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

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Semi-inspired by the best/worst book threads that are going at the moment - I've seen the names of several bestsellers mentioned a lot, but I was wondering whether anyone has any books that they've really enjoyed that aren't as (or at all) well-known. I'd be interested in recommendations for anything I wouldn't otherwise have heard of, and plus it's always nice to see good authors getting a bit more recognition.

One I can think of off the top of my head is The Flight of Lucy Spoon, by Maggie Gibson - I picked up a second-hand copy for free somewhere expecting generic chick lit, and was surprised to find it was genuinely hilarious in a very British-feeling, tongue-in-cheek-silly way (even though it's Irish). It was just a very likeable book, full of oddities that were actually original and heartwarming rather than self-consciously 'look at me I'm so quirky' in that way that all those Ladies' Blah Blah Society books are.

I also loved Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede - I must have read it when I was about ten, but a glance through the Amazon preview suggests that I'd probably still love it now. I've forgotten the exact story but the basic premise is a tomboyish princess who escapes an arranged marriage by running away to live with dragons - it's another very funny and well-written book that's not centred around romance, with a clever and independent heroine who has to spend half her time convincing knights in shining armour to leave her alone and stop trying to 'rescue' her I really want to read it again now actually, I might have to buy it!

If anyone has any recommendations of their own to contribute then I'd love to hear them...

The Lost Language if Cranes, by David Leavitt.
Blue Eyed Boy by Joanne Harris.

I read The Prize and for the first time really understood how everything that has happened in the last 100 years of human history fitted together.

Its is about oil and how that has featured in just about every major war and economic, social and political event in the last century.

I bought a second hand copy of South Riding about 25 years ago and still haven't read it! Maybe this will be the year.

Mine would be The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor - obscure, but excellent.

And anything by Elizabeth Taylor, who doesn't seem to be much read these days.

I'm a big fan of Jodi Taylor's St Mary's Chronicles about a group of time travelling historians trying not to cause havoc. I often find myself laughing out loud at them.

The Kelpies Pearls by Mollie Hunter. I read it at school and I fell in love with it. Its aimed at age 12-14 I would say but I've just ordered it on Amazon. I can't wait to read it again

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann - an historical romance set during the English civil war.

Kind of

Spirit Level by Jon Mackley, an old college friend's first novel! It's a really good ghost story.

Of bee's and mist by Eric setiawan. I utterly loved it. I read it twice.

It's not my usual. it's whimsical and quite grown up fairytale like. It's impossibleto tell the era it is set or even which country it is based in.

It's a love story but very twisted. And quite dark at times.

In the first chapter it struggles a bit, I felt the author wanted to list all his big words at once but he gets into a very good flow once that's out his system!

Oh this is great! I definitely wasn't expecting this many responses - wish I hadn't started this in Chat now, so I could keep the thread to refer back to. Am I right in thinking you can get threads moved?

eat thanks that's it! Yes nothing really to do with the aunt but I loved that book. Always meant to see if she wrote any other books because she isn't an author I am otherwise familiar with.

Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series is brilliant, a normal police Constable stumbles across London's supernatural underbelly. Really funny and gripping.

"Naoko" by Keigo Higashino. Such a weird story but really well written. A man's wife and daughter are involved in a coach crash. The wife passes away, the daughter recovers but wakes up with her mum's personality, knowing things that only her mum would know. The storuyis about how they fail to handle this new relationship, and the ending is great.

Oh, and Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey, a kind of fantasy world where your status depends on which colours you are able to see. Hard to explain but great, unusual and funny.

Ohh and another one - the wasp factory by Iain Banks. The weirdest book I've ever read but just absolutely gripping.

I've loved everything I've read by Sara Maitland. I tend to get a bit evangelical and I know I've often recommended her A Book of Spells on MN, but any book by her is worth a look.

The Wasp Factory was pretty mainstream though.
How about 'Two Flamboyant Fathers' by Nicolette Devas?
I robbed it off my parents bookshelves and re-read it to death. Not fiction, but an account of the goings on of the
Augustus John and McNamara families; Caitlin McNamara married Dylan Thomas so some good snippets about the fringes of Bloomsbury.

oooh thanks alltheprettyseahorses some new names there!

in the fantasy line:

Jerusalem Fire - R M Meluch
Curse of Chalion - Lois Mcmaster Bujold
Lilith by George McDonald. Dreamscape strange stuff.
Cordwainer Smith. Even stranger but vivid.
Prospero's Children - Jan Siegel
The Luck fo Relian Kru - Paula Volsky

HIstorical, she used to be very popular but is largely forgotten now:

The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault

Yes Man by Danny Wallace. It's non-fiction and the funniest book I've ever read. Iwas crying with laughter most of the time I was reading it and couldn't put it down.

The master and margarita. About the devil coming to Russia to prove to and unbelieving populous that he exists. Classic!

Onions in the Stew, by Betty McDonald. Hilarious book about a family living on an island in the Puget Sound.

Coconut Chaos, by Diana Souami - an aunt visits her niece on Pitcairn Island.

The Mitford Years series, by Jan Karon. Life in a small American town, from the rector's point of view. Lovely, gentle books, which leave you feeling quite soothed.

I second Anita Diamont's The Red Tent, and Iain Bank's Crow Road.

Twuntosaur I'm partway through Shades of Grey now, it's odd and took me a while to get into but I'm enjoying it. I've lost my library card though, so I can only read it when I'm actually there, and I have to keep hoping no-one's taken it out in between trips!

Temeraire by Naomi Novik.

99p on kindle atm.

Actually, any of Betty McDonald's books are great. Theyre autobiographical, and she was quite an entrepreneur.

Finding Emma by steena Holmes. Got it as a borrowed book from Amazon andut was amazing. There is a sequel called Emma's secret too.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves I love this book too! (The two TV series i've seen didn't do it justice but the radio version with Sarah Lancashire and Philip Glenister is pretty good imo) The portrayal of the whole range of society is superb - and makes me glad I was born in an era of equal access to decent secondary education.

Mary Webb's Precious Bane is another classic from that era, and reasonably well known. However it's actually not that typical of Webb - it's a historical novel, written largely in dialect, and set in the North of Shropshire (probably modelled on Ellesmere) rather than the hills of the rest of her books. If anyone loves Cold Comfort Farm and wants to try out the closest Webb in terms on tone and plot, I recommend The House in Dormer Forest. It's very very overwrought and you can see why Stella Gibbons couldn't resist taking the piss, however I still love it on its own merits. As an early model of the plain older sister in family of eccentrics school of romance lit, with added angst, it's quite intriguing.

Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, a neglected 20th century classic.
Sex, booze, obsession, death. I love it.