Top Ten Tuesday: Guests for Thanksgiving

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Tuesday is an original bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten topic is posted for followers to write about. This week we're celebrating Turkey Day, Bookish style. Here are my (Tahleen's) top ten authors I would want to be at my table on Thanksgiving.

I'm assuming my magical hostess powers will allow me to use time travel to bring authors from the past to 2011. Here we go, in no particular order:

1. Dorothy Parker...the queen of NYC gossip in her time and the author of some pretty insightful essays as well as short stories and witty poems.
2. Dorothy L Sayers...not only would I want to talk about her literary creation, Lord Peter Wimsey, and all the literary allusions and quotations found in those novels, but I'd want to talk to her about her religious views as well.
3. C. S. Lewis...Let's put him beside DLS. That should make for some very interesting religious commentary.
4. David Lodge...master of the British academic satire. He and I could dish on the academic life all night. One of my few current authors.
5. Jane Austen...I'd love to hear her talk about the manners and customs of her time (live and in person) as well as hear her take on ours.
6. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...let's just see if he can use the skills of his most famous creation to tell the group all about ourselves. I'd also like to quiz him about his views on spiritualism.
7. Kerry Greenwood...another current author. I love her Phryne Fisher series. And would love to talk to her about Australia...both now and in the 1920s (Phryne's era).
8. Ray Bradbury...one of the kings of classic science fiction. A must have for my dinner party.
9. Edna St. Vincent Millay...just finished her biography. She'd add spark to any dinner. And she and the next author could discuss their poetical insights.
10. Rainer Maria Rilke...one of my all-time favorite poets. I don't know a lot about him and would love to learn more.