Almost everyone who is anyone is on Twitter these days (including me! @WellReadNeck). Primarily, follow bookish Twitter, blogs, authors, publishers and bloggers who will lead me to new books and book-related items.
Figuring out who to follow (and who to unfollow) takes a bit of time. Many folks (authors included) use the platform to promote their wares. Others use their platform to wax poetic about politics and current events. While both of these things are perfectly legit, I enjoy most those who send out positive vibes and talk about writing and reading and life. I love to hear about other books and see authors get excited about other writers and their work . It’s the best.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some of my favorite authors to follow on Twitter.
Rumaan Alam – @Rumaan
Author of Rich and Prettyand That Kind of Mother, Alam posts about the writing life and just life at home with his husband and his two children, who he adorably refers to as “Little” and “Big”.
S. A. Chakraborty – @SAChakrabooks
The author of The City of Brassand The Kingdom of Copper, Chakraborty loves history. Her feed is full of fun and amazing historical facts. Recently, she has become enamored with medieval recipes and posts about recreating them in her kitchen.
Helen Ellis – @WhatIDoAllDay
Helen Ellis is the author of the hilarious short story collection American Housewife. She has a book of essays coming in April titled Southern Lady Code. Her tweets are short, pithy southern gems such as: “These aren’t leftovers, they’re an encore.” and “’Is it me or my hot rollers?’ is Southern Lady code for perimenopause.”
Matthew Inman – @Oatmeal
Matthew Inman is the genius behind The Oatmeal and his feed is full of all the awesome cartoons you would wish for!
Tayari Jones – @Tayari
I don’t think I need to say, Jones wrote last year’s An American Marriage. I may need to tell you, she’s written several other amazing novels including one of my all time favorite books to recommend, Silver Sparrow. She lives in Atlanta (just moved from NYC back to the south) and has a very interactive twitter feed. She’s often asking questions like “What podcasts should I be listening to?” and “What non-fiction book are you reading now?” The treasure trove of collective recommendations I’ve gotten from her tweets is ridiculous. She is a great supporter and promoter of other authors and is a great source for adding more books to your to-be-read list.
Rebecca Makkai – @rebeccamakkai
The author of last year’s hit The Great Believers, but also The Hundred-Year House, which I also loved (and blogged about in January). The head cheerleader of novelist twitter, Makkai shouts out about other writers work constantly. The very best twitter thread of the year last year blew up when she asked the question – What books written in the last 10 years are your unsung favorites? (I’m paraphrasing here). What followed was an AMAZING list of books by many bookish folks (authors, publishers, journalists, bloggers) of a serious boatload of books, many that I had never heard of. I blame this thread for the colossal state of my Mount TBR.
Lin-Manuel Miranda – @Lin_Manuel
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tweets are so uber-positive and uplifting, they have been turned into a book, Gmorning, Gnight!: little pep talks for me & you. The book is illustrated by Jonny Sun (Bonus: he also has a great Twitter feed – @jonnysun ).
Happy Valentines Day to all of my fellow Book Lovers!!
Well-Read Neck 