My Favorite Authors

My problem in reading is that I enjoy a wide variety of books and authors - and I go back and re-read most of the books that were favorites while I was in school every two or three years...
  I had several Little Golden Books as a child, and when I was 6, my parents got me a copy of Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, along with a wide assortment of small children's books about Misty - Misty, the Wonder Pony and a book telling Misty's story through photographs from the 20th Century Fox movie starring Pam Smith, David Ladd, Arthur O'Connell and Anne Seymour.  Of course I received these because I was taken to my first Pony Penning at the age of 7 weeks, and never missed one until I was 28 years old.  Mom was related to most of the people mentioned in the book, and remembered when Marguerite Henry was on the island and staying at Miss Molly's Inn.  Because of that, and my continuing love of all animals, I have to say that my first favorite author was Marguerite Henry.
  Both of my parents were voracious readers. Mom owned a lot of Zane Grey westerns, and I have read everything the man ever published - in book form or in magazines.  I read all of the Nancy Drew and Dana Girl mysteries, and I was ten when I read The Once and Future King by T. H. White, followed by Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki.  That started a period of myth reading, along with ghost reports (Hans Holzer), and embarked me into science fiction and fantasy.
   I read Robert Heinlein, Andre Norton, and Isaac Asimov.  From there, I fell for J. R. R. Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, and C. J. Cherryh.  I also discovered truly heroic adventure - and was captivated by Frank Yerby, Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche and The Black Swan are my favorites) and I still prefer unabridged copies of  The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.  Then Dad said that his mother, whose maiden surname was Lancaster, was a direct descendant for the Lancastrian kings of England.  (She wasn't, but we do descend from John of Gaunt on Dad's paternal side.) So I started reading non-fiction and fiction about the Kings and Queens of England - Jean Plaidy brought the old courts to life - and my Dad thoroughly enjoyed reading all her books, too.   For great historical fiction, I love Bernard Cornwell and Jack Whyte.  For historical fiction/mystery P. C. Doherty is fantastic.
   Mom was also a huge fan of mysteries - I read all of "The Saint" books by Leslie Charteris, and all of the James Bond books, and a huge variety of other authors.  Of course, with my horse interests, I became enthralled with the books of Dick Francis, the former jump-jockey for the Queen of England.  I also became enamored with the characters in Dana Stabenow's mysteries set in Alaska.
Currently, I'm reading Tony Hillerman and C. J. Box, having finished all of the books by James Doss.  And I am so sorry that Margaret Coel has stopped writing - her mysteries set on the Wind River Reservation, and her seminal non-fiction book on Chief Niwot are phenomenal. Then, too, I love Rita Mae Brown and Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Carole Nelson Douglas.  Mom got me hooked on the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald, and I introduced her to Randy Wayne White before her dementia became too severe for her to read.
   And I also read "thrillers" -  I love books by Clive Cussler, James Rollins, Lee J. Child, James Lee Burke, Alafair Burke, Linda Fairstein and every book either co-written, or written individually (non-fiction and fiction) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
   If you enjoy reading, I think you'll enjoy any and/all all of the authors I have mentioned above.