Elue Auteur de l'année par USA Today

Last year, our book of the year was J.K. Rowling's wonderfully satisfying final Harry Potter title, Deathly Hallows. This year, we're giving a big shout-out not to one book, but to one author — Stephenie Meyer, queen of the teen vampires.


Her four-title "Twilight" series — about a teen girl smitten with a smoldering (but honorable) teen vampire — took a huge bite out of book sales this year, and the hit movie version of Twilight confirmed Meyer's status as a pop-culture phenomenon. Her Twilight books claimed the No. 1 spot on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list a dominating 18 times in 2008. Meyer, 34, wasn't satisfied with making just her teen readers swoon: She also had an adult best seller with The Host, a science-fiction tale of aliens subjugating the human race. Not bad for a Mormon mom with a (chaste) taste for blood.