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

[IntrinsicFieldSubtractor]

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

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.

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.

That's a wonderful eclectic mix Fish!

My suggestion is The White Hotel by D M Thomas

It is the most hard hitting book I have read, I have read it a couple of times over the past 10 years. Very moving. Some might say it's a bit weird to start with (centres around a patient of Sigmund Freud) but I think that's a big part of how it is written, the style changes from dream sequences to reality.

Clovenhoof - Heide Goody. Found this little gem when it was a freebie kindle book, loved it so much I bought the rest of the books in the series (practically unheard of for me, I am notoriously tight about buying kindle books). It was something I would never have bought but it was brilliant - quirky, funny, well written, and I couldn't put it down. Well worth a look. The author is no Pratchett, but fans of him will appreciate the wit...

daisychain The White Hotel is one of my favourite books ever. I read it about 20-odd years ago and was utterly knocked out by it. It is a bit bonkers but absolutely unforgettable.

The Charioteer by Mary Renault - early gay fiction, set in World War II. Some of the story is a bit too pat (the 'explanation' for the gayness of lead character), but the overall effect is really moving. Very well written and evocative.

Akenfield by Ronald Blythe - based on a series of interviews in a Suffolk village. Fab insight into rural life, 1880-1960, and beautifully written.

I've just now finished Michelle Paver's Dark Matter and had to come straight on this thread to add it. It is amazing!

lurker so pleased you know the book, as it is difficult to describe but quite overwhelming and emotional. I did end up sobbing I will admit.

On a similar theme to The Women's Decameron - which looks fab - The Good Women of China by Xinran. Unforgettable.

The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
Ancestors by Robyn Davidson

Watch For Me on the Mountain by Forrest Carter. The story of Geronimo and the Apache. It's fiction but is based on what happened to the Apache

For all you lovers of Greengage Summer (& I am one too).

"Two under the Indian Sun" by Jon & Rumer Godden is the biography of their childhood in India.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/534694.Two_Under_the_Indian_Sun

Really interesting & shows where some of their later work came from.

Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies

The first in his Ibis Trilogy. The second, River of Smoke is just as good & the thrid will be published this year (it's been a long wait).

I like Betty MacDonald too, especially "Anybody Can Do Anything" which is very funny - about all the crap jobs she does in New York in the 1930s, along with her very encouraging sister.

On a similar sort of theme (I do love books about people's working lives), Monica Dickens's books "One Pair of Hands" and "One Pair of Feet". The former is about her work as a cook-general, working for a succession of oddballs. The latter - my favourite - is about working as a trainee nurse during WWII. Her description of the town where she works has always stuck with me: "To visualise the geography of Redwood, you must imagine the hill on which the town is built as a rather squat pudding and the town as a sauce which has been poured over and run down the sides."

A more recent favourite is "Living With Saints" by Mary O'Connell. It's a series of stories in which various "girl saints" from the Catholic canon intervene in the lives of modern day women and girls. Some of it is quite hard hitting (it opens in an abortion clinic), other bits are flippant (Saint Catherine Laboure is found working as a tattooist), but it's all beautifully written with a light touch. The story "Saint Anne" has me in tears every time.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. I love all his books but this is the best

The Bonesetters Daughter by Amy Tan. again I love all her books they take me to another world she is an amazing writer

After you'd gone by Maggie O'Farrell heart breaking and beautifully written

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. Have not read Sea of Poppies shall do so

So glad you mentioned Sea of Poppies, Magimedi. I read that and loved it. I didn't realise it was one of a trilogy until I'd read it, and the second hadn't been written at that time. Thanks very much for alerting me that it's now available.

I also enjoyed the Glass Palace by Ghosh, but Sea of Poppies & Rivers of Smoke are even better.

Sea of Poppies was published in 2008 so it's been a long wait for the third, Flood of Fire.

This wiki article gives a good, brief summary of the books:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibis_trilogy

I think a lot of these were popular in their time but have fallen by the wayside a bit.

Frost in May and the rest of the series - Antonia White

Le Grand Meaulnes - Alain-Fournier (I can't for the life of me remember what's it's called in translation.)

Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor
Rousing bodice ripper set in the 17th century

An Invitation to the Waltz and the sequel called something like the Music in the Streets - Rosamund Lehmann

Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy

Poor Cow - Nell Dunn

When I was a teenager, I worked my way through the whole local library's stock of Virago-published books in the green covers, which was absolute mine of undiscovered great books.

Can anyone help me remember the female author who wrote a book about Richard III and how it was unlikely he killed the princes in the tower? And other historical fiction, writing in maybe the 50s?

Josephine Tey daughter of time?

I think it's also the/le grand meaulnes

Persephone books is a good source of "forgotten" (often women) writers

Someone gave me a Josephine Tey book for Christmas. Ashamed to say I'd never heard of her before.

Thank you Petula. That's the book! I think she also wrote a horsey one (slightly randomly) so off to google.

onepotato you mean Brat Farrar - also an excellent book. Horsey but also a mystery thriller. I think it was a tv series in the 80s?