This week’s Inspired By is dedicated to author of The Barter, Siobhan Adcock.  Preorder your copy on Amazon, and check out the five books that have inspired Siobhan as a writer.

“Only five? Panic. Well, here’s my best shot…”

Middlemarch by George Eliot

“Best. Book. Ever. It’s 800 pages long and every single page advances the plot, which is such an incredible achievement—you cannot believe it until you read it, and even then you can’t believe she pulled it off. I’m always trying to push this book on people who haven’t read it yet. What I’ve learned is that writers who read Middlemarch tend to love it not just because of what happens, but how. It’s that well built.”

On Writing by Stephen King

“This is the one book of writing advice that I return to again and again—but I love King’s novels just as much. It’s not easy to write one book that reads like a house on fire and also provokes a physical, powerful, gut reaction—fear or dread or just tears and relief—and he’s written, what, 20 books like that? In fact, one of the nicest things anybody ever said to me was that The Barter was “like Lorrie Moore meets Stephen King.”

Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro

“Alice Munro’s quiet and relentless observance, and her ability to communicate the one small change that brings about everything that comes after, are the two qualities I judge all writing by, including my own. She writes clear, devastating, unshowy prose that shines without looking like it’s trying to amaze you.”

 

Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt

“I first read Up a Road Slowly when I was about eleven, and as a young writer I probably tried writing forty stories exactly like this one, none of which, needless to say, had even half of this book’s charm and insight. When my daughter was a newborn, I had a habit of reading things out loud to her, and I dug this wonderful book out on an impulse. And my two-week-old baby was into it, I swear.”

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

“This is another one of those books that pulls off an ingenious bit of writerly awesomeness: It’s a murder mystery, but you know who died and who the murderer was by the end of the first chapter. The rest is just page-turning storytelling, combined with a genius for the familiar. I re-read this book every few years and every time it’s just as engrossing and scary. In fact I’m realizing right now that I’m due to re-read it…immediately.”