What's a good book you read....that nobody has heard about?

[rhumpfrey]

I just finished the book "House to House:An Epic Memoir of War" by David Bellavia. I came upon this book in the history section at Barnes & Noble...had never heard about it. After reading it...I'm not sure why. I would dare to say this is the best book I've read this year. It is a powerful story with high-energy action. I think it's comparable to Blackhawk Down, but with more emotion. This book kept me reading until the early hours of the morning. It's so rewarding to find a book like this - without seeing it on t.v.

[thechampion]

Death on the instalment plan. Its the best book ever written ever, so its by celine. Really really really ****ing good.

[aabbcc]

Selimović's Death and the Dervish. One of my favourite books, unfortunately pretty unknown out of the former Yugoslavia (though I was pleasantly surprised once, when I moved to Italy, and I met a guy who did read it, and was not anyhow related to the area of ex-Yu... but he is the only one so far).

[LadyW]

Ah yes finally, a chance to promote my currently favourite books.
They are a series of romance novels set in the victorian era but with alot of wit and..sex.

The Bridgerton Series|By Julia Quinn
The Duke and I
The Viscount Who Loved Me
An Offer From A Gentleman [Personal Favourite :D]
Romancing Mister Bridgerton
To Sir Phillip, With Love
When He Was Wicked
It's In His Kiss
On the Way to the Wedding

[Annamariah]

L. M. Alcott - A Long, Fatal Love Chase
Ilmari Kelo - Tulta ja tuulta

[loggats]

the garden of cyrus. It's not an unknown book though, just one that doesn't seem to be very popular right now. I thought parts of it were inspired.

[Nossa]

I think that'd be my very first 'decent' book called The Return of the Spirit by a prominent Egyptian writer called Tawfiq Al-Hakim..it's a very good book that I think people didn't know about.

[ThePianoMan]

I recently read The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene; it was excellent. I read it recommended in another book, which was where I heard about it, but I've never heard anyone else recommend or mention it.

[subterranean]

I have heard and read a little review on The Power and the Glory. The late controversy that came up after 14 years since the book was published somewhat makes it interesting for me to read it (it's somewhere in my reading list).

I don't know whether anyone have read Earthly Powers by Burgess. I like the way he linked one event after the other to show diverse forms of power in this world (love, religion, mysticism, to name a few) and they way the characters dealt with them. Fine reading material, I think.

[browneyedbailey]

I've read the Uglies serries by Scott Westerfeild.

[ex ponto]

Well, I don't know if it's unknown because it was written by a Nobel price winner - Ivo Andric. The name is "The Damned Yard". An interesting and unusual story, but a story. I think that Ingmar Bergman wanted to make a movie based on it , but didn't get the permission.

[Zelly]

It's a young adult/kids fiction book but man, And Sometimes Why by Mame Farrell is amazing. Also, I don't know whether it's well known or not, (probably not?) but Airs Above The Ground by Mary Stewart.

[Etienne]

Airs Above The Ground by Mary Stewart.

I guess this isn't Bloody Mary :P

[rgdmalaysia]

Death on the instalment plan. Its the best book ever written ever, so its by celine. Really really really ****ing good.

Definitely in my top 5....A powerful and astonishing book....I've read it a few times and I always get something new out of it.

It is illusionary and scarily real at the same time....The doomed dreamer Des Pierres is one of the greatest charcters in all of literature IMO.

[rgdmalaysia]

I recently read The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene; it was excellent. I read it recommended in another book, which was where I heard about it, but I've never heard anyone else recommend or mention it.

I agree The Power and the Glory is an excellent novel with well-defined characters and a superb ending

However, it is only my 4th favorite Graham Greene book after The Quiet American, End of the Affair, and Brighton Rock.

That's not a reflection on the quality of the Power and the Glory. More on how many great books Graham Greene wrote

[JBI]

No one in my school, even my teachers have even heard of H. D. Oh, I cannot wait for university where people actually know more than me.

[HotKarl]

No one in my school, even my teachers have even heard of H. D. Oh, I cannot wait for university where people actually know more than me.

I hate to be a downer, but take it from someone who had similar thoughts when he first entered the university; you'll probably be disappointed.

[Nossa]

I hate to be a downer, but take it from someone who had similar thoughts when he first entered the university; you'll probably be disappointed.

