Start your new year inspiration off right with Allison Winn Scotch! Her book The Song Remains the Same was just released in paperback with a brand new, gorgeous cover. Allison shares with us the top five books that inspire her to be a better writer and why:

Good Grief  by Lolly Winston

An editor friend urged me to read Good Grief from the perspective of craft – how Winston moved the plot along, how she created arcs, how she developed characters. About halfway into the book, I GOT it. Like a bulb turning on.

London Is The Best City in America by Laura Dave

Laura has also become my critique partner and trusted first reader. She’s influenced my work in so many ways, and I’m so grateful that I picked up LONDON and that it changed my life.

Then We Came to The End by Joshua Ferris

Why did it inspire me? Because it was the type of book that even on my best day, even if all the stars aligned for me, I could never, ever write. When I closed it, I thought, “Wow, I’d like to write something as ingenious as this book,” and it made me consider how much I should push myself and never to rest on my past work.

The Stand by Stephen King

I, Allison Winn Scotch, women’s fiction writer, was inspired by Stephen King. How? As a teenager, I was obsessed with him. Not in a creepy way, but in a way that I really only understood once I started writing my own fiction: King is that rare writer whose voice is so powerful and so well-written that it would seep into my head whenever I was reading one of his books.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

It is perfect. It is exactly what a book of this genre should be: funny, touching, well-written, smart, insightful, fast-paced, un-put-downable. Hornby always has this dose of magic, and it’s never more apparent than in High Fidelity.

Pinterest PS – The new cover of The Song Remains the Same inspired this Pinterest board!