Best Reads- A List of Great Authors and Books

Best Reads- A List of Great Authors and Books

I personally love reading. Though I am usually open to trying new Authors and new genres, I have my share of favorites. While I was reading a book this week, and decided to do a small research on the Author, it struck me as a good idea to just compile a series of some of my favorite authors with my top favorite books, as well as a list of few best-selling Authors with their best-hit books.

So, here is a list of the bestsellers, with a short bio of each Author. 

Tagged along with it is a list of five best books by each such Author (some as per my reads and some as per publicly acclaimed ones).

Hope all the readers enjoy it, and the non-readers pick up some of such book and enjoy the feel of good-reads! :)

List of Best Sellers- Non-Indian: FICTION:

1.            Robin Cook

Dr. Robert Brian "Robin" Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City) is an American physician and novelist who writes about medicine and topics affecting public health. He is best known for combining medical writing with the thriller genre. Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard. He has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to keep the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical problems.

Website:- http://robincook.com/

Genre:- Medical Thrillers

Best Books:-

Coma

Outbreak

Terminal

Toxin

Cure

2.            Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer. He became famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels, such as Master of the Game (1982), The Other Side of Midnight(1973) and Rage of Angels (1980). He is the seventh bestselling fiction writer of all time. Sheldon died on January 30, 2007, from complications arising from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California 12 days before his 90th birthday.

Website:- http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/sidneysheldon/

Genre:- Fictional crime

Best Books:-

Master Of The Game

If Tomorrow Comes

Rage Of Angels

A Stranger In The Mirror

The Best Laid Plans

3.            John Grisham

John Ray Grisham, Jr. (born February 8, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages. John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990. Grisham's first bestseller was The Firm (1991); it sold more than seven million copies.

Website:- http://www.jgrisham.com/

Genre:- Legal Thrillers/ Legal Fiction

Best Books:-

The Associate

The Firm

The Runaway Jury

The Last Juror

The Partner

4.            Michael Crichton

John Michael, MD (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American best-selling author, physician, producer, director and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films. In 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at No. 1 in US television (ER), film (Jurassic Park), In 1990, Crichton published the novel Jurassic Park.

Website:- www.michaelcrichton.com/

Genre:- Science Fiction

Best Books:-

Jurassic Park

The Lost World

State of Fear

Congo

Sphere

5.            Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigative work of such characters. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Dame Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural causes at her Winterbrook House in the north of Cholsey parish.

Website:- www.agathachristie.com/

Genre:- Murder Mysteries

Best Books:-

And Then There Were None

Crooked House

Endless Night

Murder on the Orient Express

A Murder is announced

6.            Danielle Steel

Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947), better known by the name Danielle Steel, is an American novelist, currently the bestselling author alive and the fourth bestselling author of all time, with over 800 million copies sold. Steel's novels have been translated into 28 languages and can be found in 47 countries across the globe. The books, often tend to involve the characters in a crisis of some sort which threatens their relationship.

Website:- http://daniellesteel.com

Genre:- Drama, Romance (fiction)

Best Books:-

The Gift

Sisters

Pegasus

A Perfect Life

The Long Road Home

7.            Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts (born  on October 10, 1950) is an American bestselling author of more than 209 romance novels.  She writes as J. D. Robb for the in Death series, and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publications in the U.K. as Sarah Hardesty.  As of 2011, her novels had spent a combined 861 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 176 weeks in the number-one spot.

Website:- noraroberts.com/

Genre:- Romance and Mysteries/ murder mysteries

Best Books:-

The Search

The Witness

The Reef

Chasing Fire

Sweet Revenge

8.            Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 290 million and 500 million. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd. Ludlum died on March 12, 2001, at his home in Naples, Florida, while recovering from severe burns caused by a mysterious fire which occurred on February 10.

Website:- robert-ludlum.com/

Genre:- Thriller / Spy

Best Books:-

The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Supremacy

The Holcroft Covenant

The Gemini Contenders

9.            Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–74), but resigned over a financial scandal which left him almost bankrupt. Archer wrote his first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in the autumn of 1974, as a means of avoiding bankruptcy.

Website:- www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk

Genre:- Mystery/ Thrillers

Best Books:-

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

Kane and Abel 

Shall We Tell the President?

Only Time Will Tell

False Impression

10.          Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an American writer and novelist. He has published eighteen novels and two non-fiction books. Several of his novels have become international bestsellers, and ten of his romantic-drama novels have been adapted to film with multi-million-dollar box office grosses. Sparks was inspired to start writing by a remark from his mother when he was 19 years old.

Website:- nicholassparks.com/

Genre:- Romance

Best Books:-

The Notebook

Message in a Bottle

A Walk to Remember

The Longest Ride

The Wedding

11.          Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern (born 30 September 1981) is an Irish novelist since 2004. She has published several novels and contributed a number of short stories to various anthologies. In 2002, when Cecelia Ahern was twenty-one, she wrote her first novel, PS, I Love You. Published in 2004, it was the number 1 bestseller in Ireland (for 19 weeks), the United Kingdom, U.S., Germany and the Netherlands. It is sold in over forty countries.

Website:- www.cecelia-ahern.com/

Genre:- Romance and General

Best Books:-

The Time of my Life

PS, I Love You

Where Rainbows End

The Gift

Thanks for the Memories

12.          Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich (born April 22, 1943) is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum. The novels in this series have been on the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists.

Website:- www.evanovich.com/

Best Books:-

Stephanie Plum Series - Mystery

One for the Money

Lean Mean Thirteen

Fearless Fourteen

Miscellaneous - Casual

Full House

The Chase

Hero at Large

13.          Dan Brown

Daniel "Dan" Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author of thriller fiction who is best known for the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period, and feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 52 languages, and as of 2012, sold over 200 million copies.

Website:- www.danbrown.com/

Genre:- Thriller Fiction

Best Books:-

The Da Vinci Code

Angels & Demons

The Lost Symbol

Inferno

Deception Point

14.          Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho (born August 24, 1947), is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. The Alchemist, his most famous novel, has been translated into 80 languages. The author has sold 210 million copies worldwide (as for June 2015) and is the all-time bestselling Portuguese language author.

Website:- paulocoelhoblog.com/

Best Books:-

The Alchemist  

The Winner Stands Alone

The Pilgrimage

The Zahir

Eleven Minutes

List of other Best Selling Authors:- 

1. Dean Koontz
2. Stephen King
3. James Patterson
4. Irving Wallace
5. Arthur Hailey
6. David Baldacci
7. Wilbur Smith
8. Alistair MacLean

Indian Best Sellers:- FICTION:

1.            Amish Tripathi

Immortals of Meluha

The Secret of the Nagas

The Oath of the Vayuputras

2.           Chetan Bhagat- and 3. Ravinder Singh

Five Point Someone

The 3 Mistakes of My Life

2 States

I too had a love story

Your Dreams Are Mine Now

4.            Sudha Murty:

Wise & Otherwise

Dollar Bahu

House of Cards

The Old Man And His God: Discovering the Spirit of India

Gently Falls The Bakula

Best-sellers:- NON-FICTION:

1. The Monk who Sold His Ferrari, Who Will Cry When You Die- Robin Sharma

2. The Secret, The Power - Rhonda Byrne

3. Who Moved My Cheese, The Present - Spencer Johnson

4. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

5. Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People We Met In Heaven- Mitch                                                                                               Albom

6. Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach