Not so well known books that you simply have to read!

I am always on the prowl for books that are highly recommended but perhaps not all that well known. I guess I'll start by adding a couple:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
The Sibyl by Par Lagerkvist (perhaps a little strange)

I have tons on my TBR list. I tend to prefer lesser known books. I'm currently reading The Beautiful Cigar Girl which is really interesting. You can check out my library, especially the TBR tags. Also, if anyone is interested, I recently started a blog that is review of non-bestsellers. It's the first blog listed in my profile and is also on my BM profile.

Ruby by Mary Summer Rain beautiful read!

I have read almost everything I could find by Binnie Kirshenbaum after reading An Almost Perfect Moment. And why doesn't anyone name their kids Binnie anymore?

Seize the Day by Saul Bellow.

I absolutely loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle!! His other novels are highly recommended too; I'm planning to read Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of a World. He's gaining popularity though. :)

I recommend any and all books by Angela Thirkell and Margery Sharp.
They are entertaining and quite funny.

I would hardly call The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a not-so-well known book. But perhaps that's because I'm way into Japanese fiction.

Now, if you want not well know (outside of Europe), you MUST read novels by Romain Gary! His most famous is Les Racines du Ciel (in English, The Roots of Heaven). The translation is something you have to buy online because it is an old edition that is not in print anymore but oh is it worth it. I can only hope the English translation does the book justice!

Virginia Gentleman: A True Story by Mary Mitchell Barnes.

try Mdme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen, story of Marcel Proust with excerpts from his mom's diary, great read written by Kate Taylor.

I just finished reading another of Murakami's books, South of the Border, West of the Sun, and I would really recommend it

I'm glad I started this topic...it's always wonderful to find a fairly obscure book that just takes you away. Murakami certainly is gaining popularity fast. I read the Wind-up Bird Chronicle and then virtually anything of his I could get my hands on. Not long after that my university library in South Africa had all of his books on waiting order. Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Might try The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon by Allan W. Eckert. It tells the tale of the extinction of the passenger Pigen from the pigens piont of view.

Hey, glad to see you've resurrected this thread! Since last posting here...I HIGHLY recommend "The Treatment & The Cure" by Peter Kocan. It's about a 19yr old who is living in a hospital for the criminally insane. Very interesting.

Anything by Arthur Schnitzler. Night games : and other stories and novellas would be an excellent start.

Jeff Talarigo-The Ginseng Hunter
Gil Adamson-The Outlander
Qiu Xiaolong-The Red Mandarin Dress
Laure Groff- The Monssters of Templeton
All excellent!

Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities - you will either love it or hate it...

I'm new to this site, but I'll recommend a trilogy by Celestine Viate. It doesn't matter whether you read the first or second first, but I'd suggest reading the third one last. They are written by an author from Tahiti who now lives in Australia. I love these books, but they haven't found a huge U.S. audience yet.

If you enjoy traveling to tropical islands, these should suit you well:

Breadfruit
Frangipani
Tiare in Love

Great topic. I will check out some of the other books mentioned.

Fermentation combines erotica with cheese. What's not to love?

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers, Night Watch and sequels by Sergei Lukyanenko, Gil's All-Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez. All recent favorites that haven't gotten much press.

If you're looking for undeservedly unknown books to read, you could do worse than to check out the blog Neglected Books.

http://neglectedbooks.com/

I was going to jump in here and recommend Celestine Vaite's trilogy of stories, Breadfruit, Frangipani and Tiare in Love but I see arielview has beat me to it! Wonderful, humerous mother/daughter/husband/family sagas that take place in Tahiti so there's lots of local, tropical color.

The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac Mr Malaussen is a scapegoat: he’s paid to be blamed about
wahtever item is sold at the Mall. Every time that someone lodges a complain, his job is to move pity
on him so that the complainer withdraws the charge.
he lives with a very motley and strange family, a lot of siblings a weird mother

masgar

We look on past ages with condescension,
as mere preparation for us... but what
if we're only an after-glow of them?

Beardo; awesome site. Thanks.

Thought I'd revive this thread - it's hard to find books that only a few people have by searching tags or looking at the recommendations.

The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe

My sugggestions:

Spider by Patrick McGrath
The Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinasalo

Raveling, Paradise Salvage and Finding Maubee are three of the best ‘mysteries’ I have ever read but there are few copies of them on LT. They are all different, a physiological thriller, a coming of age story and a ‘buddy’ story, but I think all of them are great reads. Finding Maubee was made into a movie called “The Mighty Quinn”, but the was a long time ago.