5 Authors that Deserve More Recognition

Well, I found another Top Ten Tuesday I had to give a try...this one focusses just on books.  So, having nothing to do with California or Texas, it's a bit off topic...but fun!  I could only get up to 5, but here goes...

1. Anne Tatlock
   I have read three of Anne Tatlock's books, and plan to read many more.  The first book I read, All the Way Home, made me realize how stereotypical or out of place so many of the characters in Historical Fiction were.  Her characters were not that way...not a historical stereotype or a modern person with modern sentiments trapped in the past...but fleshed out believable characters that helped me understand the mindset of the time without putting it in a box. 
   
   Her books deal with faith, but in a natural, subtle way that doesn't overshadow the story or make you feel preached at like some Christian fiction. I wish more Christians author's would write like that...not in the preachy, gotta get a message in every other line type of way. I think believers and non-believers would both enjoy her stories. (And she has gotten a little recognition...I read that All the Way Home and I'll Watch the Moon both won book of the year for the Midwest Independent Publishers Association. Not surprised, as I've read both of those. I think she deserves more.).
   
   
2. Elizabeth Goodge
   I was introduced to this author by a dear friend. She writes in a beautiful, visual way. Two of the books that I've read, The Dean's Watch, and The Scent of Water, could be described as "a love story, but not a romance," which is a fresh perspective I enjoy (several of the book by Anne Tatlock I read could be described that way, also.)   I'm surprised she's not more well known.
   
   
3. Jill Murphy
   I've been happy to have introduced friends The Large Family series by Jill Murphy's, but I've yet to meet one person who has actually read or heard of any of her books before I clued them in. She brings out some "truths" about parenting in a loving and humorous way. I enjoyed these as much as my children. And the illustrations are just precious!
   
   
4. Joanne Greenburg
   She might be a bit too well known to include here, and I  have to admit I'm including her based on ONE BOOK, as I haven't read her other novels.   But every person I've met who's read her novel, In This Sign, has told me the same thing about it..."It felt like it was written about ME." That's something when you consider that this book is about a deaf couple living through the great depression and WWI.  It's not a common experience, but something about the book transcends the characters and speaks to all of us. It's not a happy, cheerful book...and you may want to throw it across the room sometimes. But that's true of many things that touch so close to reality.  I think this story gets less read outside of the Deaf community and those connected to it...and that's a shame.
   
   
5. Jewel
   Yes, Jewel, the singer. Did you know that she writes poetry (that's in addition to her beautifully poetic song lyrics)?  Ignore Bill Mar on this one. I remember him making fun of one of her poems, criticising her for using the "wrong word"...when he didn't even see that her un-expected word choice was a poetic device. Anyone who's read free verse much would have recognized it, and I wish I could have reached through the TV and smacked him upside the head. Really, her poems are deep and full of meaning and she should get more credit for them then she has.