July TIOLI Challenge: Read a book by a "hot" author for the hot month of July

This is the thread for my July Take It Or Leave It Challenge, to read a book by an author that you think is good looking or attractive. Participants are strongly encouraged to post a photo by their "hot" author, and you can choose authors of both genders.

Some examples of authors I think are "hot":

Jenny Erpenbeck, author of Visitation

Sadie Jones, author of The Outcast and Small Wars

Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and On Beauty

David Mitchell, author of Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

Caryl Phillips, author of Crossing the River, A Distant Shore, and Foreigners

Have fun!

Thanks for thinking of such a fun challenge Darryl - I immediately thought of a few of the 'hot' YA writers that I'll be reading this month for Juvenile July including:


Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls


Marcus Sedgwick - White Crow

Hmmm, I never pay much attention to author photos!!!

I'll try to add one of Leigh-Fermor here...

1> Fun! Willing to post instructions on how to post a photo? {she grins sheepishly}

>4 EBT1002: Tad's Basic HTML thread has instructions on how to post photos in message #2:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/104943#2373661

I know, but while I can post pics pretty much anywhere else, if I do it on LT, my computers crash...

So, I'll be reading a "paddy" book about Greece, and, after a brief perusal of author pics, something by Matt Beynon Rees (yummmy!)

Interesting, some authors I like are def. not hot in my book; some authors I know and think are objectively attractive I also know to be obnoxious, which makes them less attractive, etc. etc. And then there are some whose books I just don't want to read!

A fun challenge. I have chosen to read Death Without Company by my hottie choice: Craig Johnson.



Gotta love those cowboys! He looks rugged, manly and ready to protect.

Fun challenge! Here is my submission.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

This is really fun. I just googled a bunch of history authors because I'm trying to find somewhere to put some non-fiction in... um, not too successful. And I had great hopes for Colm Toibin, but no.

But:



Edited to say that this is Joshua Foer, who wrote Moonwalking with Einstein.

#3 Here you are, Suzanne - Paddy in his youth, and a craggier version:



I will try to join you in reading something of his, but probably not the same ones as I want to start with A time of gifts.

n/m; probably better to have living authors for this one!

This challenge surely calls for an end-of the month contest. The King and Queen of "hotties". What do you all say?

Your book will need to be COMPLETED to enter its author, but then you'll be be eligible for a (small) prize if your author wins. Two (small) prizes will be awarded.

Thoughts?

A contest sounds like fun!

*blissed out sigh* Thank you, Genny!!
I'd happily take either version of Paddy. There's a lot to be said for someone with a craggy face, a great sense of humor and the ability not to take himself too seriously.

ETA: The thing about getting older is that too many of the younger authors look too baby-faced for me. I may be alone in this, I admit, as I'd much prefer to ogle Liam Neeson than Brad Pitt, but hey...

> 14

To each his own, Suzanne. I like them young! :)

Madeline, LOL! Whereas to me the personality is oh, about 75%, of what ends up making someone "hot". But someone like Paddy at age 60, vs a baby-faced aspiring ambitious NYC literary novelist at 35? No contest...

But then, isn't it lucky that we don't all find the same 4 people in the world "hot"? Mind you, that might be a solution to overpopulation...

I like ambition... :)

With those pink cheeks, I think Alice Hoffman is cute as a button. I'm listening to her Incantation, and I'm going to try to post her picture:

I've added a couple of other 'hot' writers to the wiki:



Jasper Fforde One of our Thursdays is missing



Hamish Clayton Wulf


Jennifer Bradbury Wrapped

Love the discussion of what is hot or not.

Oooh, I'm with you on that photo of Jasper Fforde!

I guess what I'm saying is that what appeals to me most in someone -- what is really hot -- is engagement in the world around them, curiosity and a sense of adventure. Ambition is great, but past a certain point it becomes so inward-focused that it detracts from any other hotness!

Truthfully, I like the good inner self better than ambition. In addition, I like when a find authors who are truly engaging, humble, and appreciative of their readers. This often come shining through in author talks. I come away feeling that I much more appreciate who an author is when I see them in person and hear them speak.

Then, of course, is how cute a guy is (not to forget Neil Gaiman's adorable accent!). Anyway, I still like them young...

ETA: Does that make me "an old geezeress"? :)

Darryl, this challenge is so much fun! I thought it would be.

Lots of good discussion here! I'm glad that you're all enjoying this topic.

Although I am attracted by a cute face and soulful eyes on first glance, other traits like an engaging personality, intelligence, humor, etc. are far more important to me.

A couple of other "hot" authors whose books I own but haven't read yet:

Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz

Susan Choi, author of A Person of Interest

Kamila Shamsie, author of In the City By the Sea and Burnt Shadows (which I have read)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus and The Thing Around Your Neck

Diana Evans, author of 26a.

Eleanor Catton, author of The Rehearsal (photo taken by our own FlossieT!).

