Back Catalogs, Here We Come!

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Reading fiction offers many pleasures. I’ll discuss one of those pleasures today.

Discovering an excellent living author you’ve never read before is a great feeling, and it can be even greater when that author has been around for a while — meaning you suddenly have a number of novels to enjoy from that writer’s back catalog.

Such was the case when I read the quite-literary, character-rich mystery writer Tana French for the first time last week. I liked The Searcher a lot, and was happy to see that French had written nine other novels – the first dating back to 2007 – from which I could choose to read without waiting for new ones to be published.

The Searcher (2020) stars a 40-something retired Chicago cop who moves from the U.S. to rural Ireland (echoing the American-born French’s relocation to that European country) and has two sequels — the first of which, The Hunter (2024), I’m reading now and finding even better than The Searcher. Then there are six books in French’s “Dublin Murder Squad” series and one standalone novel.

Changing the name Tana by one letter to Tara, Tara Jenkins Reid is another author I recently tried for the first time, starting with her novel Daisy Jones and The Six. I liked that Fleetwood Mac-inspired story enough to quickly read two more Reid novels – Carrie Soto Is Back and Malibu Rising – and am impressed with the way the author infuses pop culture and sports into serious fiction. Six more novels in her back catalog…

Isabel Allende came out with her masterful debut novel The House of the Spirits in 1982, but I didn’t read that magic-realism classic until around 2010 or so. Meaning I subsequently had 14 previous Allende novels from which to choose, of which I would particularly enjoy reading Daughter of Fortune and Zorro. (Allende has written eight more novels since 2010.)

I was also late to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander time-travel series, which launched in 1991 even as I didn’t read the first novel until 2019. By then there were seven more installments, all of which I addictively polished off during the height of Covid in 2020.

Kristin Hannah’s first novel was also published in 1991, but I didn’t discover her until reading The Nightingale less than five years ago. By then, there were more 20 other Hannah novels to catch up on, including the gripping family saga The Great Alone and the moving tale of friendship Firefly Lane.

It was more than 20 years after Elin Hilderbrand’s 2000 publishing debut that I belatedly began reading that author – starting with her delightful 2022 novel The Hotel Nantucket. By then, there were nearly 30 other Hilderbrand books to enjoy – and I polished off most of them.

When I first read Lee Child about a decade ago (his mid-career Jack Reacher novel 61 Hours), he had already written 20 Reacher books. So, there would be many Reacher page-turners in Child’s back catalog to enjoy, while also reading each of his new thrillers that arrived every fall since then.

Similar situation with John Grisham, who I didn’t start reading (choosing The Client) until he was in mid-career.

Of course, reading a deceased author for the first time usually means there are various other novels by that writer to enjoy in the future.

Your thoughts about this topic, and examples from your own reading experiences?

Misty the cat says: 🎵 “‘Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.’ 🎵 Except it’s Sunday.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂 Not my voice. 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, and include many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece – about a daycare center’s 100th anniversary and other topics — is here.

60 thoughts on “Back Catalogs, Here We Come!”

  1. Great topic, Dave, and it gives hope to those of us who have several books out there.

    I hadn’t heard of Kurt Vonnegut until being assigned Breakfast of Champions in a modern literature course in college. By that time, he had six books out there, and they are all sitting on a bookshelf here today. The cheap paperback copies a college student could afford, but I’ve hung onto them and reread them a few times. I was surprised the professor chose that book over Slaughterhouse-Five, but she was presenting different styles of writing.

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  2. Hi Dave, well gosh – so many books to enjoy, eh? For me, my two most favourite authors are Allende and Atwood, and I’ve read and kept so many on my shelves. Those two are still going strong, which is great.

    Another favourite is Jasper Fforde, lots of his too that I have read, but I can’t keep up with all of those.

    However, now I mostly read authors in our blogosphere, and at the moment I am reading Poetic Justice by Dan Antion and Willow Willers.

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    • Thank you, Chris! You are a fan of three A’s (Allende, Atwood, Antion) as well as an F (Fforde) and a W (Willers). 🙂

      I’ve read Fforde’s “The Eyre Affair” — VERY clever. And while I read “The Handmaid’s Tale” not long after it came out in the 1980s, it wasn’t until the early 2010s that I went on an Atwood reading binge and got to most of her other novels. My favorites of hers (not necessarily in order) include “The Robber Bride,” “The Blind Assassin,” “Alias Grace,” “Cat’s Eye,” and “Oryx and Crake.”

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      • Yep, I’ve read all of those ones you have just mentioned! Plus some more too. One of my favs is a little volume called The Tent by Ms Atwood – short stories, poems and stuff. The best one is called “Our Cat Enters Heaven” – just fab and fun!

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        • Ooh, “The Tent” sounds great, Chris! I know that Ms. Atwood was a published poet before becoming a novelist, and continued to do some verse after that. And I loved her short-story collection “Wilderness Tips.”

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    • Thank you, Ada! J.K. Rowling’s one standalone novel! I enjoyed “The Casual Vacancy”; often downbeat but definitely worth reading. 🙂 Like millions of others, I LOVED the “Harry Potter” series — first reading each book in it when they came out over the years and then later rereading all seven in a several-week frenzy. 🙂

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  4. Hi Dave, you really are an amazing reader. You’ve must read very fast. My mother is like you. She’ll find and author she likes, Bernard Cornwall is an example, and read all the books. I prefer stand alone books and rarely read more than the most famous books by any author. I did read the Harry Potter books and all the Jean Auel books. I skipped sections of the last books in both cases.

