19 December 2006

Best of 2006 -- Discovered Author

Word Nerd is weighing in with her picks for Best Of's from her 2006 reading list.

Again, she is bestowing a "Best of" for Author that Word Nerd started reading 2006.

This year's winner is Megan McCafferty. (For review, last year's was Jack Whyte.)

McCafferty got the nod this year because Word Nerd was so surprised by her books. Word Nerd would never have read McCafferty if it hadn't been for the whole plagiarism scandal with Kaavya Viswanathan borrowing parts of McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts. When that brouhaha hit the news, Word Nerd checked out both books to see what the deal was.

When Word Nerd started reading Sloppy Firsts, she was exceptionally skeptical. This was, in her mind, going to be shallow, girly, teen fiction. And then, then, part way through the book she found herself caring about the characters, wanting to see them grow and change.

Word Nerd kept reading the next two books in the series. McCafferty has great voice with her characters and sharp, witty writing.

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