Alan Furst is an American author of historical spy novels. Furst has been called "an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene," whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences.

Amy N. Stewart is an American author best-known for books on horticulture and the natural world.

Anne Rice is an American author of gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotica. She is perhaps best known for her popular and influential series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles, revolving around the central character of Lestat.

Brad Thor is an American thriller novelist and author of The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union, Blowback, Takedown, The First Commandment, The Last Patriot, The Apostle, Foreign Influence, The Athena Project, Full Black, and Black List. His penultimate novel, Act of War, was released in July 2014.

Brandon Stanton is an American photographer and blogger, most known for his photo blog, Humans of New York, started in 2010. The blog features street portraits of people in New York City, along with snippets of conversations.

Christopher Paul Curtis is an African-American writer of children's books. He may be known best for the Newbery Medal-winning Bud, Not Buddy and the critically acclaimed The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963.

Colum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and now lives in New York.

Dan Harmon is a television writer best known as the creator of Community.

David Baldacci is a bestselling American novelist. David Baldacci published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996. A major motion picture adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 29 novels; all have been national and international bestsellers, and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries; over 110 million copies are in print worldwide. David has also published four novels for children. He has received numerous accolades for his writing; most recently, he was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame and received the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

Deborah Harkness is an American scholar, novelist and wine enthusiast, best known as a historian and the author of the "All Souls" Trilogy which begins with The New York Times best selling novel A Discovery of Witches and includes its sequels Shadow of Night and The Book of Life.

Delia Ephron is an author, screenwriter, and playwright. Her most recent book is sister mother husband dog - a memoir.

Diana J. Gabaldon is an American author, known for the Outlander series of novels. Her books merge multiple genres, featuring elements of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure and science fiction/fantasy.

Dorie Greenspan is an American author of cookbooks. The New York Times called her a "culinary guru" in 2004.

Dr. Carolyn Porco is a planetary scientist and leads the imaging team for the Cassini mission currently orbiting the planet Saturn.

""When and where do you like to read?" When I am awake, and wherever I happen to be. If I could read while I was driving, showering, socializing or sleeping, I would do it. "Are you a fiction or a nonfiction person? What’s your favorite literary genre? Any guilty pleasures?" I enjoy both, although I unfairly hold fiction to a far higher standard. With nonfiction, I figure I can glean something educational or interesting out of the book even if the writing is weak. But if the first chapter of a novel doesn’t feel perfect and accurate to me, I simply can’t read on; it’s too painful. Meanwhile, my (very) guilty pleasure is tabloid journalism. I hate to say it, but I know the names of all the celebrities’ babies." "

Garth Stein is an American author and film producer from Seattle, Washington. Widely known as the author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Stein is also a documentary film maker, playwright, teacher, and amateur racer.

Gayle Forman is an American young adult author.

George Raymond Richard Martin, often referred to as GRRM, is an American novelist and short story writer in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres, a screenwriter, and television producer.

George Saunders is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and GQ.

Gina Homolka is a NYTimes Best Selling Author of The Skinnytaste Coobook. Photographer and recipe developer for http://skinnytaste.com

Top 3 books recommended by Helene Wecker

Judith Rumelt, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments. Holly Black née Riggenbach is an American writer and editor best known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and a trilogy of Young Adult novels often called the Modern Tale of Faerie trilogy. Her 2013 novel Doll Bones was named a Newbery Medal honor book.

James Gunn is a writer and filmmaker best know for Super and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy. He also was the screenwriter for the Scooby-Doo films (2002 & 2004) and Dawn of the Dead (2004).

James Brendan Patterson is an American author. He is largely known for his novels about fictional psychologist Alex Cross, the protagonist of the Alex Cross series.

Jeffrey Patrick "Jeff" Kinney is an American game designer, cartoonist, producer, actor and author of children's books including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. He is also attributed as the creator of the child-oriented website Poptropica.

Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American author. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Picoult currently has approximately 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide.

John Michael Green is an American author of young adult fiction, YouTube video blogger, historian and creator of online educational videos.

John Winslow Irving, is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978.

Top 3 books recommended by Kate Atkinson

Katrina Elizabeth "Kate" DiCamillo is an American writer of children's fiction for all reading levels, usually featuring animals.

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician. After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California, an occupation that he likened to "an arranged marriage".

Laura Hillenbrand is an American author of books and magazine articles.

Laura Lippman is an American author of detective fiction.

Liane Moriarty is an Australian author. She is the sister of author Jaclyn Moriarty.

Mark Bittman is an American food journalist, author, and columnist for The New York Times.

Markus Frank Zusak, is an Australian writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and The Messenger, two novels for young adults which have been international bestsellers.

Meg Wolitzer is an American writer, best known for The Wife, The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling, and The Interestings. She currently works as an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.

Neil Gaiman is an author and screenwriter. He’s best known for The Sandman, American Gods, and Coraline.

Philipp Meyer (born 1974) is an American fiction writer, and is the author of the novels American Rust and The Son, as well as short stories published in McSweeney’s Quarterly, The Iowa Review, and Esquire UK. Meyer is the recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Richard Russell "Rick" Riordan, Jr. is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.

Scott David Westerfeld is an American writer of young adult fiction.

Stephanie Perkins is an American author, known for her books Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door and the New York Times bestseller Isla and the Happily Ever After.

Veronica Roth is an American novelist and short story writer known for her debut New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy, consisting of Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant; and Four: A Divergent Collection.

William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and essayist who has been called the "noir prophet" of the cyberpunk subgenre.