I'm sure that there are other "hot" authors whose books reside on my shelves. All of the above books are high on my TBR list, so I may want to extend this challenge into August, if others are interested.

>12 SqueakyChu: This challenge surely calls for an end-of the month contest. The King and Queen of "hotties". What do you all say?

Great idea, Madeline!

Madeline, nah, it just makes you a cougar!

But would the prize go to the nominee or the nominator??

> 26

The "King and Queen of Hottie Authors" would be named, but the one or two (small) prizes would go to the individuals (nominators) who first posted a picture of the winning nominees.

ETA: The books must be COMPLETED in order for the nominees/nominators to win.

A perusal of my author gallery suggests that while I enjoy books written by hot women, my male authors don't quite measure up their female counterparts. Odd. I have a plethora of hot women authors from which to choose, and very few on the male side.

I just crack up every time I think about this challenge--it's a lot of fun, isn't it?!

I'm nominating Joseph Boyden, who wrote Three Day Road. He's got a kind of smoldering thing going on there.





Karen O.

29/Karen O. - And I love his books. I'm in the middle of one right now. Which of his books are you reading for this challenge?

30:countrylife: I'm reading Three Day Road after hearing good things about it from some 75-bookers (alcottacre?)

What are you reading now?

Karen O.

Oh, cool! Me, too. It'll be a match read, then!

Good grief, Ms Adichie is stunning.

Mr. Boyden has possibilities...drool...oops...

Just following along here is extremely entertaining. What a great idea!

Wow, Boyden is pretty damn hot -- and he can write!!! I only have his book of short stories left, but I could read those... would be no hardship.

I've been gushing about both his novels this year...

The Outcast by Sadie Jones



My rating:

This debut novel opens in 1957 London, as Lewis Aldridge, a 19 year old from the northern suburb of Waterford, is released from prison after serving a two year sentence. No one comes to greet him, and with no practical skills and nowhere to go, he chooses to return to the small town that has been distrustful of him since his mother's disappearance a decade earlier. Secrets abound in Waterford, where social appearances are far more important than genuine love and respect, and Lewis' reputation as a pariah and his continued troubles at home and in the community cause him to become progressively unrattled.

Lewis is befriended by Kit Carmichael, a younger girl who has always admired him. However, her father is Lewis' father's employer, a respected but abusive man who despises Lewis and threatens Kit and his older daughter, Tamsin, to avoid the wayward boy. As tensions build, Kit becomes the only person who can communicate with Lewis, whose own father adds to his increasingly unstable behavior.

The Outcast was a brilliant page turner for the first 2/3 of the book, with its realistic though disturbing portrayal of the lives and secrets in a small town community in postwar England, and the characters of Lewis, Kit and others were compelling. Unfortunately, the last 1/3 of the novel doesn't meet the same standard of excellence. However, this was still a very good novel, and one that I would strongly recommend.

Dean Karnazes.

Sports Illustrated Women named him one of the "Sexiest Men in Sports." Who am I to argue?



I've just finished his memoir Ultramarathon Man. Let's just say he got that body honestly.

Okay, I think he's rather hawt. Anyone else?



From Complications by Atul Gawande

More than rather would be my vote.

Meg Cabot

I'm checking out author images as I pick up books for the juvenile July challenge and I think Delphine de Vigan is interestingly hot.
I'm currently reading her No and Me.



eta: and for Suzanne a younger version on a good hair day??

I confess that I just want to comb her hair -- but that's me! Vive la difference, as I'm sure Mme de Vignan would say...

I did wonder about the hair too, but she is French and this is one of her 'official' photos...

I was upstairs trying to pick a book by a "hot" author, but when I got back to LT, all of the photos here made them look not very hot indeed. Most needed either a shave or a haircut, or...something. They really looked pretty terrible. Check out the picks of Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, and Jonathan Safran Foer. :)

Foer's photos aren't bad, but he's not that young any more (although he 's *not old!) so I don't think they're good pictures of him.

*checks out LT for some new "hot" author*

ETA: I've seen both Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Safran Foer in person and can guarantee that they're both cuties. I'll be on the lookout for Michael Chabon in the future! :)

ETA2: I'll post some pics if I decide to give any of their books a try.

> 9

Cushla, Joshua Foer looks very much like his older brother, Jonathan Safran Foer. I might have to go with him as well! :)

My 28-year-old son is now reading Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein and loves it. That's a great accomplishment as he hasn't picked up a book to read for pleasure since he was in middle school when he read the Goosebumps series. Foer's book sounds very, very interesting from the way my son described it. He told me and my husand in detail the process of remembering as described by Foer in his book.

Jacqueline Carey

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of my daughter loaned Smash Cut by Sandra Brown to me. I'd recently loaned her a couple of books and recommended several others, and she was returning the favor, so I thought I should read it even though it didn't fit in a TIOLI challenge. Then... I took a good look at the picture of Sandra Brown, and I thought, "What a striking woman! -- aha! the hot author challenge!"

