforde could. " - One For The Money (stephanie Plum, No. 1) by Janet Evanovich
(literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
"This book started a whole phenomenon, but it's good to go back to read it every now and then to reacquaint yourself with the disaster that's Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter. I love books that make me laugh, and this book always does." - The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
(horror, literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers, religion and spirituality)
"Jackson was one of the best American writers of the past century. She can write funny, or she can scare you till you want to scream. The Haunting can still make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle is eerie all the way through, from word one. " - We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
(literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers) - The Daughter Of Time By Josephine Tey
(literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers)
"Tey makes it clear that the crime novel can be a vehicle for much more, in her classic novel about a policeman in bed with an injury whose friends entertain him by bringing him an historical mystery to solve."
Source:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com
Charlaine Harris' favorite books of the week
- The Lost City Of Z: A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon by David Grann
(history)
"THE LOST CITY OF Z is David Grann’s very personal exploration of the fate of Percy Fawcett, an explorer who vanished in the Amazon forest in 1925. Fawcett’s obsession was finding the Lost City of Z, a place of incredible wealth that the early Spanish claimed lay somewhere in the huge Amazon basin. Fawcett, a famous explorer whose difficult personality seems to have alienated quite a few people, was known for his absolute determination, his robust health, and his contempt for men who didn’t have his stamina. Fawcett had the great misfortune of having no personal resources, so every expedition he led had to be funded by those who believed in him, including the National Geographic Society in England. On his last attempt to find Z, Fawcett tragically decided to take his own son, and his son’s best friend, into the rain forest. For a while, his letters and those of the other two men arrived at home, but then nothing was heard of them. Some expeditions were undertaken to try to trace the tracks of the lost party, but (at least partly because of Fawcett’s own deliberate misdirection) these efforts came to nothing. In fact, more lives were lost in these attempts. Fawcett’s widow, to her death, expected her husband and son to walk out of the jungle.
This book is David Grann’s account of how he came to be interested in Percy Fawcett, and how the obsession to find the lost city came to capture him too. Grann, by his own account totally unqualified to enter the rain forest, stages his own search for Percy Fawcett, with surprising results." - Alive By Piers Paul Read
"I’m sure a lot of you have read ALIVE, Piers Paul Read’s wonderful book about the survivors of a plane crash in the Andes, who were isolated for many days and had to resort to cannibalism to survive the extreme conditions in which they found themselves." - Into Thin Air: A Personal Account Of The Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
"INTO THIN AIR is even better. Jon Krakauer is a writer of great authority and precision, and I’ve had a very high opinion of every book of his I’ve read.
I’m not physically adventurous, which is probably why I find these books such fascinating reading. I have an intense admiration for people who are willing to subject themselves to extremes of discomfort in pursuit of their quests. In the case of the Andes survivors, they weren’t willing adventurers; but those who rose to the exigencies of their situation lived through the terrible ordeal.
Try one of these books if you’re in the mood for a little armchair exploration."
Source:
http://www.charlaineharris.com
What are you currently reading and why?