Yup, I agree. University is only a place for those who are a bit too old to remain in high school. Enough to tell that one of our 'prominent' professors never heard of Lord of the Rings the original novel.

[Remarkable]

Well, I don't know if it's unknown because it was written by a Nobel price winner - Ivo Andric. The name is "The Damned Yard". An interesting and unusual story, but a story. I think that Ingmar Bergman wanted to make a movie based on it , but didn't get the permission.

Actually,Ivo Andric isn't that unknown,he even has this fantastic novel called "The Bridge over Drin" (Drin is a river in Balkan) but the thing is there are some writers known only in regions or local areas.One of my favorites is Ismail Kadare,Man Booker Prize Winner and aspirant of the Nobel Price (whatever the jury thinks,he is a great writer) but see,he is from Albania,a small and unknown country with no power to publicise him.And so are many writers,so in the end,this is a question of cultures,isn't it?

[LadyWentworth]

L. M. Alcott - A Long, Fatal Love Chase

I was just going to say that! :p

The Last Man - Mary Shelley

I don't know that people really haven't heard of it, but I have never found someone else who has read it!

[Dori]

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, if anything.

[Zybahn]

The Case Worker, by György Konrád.
My Merry Mornings, by Ivan Klíma

[Igetanotion]

I found "The Curse of Treasure Island" in the "Pirate" section at Barnes and Nobel a few years ago, and read it because Treasure Island was one of my all time favorites, and this one was really good too! It's by Francis Bryan, I keep it on my bookshelf in between all the "Big name" authors I have up there b/c I liked it just soo much.

Also my all time favorite book ever, (the "If I was going to be on a desert Island and could only bring one book" book) is "Memories of my Melancholy Whores" By Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is not unknown, everyone has read One Hundred Years Of Solitude (or so it seems) but no one I know has read this book. He is my favorite.

[The Intended]

Not many people have read anything by Algernon Blackwood. H. P. Lovecraft is called the father of the modern supernatural story but uh . . . Blackwood was first, and is absolutely stunning.

[Kafka's Crow]

Selimović's Death and the Dervish. One of my favourite books, unfortunately pretty unknown out of the former Yugoslavia (though I was pleasantly surprised once, when I moved to Italy, and I met a guy who did read it, and was not anyhow related to the area of ex-Yu... but he is the only one so far).

I have ordered the book. Thanks Anastasija. I have a friend who is doing PhD in literature at the University of Sarajevo. If I ever see him again (I last saw him 12 years ago, we both started teaching together), we will have a good discussion. It seems like the former Yugoslavia is a treasure trove of great literature.

[Kafka's Crow]

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, if anything.

I read that book back in 1994 when I started my first (and maybe last) 'proper' job. Great account of Michelangelo's life.

[kiz_paws]

The book I read that pretty much changed the way that I viewed so many things would have to be For Those I Loved, a book by Martin Gray. Please allow me to give you the overview of the book, as written by the Publisher:


Far surpassing any thriller novel, this is the amazing, true story of a man who epitomizes the indomitable human spirit. When fourteen-year-old Martin Gray finds himself and his family looting their own Warsaw factory, scrambling out of the ruins carrying sackfuls of gloves after its bombing by the Germans, his talent for quietly observing what is going on around him becomes his secret weapon. He watches, brick by brick, as his beloved neighborhood is sealed off from the rest of Warsaw, imprisoning everyone inside. He watches who wears blue; who wears white armbands, the Star of David; yellow armbands. He studies the streetcars passing through the ghetto gates to the outside. He creates a smuggling operation, hopping on and off streetcars, hiding his armband in his shirt, knowing who to bribe, creating false papers, speaking German or Polish, flirting with death, in and out, in and out, everyday. All for those he loves. This story follows Martin as he is captured with his family and taken by train to the Treblinka Concentration camp, and details his escape and heroic efforts to build a new life. This remarkable man is alive today, and his riveting story speaks to the enduring triumph of the human spirit. For Those I Loved was first published by Little, Brown & Co. in 1972, and was a New York Times bestseller as well as a bestseller in 20 languages. Including two other books in English and nine others in French, Martin Gray's books have been read by an estimated 30 million people worldwide. He was awarded the United Nations "Dag Hammarskjöld" award.
This book, without any question of a doubt, was the best book I have yet to read, and I am a devoted fan of Dostoevsky, Gogol, Dickens, you name it. Nothing will surpass the list of emotions that you will feel reading this book.

