Monday, March 10, 2008

Deanna Raybourn

Deanna Raybourn is the author of the Lady Julia Grey series, including Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary.

Last year she gave an interview to Barnes & Noble. One question was, "What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?" Here's part of Raybourn's answer:

To Kill a Mockingbird, Mariana, Forever Amber, Lonesome Dove, The King Must Die, I Capture the Castle -- wildly different books, but all have such perfectly rendered voices. Mockingbird and Lonesome Dove speak to my Southern roots. There are truths there that resonate with anyone raised in the South. Mariana and I Capture the Castle manage to be both funny and heart-wrenching. There is a timelessness about them both. And they would say different things to a twenty-year old reader than a forty-year old reader. I love that. Forever Amber is larger than life. I read it twenty years ago, and I can still see so many of the scenes perfectly in my mind's eye. And The King Must Die is just glorious. Mary Renault did a superb job of grounding mythology in such a way that it becomes entirely believable. Her powers of description were unrivaled. That's really what ties all of these books together: a sense of place and a unique voice. There is an immediacy about great writing that puts you in the heart of the scene, and all of these books do that.
Read the full interview.

Learn more about Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary at the publisher's website.

Visit Deanna Raybourn's website, Blog A Go-Go.

My Book, The Movie: Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary.

--Marshal Zeringue