Books you've read and loved that we probably haven't heard of

Great thread with lots of ideas for my future reading list.

Some Sci Fi and Fantasy suggestions:

Welcome Chaos by Kate Wilhelm - mixture of ethical angst and drama in the face of what to do when someone actually discovers an immortality drug.

Memories by Mike McQuay - an interesting time travel book where the travel mechanism is by allowing the consciousness of the traveller to travel back to any previous direct ancestors and occupy their mind. Lots of stuff about various bits of history and a rather dystopian future.

The Sparrow & Children of God by Mary Doria Russell - a brilliant description of humanity's first contact with an alien civilization. Of course when evidence of an inhabited planet is found, the Jesuits send a mission. It's really excellent.

The Pendragon Protocol by Philip Purser-Hallard - the souls of the Knights of the Round Table have persisted throughout history occupying/possessing hosts who form a black-ops secret services force protecting Britain from threats of many kinds - and then it gets complex and morally ambiguous in an exciting way.

Never the Bride by Paul Magrs - the bride of frankenstein's monster is running a b&b in Whitby and trying to get on with life as normally as she can, but things keep being complicated.

I tell everyone to read this it's called Eleven Hours by Paulina Simons.

It's one if those books you read in one sitting and OMG it has you on the edge of your seat, heart pounding from about three chapters in.

Another one is The House That Jack Built I would love to read that again.

The Women's Decameron. Fascinating insights into everyday Soviet life.

The Power of One.
I have not read such a good book in a loooooonnnngggg time. South African story of a young lad. Absolutely brilliant.
And Only The Innocent by Rachel Abbott. Stuck with me and left a lot of unanswered questions.

They made a beautiful film out of it, years ago. Black and white, I managed to find it on Youtube last year.

The book of lost things by John Connolly, it's a wonderful book.

And The Peacock Spring is also good.

I am currently reading Saplings by Noel Streatfeild, which is one of her few "grown up" books. Also very evocative.

MrsSchadenfreude, I love Greengage Summer, she also wrote The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, which is another wonderful coming of age novel that nobody seems to have heard of.

As a teenager I read a couple of Howard Spring novels, I think he was fairly popular in his time but not read now. One which I loved was called 'The Houses Inbetween' and was a novel about a woman who lived to be 100, it starts from Great Exhibition and ends just after WW2. Thumping good read.

In no way remotely "literary" but I read a book called Jedder's Land by Maureen O'Donohue when I was about 12 and have re-read it almost every year since. I absolutely love it, but I've yet to meet any other person who has heard of it. Classic "woman in a man's world and wins" type plot but I love it all the same

the last train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu, is gorgeous told in past tense about love, growing up & escaping Romania under communism. Very passionate, sad and evocative story telling particularly her first love affair as a 17 year old in the Carpathian Mountains. Beautiful and unusual. Still haunts me.

Oh fabulous - I have been meaning to start this exact thread for ages but keep forgetting. So pleased someone else has!

My own contributions which I wish everyone would go and read immediately are Joy by Jonathan Lee and The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. Both fairly recent, really wonderful but just didn't get the attention they deserved.

Another Vote for the Duncton Moles.... I have a teddy with a twisted nose called Mayweed which I had as a gift when I went to Uni. And also Skalleggrigg (sp).

Please Mr Horwood if you are reading can we have them on Kindle?

Stratters on the bookshelves behind me at the moment are The Egg & I, The Plague and I and Onions in the Stew.

OMG, other people have read The Plague and I, I thought I was the only one

Brilliant thread...would be good to get it moved to the book section so it's not lost.
My offerings are
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (this may be well known but I've never met anyone else who's read it)
Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard Kiran Desai's first book which is delightfully eccentric and full of fun. It sums up many aspects of India for me.
Also recommend Amitav Ghosh's books...some more well known than others. I think The Hungry Tide is my favourite.
Agree with the recommendation of Doris Lessing's Martha Quest

This thread could result in A Big Spend!!!

Shamelessly plugging a friend of dp who has published 4 books, I have read them would highly recommend and would many others, please check out the author Tom Wood. Amazing reads, won't be sorry! ??

Some that have already come up, including

Winifred Holtby South Riding
FM Mayor The Rector's Daughter - one of the most passionate and sad books I've ever read

Sylvia Townsend Warner - any of her books really, though I particularly like A Flint Anchor, about a family in nineteenth century Norfolk, and The Corner that Held Them, about a fourteenth century convent.

EH Young's Miss Mole is an utterly delightful book, and its happy ending is so beautifully unforeseen.

Anything by Elizabeth Goudge. I think my favourite is The Heart of the Family, but I love them all.

I've thought of another one, Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd.

It's about a woman called Hope Clearwater, and it tells the story from three points in her life. It starts and ends with her life living in a small house on the edge of Brazzaville Beach but also moves back to her time at the Grosso Arvore Research Centre and her life and marriage in London before she came to Africa.

It's very good (IMO) but not many people seem to be aware of it.

Anything by Laura Wilson for historical crime fiction.

Head Above Water and Second Class Citizsn by Buchi Emecheta. She's Nigerian and her turn of phrase is hilarious.

Martha, Jack & Shanco by Caryl Lewis

Toddler I love She's Come Undone! I Know This Much is True is also really good, have you read that?

Anything by Norah Lofts, most underrated historical novelist ever, but particularly The Town House trilogy.