And yet, no one seems to have heard of it .... :(

[kratsayra]

No one has heard of Whitewater by Paul Horgan. I'm pretty sure I made a post about it here a few months back so I won't go on and on.

It's about high school [american] football players in West Texas. It's old - like 1950s. But Friday Night Lights, though nonfiction echoes it in lots of ways, as does that silly movie Varsity Blues (from 1999)

[PeterL]

Not many people have read anything by Algernon Blackwood. H. P. Lovecraft is called the father of the modern supernatural story but uh . . . Blackwood was first, and is absolutely stunning.

Thanks for the suggestion. I couldn't think of anything by Blackwood, so I downloaded some of his works from Gutenberg. Some of the titles looked familiar. Perhaps I read them in times long past.

[ballb]

Covenant With Death by John Harris is a WW1 novel that is graphic, well written and will make an impact on anyone with an interest in the first world war who loves a good novel. Out of print I think but may still be available through libraries or Amazon.

[Dark Star]

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay immediately comes to mind. Amazing, provocative, original sci-fi written in the 1920s, though the first few chapters are stiff reading. If one didn't know it, they'd swore this book must have been written in the late 60s/early 70s at the height of psychedelia.

[Etienne]

The book I read that pretty much changed the way that I viewed so many things would have to be For Those I Loved, a book by Martin Gray. Please allow me to give you the overview of the book, as written by the Publisher:


This book, without any question of a doubt, was the best book I have yet to read, and I am a devoted fan of Dostoevsky, Gogol, Dickens, you name it. Nothing will surpass the list of emotions that you will feel reading this book.

And yet, no one seems to have heard of it .... :(

I've read it, I've read it, and when I was in High School too... it's quite far away, but I remember to have loved that book, very touching.

The best I can think of is Bely's Petersburg, a few people have heard about it from Nabokov's praises, but it's so much under read in the west it's unbelievable. Too bad some of his other novels are deemed untranslatable, like the Moscow trilogy. Honestly, it would be worth learning Russian solely to read Bely.

[Bakiryu]

A collection of poems by Adolfo Becker, they're so great but hardly anybody has read it since it's in spanish and loses most of its beauty upon translation. I also love the book Middlesex, but it's not really popular.

[AngelofPhantoms]

Has anyone heard of the 'Wind on Fire' Trilogy? It's a young adult book by William Nicholson and they were written in the late 90's. I thought they were really good, I read all of them in a few days, I was so into them.

[Pensive]

1. Dastak Nah Do
2. Nosheen
3. Chase The Wind

[ntropyincarnate]

A Long Fatal Love Chase
The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

[byquist]

Well, some people have heard of her, but I have never run into any such person: Charlotte Joko Beck with "Nothing Special."

[Remarkable]

He is not wholy unknown,but he is not very popular in the west,either.Everything from Zweig is absolutely wonderful.Name it:short novels,biographies,you are going to love them.I like most of al a biography of his on Joseph Fouche(that's also the title of the book)a hypocrite politican that survived and even succeded in his career during different phases of France's developement,starting from the Revolution and ending with yet another monarchy.

[bazarov]

Mesha Selimovic - Dervish and The Death. Fantastic!

[johann cruyff]

Mesha Selimovic - Dervish and The Death. Fantastic!

Hey,I have heard about it,and read it :)

Mesa Selimovic is one of my favourite authors,try reading some of his other works as well,if you can get your hands on them.

[Erichtho]

Mesha Selimovic - Dervish and The Death. Fantastic!

Hey,I have heard about it,and read it :)

Mesa Selimovic is one of my favourite authors,try reading some of his other works as well,if you can get your hands on them.

I've read this one too, and I adore it. It's one of those books were I wish I could read them in original. It's certainly a great loss to have to stick to the translation... :bawling:

[JBrower]

Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.---its about a runner, obviously, but its just beautiful written and poignant and amazing. Its out of print though, and runs about $300 on Amazon for a 200 or so page paperback printed anywhere from the 70s to the 90s.

There is a sequel that is good, but not worth reading w/o reading OAR, called Again to Carthage, which just came out, and is in print

[johann cruyff]

I've read this one too, and I adore it. It's one of those books were I wish I could read them in original. It's certainly a great loss to have to stick to the translation... :bawling:

No problem,just learn Bosnian ;)

[bazarov]

Hey,I have heard about it,and read it :)

Mesa Selimovic is one of my favourite authors,try reading some of his other works as well,if you can get your hands on them.

