What is/are your fav. book(s) no one has ever heard of?

Question

We've all heard of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, classics like Little Women and Huck Finn. And I am not denigrating any of those. But what are the books YOU have LOVED that when you talk about them, no one you know seems to know what you're talking about?! Best answer will come with a book title (or several) author, if it's still in print, and a funny story about trying to explain it to a person or people who had no idea what you were talking about! LOL Mine is a book called Lamb by Christopher Moore. It's the story of Jesus's best friend and the adventures that he and Jesus have during the "lost" years that the Bible doesn't cover. It's hilarious! Another one is The Four Riders of the Apocolyps, by I don't know who! Out of print. British author. People look at me like I hallucinated these books! LOL

Nimo, I've heard of the Boxcar kids and don't think reading them to your kids is bad at all. Good writing is good writing!!! The Magic Tree House books are cute enough, but they don't have the depth that the older books have!

Solveiga, sadly, you're right. I've never heard of your author, either. Thanks for posting, maybe people reading this will look him up.

maigen_obx, I will look up your books, and I've read the Rowan Gant books! LOL They ARE a lot of fun! Thanks for posting.

Nezzy! I LOVE The Last Unicorn! Got to hear Peter Beagle live a couple years ago at a Mythic Journey's convention. And I LOVE de Lint!

Blue Manticore: You've stumped me, I haven't heard of yours!!!!

Answer 1

Lamb was Hilarious! As soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading, I am going to find another Christopher Moore novel... The Stupidest Angel or Practical Demon Keeping, can't decide.

I'm currently reading Cane River by Lalita Tademy, it's about 4 generations of African-American women based on a real family's actual past. It's quite good.

My all time favorite novel was Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull. It's a novel about a a man in a nursing home who fought in WW1. I have purchased and loaned about 3 copies of this one.

Answer 2

There are so many I'm not sure where to start! Monsters of Morely Manor by Bruce Coville is the first one that comes to mind. It is just unlike anything I've ever read. Aliens. Magicians. Werewolves. Space travel. Mad scientists. A Know-it-all Little Sister. Funny, unexpected. Wonderful. I keep losing my copies to people I convince to read it.

Then there's the Last Unicorn by Beagle. I don't know how anyone missed that book. I had it the whole time I was growing up. Unicorns and love, evil beasts and finding out who you are. Keeping magic in the world.

Blue Moon Rising by Simon R. Green. I laugh so hard reading it that I cry. Take every cliche you've ever read and flip it. That's the story. An annoying unicorn. A mean princess. A prince who's not so good at anything. This doesn't come even close to describing it.

Griffin and the Minor Canon, Serendipity, Koko's Kitten, Magic Time, Catsworld Portal.

Oh, and my favorite! The Little Country by Charles De Lint. A story about a woman who finds a book her grandfather hid for years that once she starts to read, to starts to affect her world. Again, impossible to really describe, but wholy unique and everyone looks at me like I'm insane when I talk about it.

Answer 3

Here in Lithuania people barely know Pablo Neruda. When talking to people all around the world, nobody knows the most famous lithuanian writer Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas and his best book 'Altorių šešėly', it would sound like 'In the shadow of an altar'. The story is about a boy, who was put in the seminary. He barely believes in God, and has no will to be a priest. The book is separated in three parts. First is 'seminary', second 'becoming a priest', third - 'civil life'. Every segment of life has his own woman,a nice village girl, baroness and noble young woman respectively. Book tells how the boy grows up in seminary, realizes that being a priest isnt actually for him, but still becomes one - for family, and, of course, teh possibilities that a priest was given in those times, when lithuania belonged to russia. And how, step by step, the man decides to leave the elite set of priests. It could become a worldwide known masterpiece, if not the soviet literature consorship, as it was released in 1927. No lithuanian student is able to finish school without a deep interpretation of this book!

Answer 4

When I was a teenager, I would read The Tontine by Thomas Costain, and the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy by Nordhoff & Hall over and over. These were books that my dad had lying around and I just really enjoyed them. I read a lot of books people have never heard of, but I think that's because I just have a really wide variety of books that I enjoy.

I love Christopher Moore, and Lamb is great! Fluke is really good too. I almost couldn't read his latest, A Dirty Job, because I recently lost a dear friend, but it was awfully funny and sad at the same time.

Answer 5

OMG Lamb is one of the funniest books I have ever read, I love Biff.

The Keltiad books by Patricia Keneally Morrison are my favorite books. They're out of print, but you can usually get them used. They're about the Celtic people who left earth to find a better life in space. King Arthur and Merlin are in some. There are some about a queen who reunites her planets with Earth.

The Rowan Gant series by M.R. Sellars is excellent. It's about a pagan psychic who helps the police. They're great books.

I also love The Black Company books by Glen Cook. The Black Company is the last of the free companies and they've been hired by The Lady to fight for her. They're more interesting than I describe them.

The Modesty Blaise series by Peter O'Donnell is fabulous and they've just rereleased them. Modesty is a kick *** 007 type, but better. She used to run her own crime syndicate.

Hope these help.

Answer 6

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd. yes I know it's just an autobiography but it's still great! and along those lines, Love Lucy by Lucille Ball, One More Time by Carol Burnett, and The Other Side of Ethel Mertz (about Vivian Vance). That last one is a really good book.
Right now, I'm reading Lolita but I just can't seem to get into it. Any one else have that problem?

Answer 7

When I was a kid I loved a series of books called THE BOXCAR CHILDREN. I was telling a group of friends about these books and not one of them had heard of them and they all looked at me like I was a nutcase. One of them told me I need to move into this century, that kids like the Magic Treehouse books now, they don't care about any boxcar kids. But they were really great books, in fact I want to get them for my daughter, even though my friend says I will be damaging her for life by having her read outdated books. Gertrude Chandler Warner is the author.

Answer 8

Becon Street Girls
by Annie Bryant

Answer 9

Two authors I had never heard of untill I happened to come across them at the library are Kathryn Laskey and Kate Thompson, and I am really glad I was lucky enough to find them.

Laskey has written several works of fiction based on several different themes.
"Beyond the Burning Times" about the Salem Witch Trials.
"Memoirs of a Bookbat" about censorship
"Prank" about the Holocaust
"Blood Secret" about the crusades
"Pageant" about religious discrimination

Kate Thompson wrote a trilogy about shapeshifting children, "Switchers," "Midnight's Choice," and "Wild Blood."

Answer 10

King Fortis the Brave is a wonderful book in the Chronicles of Narnia/Harry Potter vein.