What other authors do we Atwood lovers read?

While Atwood is what brings us all together here, I'm curious as to who are the other favorite authors of Atwood fans? By favorite, in this case, I mean, an author one has read many books of - perhaps a majority of their offerings.

For example, besides Atwood (and it seems that the women writers come first to mind for me), I have also enjoyed Angela Carter, Joyce Carol Oates, Helen Dunmore, Anne Tyler, George Eliot, and the Brontes in great quantity. Also lesser knowns: Margot Livesey, Julianna Baggott, Kate Grenville, Octavia Butler and Karen Joy Fowler. On my list to read more of are: Toni Morrison, Margaret Drabble, A. S. Byatt, Doris Lessing, Jane Urquhart, Sarah Waters and Ali Smith (to name a few). I have been consciously reading fiction by women over the last ten to twenty years - which is not to say I do not read books written by men, but I don't seem to read them with the "I-need-to-read-everything-by-this-author" compulsion I have had with women authors (at the moment anyways...)

How about you? Do you see any connections between your other favorites and Atwood?

Beyond Atwood, I don't often have the need-to-read-everything compulsion. The only other authors that I enjoy and have read a lot of their work are Jeanette Winterson, Marilyn French, Margaret Elphinstone, Marge Piercy, Anthony Trollope, Philip K Dick and Isaac Asimov.

As for connections...French and Piercy (along with Atwood) always seem to write characters that touch me.

Winterson and Dick write stories that sometimes mess with my head.

I see Trollope as an excellent 'story writer' and consider that Elphinstone deserves this label.

charbutton, I've only read one Winterson but she's another I'd like to read more of. I have read Piercy's SF and have her poetry (early and most recent), but have not read her other novels. Love Trollope, too.

avaland, I'm interested to see you've got Kate Grenville on your list. I read Secret River earlier this year and was a bit disappointed. The story and characters didn't grip me, although as a history/historical fiction geek I expected to love it.

What is it that you like about her writing? And can you recommend other books she has written that I should try?

My first Grenville was The Idea of Perfection. It's an interesting, wry story around the idea of history - personal and community. It's also an off-beat love story featuring two middle-aged people (very unusual). If I remember correctly she doesn't put the dialog in quotations...it was unnerving at first, but had an interesting effect. There is one rather comic storyline that some people have trouble with (what's that all about), but I really loved the book - different from The Secret River though. I have collected her other earlier works but have not read them yet, they look 'dark', which won't deter me but is an interesting note.

I did pick up another Winterson at a library sale tonight....another Munro also (she's another I'd like to read more of).

I like Jeannette Winterson too but I find her uneven. Loved Written on the Body and Oranges are not the only Fruit and was bored to tears by some of her others. I like A.S. Byatt a lot, and Iris Murdoch, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, and Kazuo Ishiguro.