Where I Find New to Me Reads

In this morning's post, the Killer Chicks asked their readers which 'new to you' authors they'd read recently and what made us decide to read them.  That got me to thinking.  (Dangerous, I know.)  What makes me pick up the new authors I read?

If you look at the books I've read this year, you'll notice amongst the plethora of repeat reads a spattering of new to me.  Thinking about it now, my new author reads from the past few years have mostly been from surfing the blogosphere.  Breaking it down:

Sonya Bateman - new to me this year and I found her through the League of Reluctant Adults blog when she came on as a new addition to the blog and they talked about the urban fantasies she writes starring djinn.  (Checking out the competition, doncha know.)

Elana Johnson - I've been reading her blog for about a year now, but her debut novel, Possession, just came out.  And I found her from the group blog she participates in: The League of Extraordinary Writers.

I found Jennifer Lyon through the Murder She Writes blog.  Ditto for Roxanne St. Clair.

JB Lynn was found through the Killer Chicks.

Skipping down a little, I found Marcella Burnard through the Word-Whores blog.

Out of the last ten books I read, 6 of them were from blogs.  Of the others, I became addicted to Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) when Amazon suggested Seanan's first book - Rosemary and Rue.  I snatched Gini Koch's first book off the shelves of the now defunct Borders because the title and the cover amused me.  Pamela Palmer also came to me from an impulse buy at the Borders. 

And rounding out the last ten books I read, we have Karin Tabke, who was one of the first bloggers I ever followed - so I'm thinking she takes some of the credit for every other blog-related new-to-me author I've read.  If she hadn't been so awesome to me at the start of this blogosphere exploration, I probably wouldn't have ventured far.  I know she's the reason I found Murder She Writes, and therefore, all the other gals who blog there. Thank you, Karin.

Where have you found your recent 'new to me' authors?  Who's your favorite 'new to me' read so far this year and how did you find it?  Mine has to be Nancy A. Collin's book Right Hand Magic.  It totally rocks.  And it was an impulse buy from the big closing sale for the Borders.