So I've added it to the wiki, but I haven't a clue how to post a picture here. I suppose I can try, if someone can give me very detailed instructions or point me to them...

I did, by the way, enjoy the book -- an excellently-plotted, page-turning thriller.

Just finished The Outcast a day or so ago - a tense, good read.

>45 SqueakyChu: Squeakychu, that's great that your son is enjoying Moonwalking with Einstein. I really liked it too.

> 49

He liked Moonwalking with Einstein so much that he bought his own copy. That's really saying something as this is a young man who reads no books at all!!

I had to take my name off Three Day Road as I don't have a chance of finishing it. Luckily, countrylife DID finish it, so Joseph Boyden is still in the running for "hot" author (male). I will keep reading Three Day Road, and maybe I'll even be able to fit it into August TIOLI!

Karen O.

I finished three books for my challenge, two of which I haven't reviewed yet:

The Outcast by Sadie Jones
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

ETA: Photos of all three authors are in message 1.

#51 -- phew, as I had to give up hopes of reading born with a tooth. I am going to finish A Grave in Gaza in a few hours, so Matt Beynon Rees is still in the running.

ETA -- Would someone mind posting a pic of Rees? I have never managed to successfully do this on LT, though I do it routinely elsewhere, and don't want to risk crashing my computer on deadline (as has happened twice trying to execute this apparently impossible manoeuver.) While I appreciate the help of everyone steering me to instructions that should work, the fact is that they don't, and even my tech person can't make this happen, so...

Matt Beynon Rees

>47 ivyd: Here's a photo of Sandra Brown, author of Smash Cut:

Thank you Kerry! Oh, and for the "face off", I'm opting for the young Paddy Leigh-Fermor, for the record...
And do we get to vote for our own candidates??

Yes, you can vote for your own candidates.

Tomorrow morning I'll comprise a list of eligible authors with their photos, i.e. those whose books have been marked as completed. Please submit, as a PM, your top three male and female authors to Madeline, and she will announce the winning authors later this month.

Tomorrow morning I'll comprise a list of eligible authors with their photos, i.e. those whose books have been marked as completed.

Thanks for offering to do that, Darryl.

>55 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl!

Three of each gender, or three total?

>60 Chatterbox: Three of each gender. Please don't cast your votes until I've posted photos of all of the nominees.

These are the authors whose books have been completed; please let me know if I've left off anyone. Please note that the author's name is located at the lower left hand corner of his or her photo.

Female Authors

Alison Bechdel:

Jennifer Bradbury:

Sandra Brown:

Meg Cabot:

Jacqueline Carey:

L. Divine:

Alice Hoffman:

Sadie Jones:

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon:

Zadie Smith:

Delphine de Vigan:

Male Authors

Joseph Boyden:

Hamish Clayton:

Patrick Leigh Fermor:

Jasper Fforde:

Joshua Foer:

Atul Gawande:

Craig Johnson:

Dean Karnazes:

Benjamin Lacombe:

Paul Langan:

David Mitchell:

Patrick Ness:

Matt Beynon Rees:

Marcus Sedgwick:

Let the voting begin!

ETA: Per Madeline's recommendation, I have separated the photos by author. All TIOLI participants are allowed to cast a vote, whether they participated in this challenge or not.

Sadie Jones was the most popular "hot" author this month, as five of us read The Outcast.

Please submit your votes as a PM to Madeline. You can submit votes to me, as well; however, you run the risk of me changing your vote to Sadie Jones.

> 62

The votes are open to all TIOLI challengers. I'll make the announcement on the August thread.

Thanks for identifying each picture, Darryl. That makes our choices much easier to determine.

Oh, could you switch the author photo of Patrick Leigh Fermor to the younger version, Darryl? I did request that one to avoid age bias!! (thank you.... :-) )

#64 -- ROTFL...

>66 SqueakyChu: You're welcome!

>67 Chatterbox: Done. The younger, non-craggy version of Fermor is amongst the other nominees.

At least I'm honest. Biased, but honest.

64 - "Please submit your votes as a PM to Madeline. "

I do not know which of the usernames is Madeline's (people sure do like using more than one name on here, hehe) :(

That wld be Ms. SqueakyChu, the one and only orchestrator of the TIOLI phenom... :-)

Thank you, Darryl!

Thanks :)

Note: Turn off safesearch, or I mean. What do I mean. Search with safety when searching Sadie Jones on Google images.

>71 Lexxi: I know what you mean; I use the strict setting of SafeSearch whenever I perform a Google Images search.

I'm only hoping that none of these writers happen on our little contest. At least we had to read their book for them to be eligible!.
I'm in the quandary of having nominated 4 'hot' men and can only vote for 3 of them...sigh