I can and I am planning to. Tvrđava is my next, I think. Except some turcism, it's really easy to read it. Pasvandžija is my new favorite term :D

[johann cruyff]

I can and I am planning to. Tvrđava is my next, I think. Except some turcism, it's really easy to read it. Pasvandžija is my new favorite term :D

There is usually an appendix with explanations of various turcisms(is this even a word:D ) in these books,so it shouldn't be too hard.Tvrđava is brilliant(not sure if there's a translation)!Wait,if I may ask,are you reading this in English or Bosnian?

[bazarov]

There is usually an appendix with explanations of various turcisms(is this even a word:D ) in these books,so it shouldn't be too hard.Tvrđava is brilliant(not sure if there's a translation)!Wait,if I may ask,are you reading this in English or Bosnian?

There is; pasvandžija means noćobdija:D . Term is actually normal but there is a great part with one fantastic quote:

Noć je stvorena za ono što se radi skriveno, pa on, hodajući do zore, sazna i ono što ne želi i što ga se ne tiče. A moglo bi se ticati mnogih, samo on ne voli da govori, pogotovu ako je badava: što da čovjek gubi vrijeme uzalud? A to što zna, njemu ne treba, ne može ga ni pojesti ni popiti, a ponekome bi moglo poslužiti. Iako mu dođe nekako čudno: on zna a ne tiče ga se, a drugoga se tiče a ne zna. Njega, pasvandžije, tiče se jedino kad pokloni to svoje znanje, kad ga uruči onome kome može biti od koristi, a sve za ljubav i prijateljstvo, koliko da ne dođe praznih ruku djeci. Doduše, samo onako kaže: prijateljstvo, a baš da ga ima mnogo, nema; po noći ga ne vidi, a po danu spava pa ne zna. Ali od ovog što zna, nije se usrećio.

Tvrđava would be probably be fortress; but that's irrelevant to me. :D
I am waiting...Yes you can ask! I am Croat, not a Russian :)

Do you maybe know why did Selimović declared him as a Serb and not a Bosnian?

[johann cruyff]

There is; pasvandžija means noćobdija:D . Term is actually normal but there is a great part with one fantastic quote:


Tvrđava would be probably be fortress; but that's irrelevant to me. :D
I am waiting...Yes you can ask! I am Croat, not a Russian :)

Do you maybe know why did Selimović declared him as a Serb and not a Bosnian?

Well,my guess is,the same reason why Ivo Andrić declared himself Serbian.Now,why he did it,that's a mystery!:D

Seriously,there are loads of assumptions - some say that Belgrade(read: Serbia) literally "bought" both of them offering them money,apartments,a place in SANU(Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti) etc. etc.

I personally don't quite buy that though,mostly because I believe in the authors' personal integrity,if nothing else.There is a theory that Selimović was forced to declare himself Serbian because of the regime,the same regime that killed his brother and made him write a critique of communism that is The Death and the Dervish - because that's what it is.

So,it's not really my place to tell you "why" Selimović declared himself Serbian - the truth is,he was the only one to truly know.

Oh,and,I know tvrđava means fortress,I meant,I'm not sure if there's a translation of the book.

[Erichtho]

No problem,just learn Bosnian ;)

Easier said than done. I don't have any talent for languages. :(
The fortress is translated to German, but has been out of print for ages, so that I cannot get a copy of it that is of reasonable price and condition.

[johann cruyff]

Easier said than done. I don't have any talent for languages. :(
The fortress is translated to German, but has been out of print for ages, so that I cannot get a copy of it that is of reasonable price and condition.

Well,you already speak at least two languages,don't you?However,every Southern Slavic(including Bosnian) language is very difficult to master unless it's your mother tongue,of course.

I,myself,have no talent for German.Oh well...

[INTUNEevolution]

I just read Samedi: The Deafness by Jesse Ball.

Best book I've ever read.

[superunknown]

Le testament francais by Andrei Makine.
http://www.iht.com/articles/1996/02/02/mak.t.php

[Oniw17]

The Bard series by Keith Taylor weaves the mythologies and histories of different regions together perfectly. The only things close are Steven Pressfeild's novels. I've never met another person who's heard of Keith Taylor. Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher. Real Boys by William Pollack.
I can't think of anymore right now, but I'm sure that there are a lot of them.