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    • Thank you, Robbie! I do read a lot, and fairly fast, but it looks like I read more than I do because my posts often include novels I read in years past. 🙂

      Like your mother, I periodically focus on one author — whether a series or various standalone books by that author. Like you, I also jump from author to author at other times. Just went to the library yesterday and took out six books by six different authors. 🙂

      I agree that the latter books in Jean M. Auel’s series weren’t as good as the earlier ones, but I still liked them. I liked all the Harry Potter novels, but the last book did drag for a while before the rousing conclusion.

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  5. It’s interesting, I think I mixed Tana French up with Gillian Flynn as their book covers look so much the same. I really disliked “Gone Girl”, so I never gave French a chance, though your description makes her books sound worth reading.

    Ali Smith is one author that comes to mind–I don’t remember which book of hers I read first, but I’ve enjoyed all the others I’ve tried, and there are more which I hope to get to at some point. (K)

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    • Thank you, Kerfe! I was also not a big fan of “Gone Girl” when I finally got to it a couple of months ago, but I’m now a huge fan of Tana French.

      And I appreciate the Ali Smith recommendation; will look for her work during my next library visit.

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  6. Ohhhhh! Tana French! Thank you for yet another fabulous tip, Dave. I’ve never heard of this author or her books, but I’m drawn in! And thanks for the reminder that I’m overdue to re-read The House of the Spirits from Allende…a very impactful book for me, once upon a time. I’ve been intending to re-read forever…,my first taste of ‘magical realism’ before it was a thing! 💝💝💝

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  7. A great topic, Dave, as usual. I can’t remember how I discovered Lionel Shriver, but I know it wasn’t through the arguably-her-best novel ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ (although I’ve since read it and it’s excellent). I’ve read quite a few of hers now, and delighted to find that there are many more awaiting my perusal. Many years ago I discovered the late Fay Weldon and devoured her work over the years–although I stopped short of the historical books she turned to when she’d just about exhausted feminism. More recently I came to the work of Silvia Moreno-Garcia through a couple of her short stories, and have a couple of hers on my Kindle and more on my wish list. If only there was enough time to read the all soon! As an author, I live in hope that readers of my more recent whodunnit-style stories will discover my own back catalogue! Thanks for the opportunity to talk about the books that I love, and have a good week. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Laura! Several excellent examples! I also tried a Lionel Shriver novel a number of years after her first one, and was impressed. That was “So Much for That,” which might be considered her second-best novel? I’m a fan. I’ve read just one Fay Weldon novel: “The Bulgari Connection,” which was okay; probably not representative of her best work because I believe the novel was partly sponsored by the Bulgari jewelry company! Hope you get a lot of back-catalog interest in your own books, and have a good week, too!

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    • Thank you, Lauren! Glad you enjoyed the post! I guess we all have more to read, which is both great and (because of time constraints) potentially frustrating. 🙂 I agree that finding authors new to us and reading several books by them are very appealing things.

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  11. Dave, I like your thought about discovering an author and then realizing there is a whole back catalogue waiting.

    For me, reading takes so many turns over a lifetime, and sometimes an author becomes almost like a familiar companion. We come to recognize the voice, the rhythm, the way a story unfolds, and we trust that writer enough to enter another narrative with them.

    That is part of the pleasure of returning to an author again and again. We know we are going somewhere new, but with someone whose storytelling already feels like familiar ground.

    “We seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves.” C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

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  12. I found a copy of the third or fourth No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith in a used book store. I loved it and just had to read the others. I’ve read 13 so far and some of his other books as well. When he did a presentation in Vancouver, I went to hear him speak and had a chance to chat with him, briefly. He is a wonderful writter and a very nice man. He’s also very funny. As a writer, I love to hear about readers who go into my back list after they’ve read one of my newer books. 💖💖

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    • Thank you, Darlene! You’re quite a fan of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books! I still want to try one. I’ve tried his 44 Scotland Street and his Sunday Philosophy Club series and liked rather than loved them, but might find The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series more compelling. Wonderful that you heard and met Alexander McCall Smith and got a good impression of him!

      Also wonderful for you to know that readers go into your back list after reading one of your newer books! Amanda must be happy as well. 🙂

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  13. Perfect – Just when I was asking myself why it has taken me so long to discover Salley Vickers.

    Now trying to read her entire back catalog,

    No, definitely shouldn’t be doing anything else, because I’m reading Salley Vickers.

    Favourite title so far ? Every one of them, especially, today, The Cleaner of Chartres, but ask me again tomorrow. .

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  14. I completely agree! There is no better feeling than discovering a great author and realizing they already have a rich back catalog to dive into.

    Like you, I’m a huge fan of Isabel Allende and have read many of her novels. A special mention goes to Aphrodite: a unique blend of stories and recipes

    … and tell Misty that Sunday or Monday, a good book always makes any day better!

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    • Thank you, Ezekiel! Hunter S. Thompson’s work is indeed “manic, surreal, and riotously funny” — well described! Not sure I would’ve ever wanted to meet that guy, but he’s amazing (albeit kind of disturbing) to read.

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