Nicholas Sparks

One of the most successful contemporary novelists of our time, Nicholas Sparks is revered by his fans for the love stories he's penned and the movies on which they are based -- and derided by his critics for what they see as formulaic and manipulative writing. Sparks' first novel, The Notebook (1996), was wildly successful, and his audience has continued to embrace each of his books since. From the publication of The Notebook to the present, Sparks seems incapable of producing a work of fiction that doesn't immediately bolt to the top of the New York Times best-seller list, and the films based on his novels tend to be global successes.