[HowlingMan]

I picked up a book called Citizen Vince at Borders last summer on sale. I thought I'd never read it. Then I got bored so...I just picked it up and started reading. It was so much fun reading it and was just so well written. I casted the book in my head. Jess Walters is a excelent writer and I want to pick up his new book.

[Bluebiird]

A few years ago I read a book called Wit'ch Fire and my english teacher, at school, had never heard about it (The rest of that literautre class don't count because they were all morons), not sure about litnetters though :) Its the first in The Banned and the Banished series by James Clemens.

[ponty]

I novel I ran into years ago and liked was called something like 'lives of the monster dogs' by kirsten bakis i think. Pretty cool. Lost it somewhere along the and haven't seen a copy anywhere since.

[Emil Miller]

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, if anything.

I have not read The Agony and the Ecstasy but the film was justly lampooned bythe critics; the most appropriate comment being that of Judith Christ
i.e ' All agony no ecstasy '

[WiseGuy]

Pop-splat by Ian Martin.

It's Pulp Fiction and Fight Club on steroids. Wild, crazy action and sick humour with clever ideas thrown into the mix - get this, the author calls a William Kentrdige painting 'Brandy cotched on canvas'. But I digress.

It's over the top but extremely entertaining and will also make you think, which seems rare in this day and age.

Giving you a summary of the book won't do it any justice, so I'll just quote the dedication:

"This book is dedicated to the YOUTH in the hope they reject the crappy values of their parents". wow, hey?

That sets the tone for the rest of this transgressive book.

The closest author I can think of is Chuck Palahniuk.

Want more info? http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pop-splat

[Kyriakos]

The short story collection "souls of children" by Penelope Delta is virtually unknown even inside Greece, but it contains a story that i really love, titled "the broken violin".

Also another greek book, very famous in Greece, but probably almost unknown outside it, is Papadiamantis' "The murderess". :)

[janesmith]

The book I read that pretty much changed the way that I viewed so many things would have to be For Those I Loved, a book by Martin Gray. Please allow me to give you the overview of the book, as written by the Publisher:


This book, without any question of a doubt, was the best book I have yet to read, and I am a devoted fan of Dostoevsky, Gogol, Dickens, you name it. Nothing will surpass the list of emotions that you will feel reading this book.

And yet, no one seems to have heard of it .... :(

I read that book years ago. It's very powerful.

[Emil Miller]

As a callow youth, I occasionally read thrillers and, although I have forgotten most of them, there was one that I still remember to this day though I have forgotten the author. The title was Aphrodite Means Death; published by Penguin books in their distinctive green crime fiction cover.
The plot was ingenious and concerned the discovery in Greece of the missing arms of the Venus di Milo statue in the Louvre museum in Paris. Naturally they were worth a fortune and various people were out to steal them with the usual double crossing that such a story would entail. I don't recall the exact details of the plot but at the end of the story an unforeseen event occurred that meant they remained intact but were lost to the world forever.

[dfloyd]

They were his earliest work and a pleasure to read, especially if you like the spy genre. The novels are titled: Stamboul Train, This Gun For Sale (made into a movie with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake and retitled This Gun for Hire), Ministry of Fear (made into a movie with Ray Milland), The Third Man (made into a movie with Orson Welles), and Our Man in Havana (made into a movie with Alec Guiness).

[Emil Miller]

They were his earliest work and a pleasure to read, especially if you like the spy genre. The novels are titled: Stamboul Train, This Gun For Sale (made into a movie with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake and retitled This Gun for Hire), Ministry of Fear (made into a movie with Ray Milland), The Third Man (made into a movie with Orson Welles), and Our Man in Havana (made into a movie with Alec Guiness).

I have read them and there were a couple of others crime novels that were good. England Made Me and The Confidential Agent: not forgetting the best of them all, Brighton Rock.

[Babak Movahed]

hmm the only book I can think of would be The Blind Owl, its writen by persian author so maybe that is why it isn't that well known in the U.S.

It's a great book though, quite mind altering in my opinion.

[Emil Miller]

Another book that comes to mind concerns a job situation in which I had to leave a message for a colleague who was not present at his desk when I went to speak with him. I looked in his desk drawer for a pen and saw a book called 'The Lord is my Shepherd and he Knows That I'm Gay'. I don't remember the name of the author but there was an incredibly camp picture of a priest of some obscure american religeous order on the dust jacket.