- Bitten By Kelley Armstrong
(horror, literature and fiction, fantasy)
"I'm re-reading Kelley Armstrong's Bitten right now, because I want to enjoy it again. "
Source:
http://www.sfsite.com
Charlaine Harris recommends…
- The Becoming (the Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 1) By Jeanne C. Stein
(fantasy)
"A really, really good book... I think most of my readers would have a great time with The Becoming" - Matters Of The Blood By Maria Lima
(literature and fiction, fantasy, romance)
"...full of more interesting surprises than a candy store." - The Belen Hitch: A Sasha Solomon Mystery (sasha Solomon Mysteries) By Pari Noskin Taichert
(mystery and thrillers)
"Taichert's lively, erratic protagonist, Sasha Solomon, pursues murders and public relation accounts with equal ardor, and her intelligent appreciation of her fellow humans adds to the fun of the chase." - The Good Girl's Guide To Murder (debutante Dropout Mysteries, No. 2) by Susan McBride
(mystery and thrillers)
"I'll read anything by Susan McBride." - Carpe Demon: Adventures Of A Demon-hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner
(literature and fiction, fantasy)
"Shows you what would happen if Buffy got married and kept her past a secret." - Greywalker (greywalker, Book 1) by Kat Richardson
(horror, literature and fiction, fantasy)
"Non stop action with an intriguing premise, a great heroine, and enough paranormal complications to keep you on the edge of your seat." - The Chocolate Bridal Bash (chocoholic Mysteries, No. 6) by JoAnna Carl
(mystery and thrillers)
"I'm proud to stand up and say "My name is Charlaine and I'm a Chocoholic!"" - Dead Easy (halflife Chronicles) by Wm. Mark Simmons
(literature and fiction, fantasy, sci-fi)
"Mark Simmons, who never met a wisecrack, pun, or pop culture reference he didn't like, explores different degrees of deadness in his latest Christopher Cjesthe novel. Poor Chris . . . if he's not being made unwilling ruler of the vampires, he's discorporated and floating through walls. Lupe the Werewolf, Suki the cat/vampire, the voluptuous Deidre, and, oh yes, Teresa's head . . . all are back for this lates event-packed romp through a vivid world that leaps into existence every time we open a Simmons book. " - The Taste Of Night (the Second Sign Of The Zodiac) by Vicki Pettersson
(horror, literature and fiction, fantasy)
"The forces of Light and Datk battle over Las Vegas in this very exciting series... Read at your own risk - it'll keep you up past your bedtime." - The Sweet Scent Of Blood (spellcrackers) by Suzanne McLeod
(fantasy)
"The Sweet Scent of Blood is one of my favorite reads of the past month. The fast pace of the plot and the fascinating cast of characters will give you a happy little vacation between two covers." - Howling At The Moon (tales Of An Urban Werewolf, Book 1) by Karen MacInerney
(literature and fiction, fantasy, romance)
"A swift-paced, fun romp."
Charlaine Harris' summer reading list
Source:
http://www.usatoday.com
Why should you listen to her?
Charlaine Harris has been a published novelist for over twenty-five years. A native of the Mississippi Delta, she grew up in the middle of a cotton field. Now she lives in southern Arkansas with her husband, her three children, three dogs, and a duck. The duck stays outside.
Though her early output consisted largely of ghost stories, by the time she hit college (Rhodes, in Memphis) Charlaine was writing poetry and plays. After holding down some low-level jobs, she had the opportunity to stay home and write, and the resulting two stand-alones were published by Houghton Mifflin. After a child-producing sabbatical, Charlaine latched on to the trend of writing mystery series, and soon had her own traditional books about a Georgia librarian, Aurora Teagarden. Her first Teagarden, REAL MURDERS, garnered an Agatha nomination.
Soon Charlaine was looking for another challenge, and the result was the much darker Lily Bard series. The books, set in Shakespeare, Arkansas, feature a heroine who has survived a terrible attack and is learning to live with its consequences.
When Charlaine began to realize that neither of those series was ever going to set the literary world on fire, she regrouped and decided to write the book she’d always wanted to write. Not a traditional mystery, nor yet pure science fiction or romance, DEAD UNTIL DARK broke genre boundaries to appeal to a wide audience of people who just enjoy a good adventure. Each subsequent book about Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic Louisiana barmaid and friend to vampires, werewolves, and various other odd creatures, has drawn more readers. The southern vampire books are published in Japan, Great Britain, Greece, Germany, Thailand, Spain, France, and Russia.
In addition to Sookie, Charlaine has another heroine with a strange ability. Harper Connelly, lightning-struck and strange, can find corpses . . . and that’s how she makes her living.
In addition to her work as a writer, Charlaine is the past senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church, a board member of Mystery Writers of America, a past board member of Sisters in Crime, a member of the American Crime Writers League, and past president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. She spends her “spare” time reading, watching her daughter play sports, traveling, and going to the movies.
Awards
- Real Murders (aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1) by Charlaine Harris
(mystery and thrillers)
"Agatha Award Best Novel nominee (1990) : Real Murders" - Dead Until Dark: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris
(mystery and thrillers, fantasy)
"Agatha Award Best Novel nominee (2001) : Dead Until Dark"
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