Recommend your favorite “unknown” book

[Anonymous]

What book have you read that isn’t or wasn’t a best seller, maybe by a relatively unknown author, but you loved and would hope more people would read? I have 2:
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. Set in England in summer of 1914. I thought it was a beautiful book. I love her writing generally (her first book Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand was a best seller and was a lot of fun, too).
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason. Set in WWI. Again, really enjoyed the writing and the development of both story and character.

If you are ever looking for something outside of the current bestsellers, I highly recommend these reads. Would love to hear what your recs would be.

[Anonymous]

Jimmie Ruth Evans' Trailer Park Mystery series! Very funny and good mysteries, starting with Flamingo Fatale. also very ahead of its time with LGBTQA+ themes, I think the first one was written in the early 2000s. Here's a summary from Amazon:

"After a full day slinging hash at Kountry Kitchen and then surviving the graveyard shift at Budget Mart, the last thing Wanda Nell Culpepper needs is to to find her no-account ex-husband, Bobby Ray, flashing cash and stirring up trouble. Things can't get much worse—until the next day when she finds her missing pink flamingo stuck in his very dead body."

I also really liked Gillian Farrell's Alibi for an Actress is a mystery about a struggling actress in NYC who gets a job as a private investigator. Writer is/was an actress so it has a lot of interesting info about the life of a working actor.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of these, I think, mainly lesser-known classics.

Anne by Contance Fenimore Woolson (for fans of Jane Eyre who have been to Mackinaw Island)

Eline Vere by Louis Couperus (Dutch Anna Karenina vibes)

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards (set on Guernsey Island and spans the time when it was very isolated to when the outside world starts to make its presence felt)

[Anonymous]

The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen

[Anonymous]

“Glorious Exploits” by Ferdia Lennon. Two unemployed potters attempt to put on a play by Euripides in a prison camp. You do not need to know anything about Greek tragedies, or Euripides, or the time period (post Peloponnesian War). It’s written with a contemporary voice and is funny and full of heart.

“Three Eight One” by Aliya Whiteley. Weird, whimsical, wonderful. A historian in the far future finds a strange story about a quest and puzzles over its meaning. The quest story takes up the main test while a parallel story unfolds in footnotes.

[Anonymous]

“Alys, Always” by Harriet Lane.

Here is the recommendation on the book jacket that sums it up the best: “I wish I were you; I wish I hadn’t read it and had that pleasure to come.”

If you read this book, you must report back. I have had NO ONE to talk to about this book!

[Anonymous]

Saturn’s Return to NY (Sara Gran): a sad, acrid, caring book about a hot mess of a woman with deep wounds. Reminds me a bit of the show Russian Doll.

And maybe not super unknown, but I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t rave about Amy Hempel. Her writing is unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Alys, Always” by Harriet Lane.

Here is the recommendation on the book jacket that sums it up the best: “I wish I were you; I wish I hadn’t read it and had that pleasure to come.”

If you read this book, you must report back. I have had NO ONE to talk to about this book!

I've read this book, and really, really disliked it. I rated it 2/5 stars. I think I kept waiting for a twist that never came? I can't fully remember, but I do remember the overall plot. The only good things about the book is that it's easy to read and short.

[Anonymous]

Sweetheart Season by Karen Joy Fowler.

She got a lot of press for the Jane Austen Bookgroup book, but I didn't care for that as much. I loved Sweetheart Season and also her other book "We are all completely beside ourselves"

[Anonymous]

I just finished Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang. It is a historical fiction set in coastal Shandong province, San Francisco, and Idaho. It covers political imprisonment, sex trafficking, the Page Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the KKK in Idaho. I randomly picked it up in a bookstore and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Alys, Always” by Harriet Lane.

Here is the recommendation on the book jacket that sums it up the best: “I wish I were you; I wish I hadn’t read it and had that pleasure to come.”

If you read this book, you must report back. I have had NO ONE to talk to about this book!

Am I you? I loved this book.

[Anonymous]

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. It's not for the faint of heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. It's not for the faint of heart.

I just read another one of her books and was fairly disturbed by it. Beautifully written but wow, I wondered how she even thought of some of the subject matter!

[Anonymous]

All My Mother's Lovers - IIana Masad A young woman is tasked with delivering letters to her (happily married) mother after the mother dies in a accident. Such a great book about motherhood, sexuality and relationships.

[Anonymous]

Love everything by Helen Simonson op.