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Books you thought no one else has read

846 replies

tweetysylvester · 07/03/2025 20:00

It's so fun to find rare books to read, or just look up or hear about less known books, so thought I'd start a thread about this. Nostalgic novels, YA books, current titles you discovered very randomly...

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14
springintoaction2 · 26/10/2025 06:37

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Great book!

insomniaclife · 26/10/2025 10:02

springintoaction2 · 26/10/2025 06:37

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Great book!

Omg yes indeed. One of my “to be saved if the house is on fire” books. The whole series is excellent (but bloodier).

springintoaction2 · 26/10/2025 16:49

I was blown away - such a realistic depiction of the 'Wild West'. Quite gritty.

I hadn't been as mesmerised since reading Steinbeck many years ago.

Howyoualldoworkme · 26/10/2025 19:59

LunaNorth · 21/10/2025 07:49

Yes, she was. There were a few of her poems in my Children’s Treasury of Verse.

She wrote 'Morning has broken' 🙂

NormalAuntFanny · 26/10/2025 20:19

Has anyone read 'Eagle in the Snow' by Wallace Bream?

Its set near the end of the roman empire and the main character is a general on Hadrians wall. It's very good.

LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYa · 26/10/2025 23:03

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. My mum lent me her copy, which she picked up for 50p on a used book stall. I’d never heard of the author but she said it was one of the funniest books she had ever read. It’s about a family dealing with an autistic son, and realising basically that everyone else in the family and almost everywhere else has varying levels of ASD. My sister is autistic, so it was close to home. I was laughing out loud before the end of the first page. Genuinely hilarious. Obviously it was easy for me and my mum to relate to, but I don’t think you need to have seen ASD at close quarters to find it funny. Can’t recommend it highly enough. I read it in less than a day.

The author has written quite a few books and I’ve since read several other of her books and they were equally good.

My other pick is Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel. He’s obviously very famous, but his writing is less so. Love all of his novels - in particular Time for Bed is very funny and The Secret Purposes is very beautiful- but WLM is a genuine edge-of-your-seat page turner (as well as very funny). His recent memoir, My Family, is also amazing- poignant and so, so, so, funny- but unlike his other books it’s been a massive best seller, so I don’t think it fits the brief of this thread.

LunaNorth · 26/10/2025 23:25

LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYa · 26/10/2025 23:03

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. My mum lent me her copy, which she picked up for 50p on a used book stall. I’d never heard of the author but she said it was one of the funniest books she had ever read. It’s about a family dealing with an autistic son, and realising basically that everyone else in the family and almost everywhere else has varying levels of ASD. My sister is autistic, so it was close to home. I was laughing out loud before the end of the first page. Genuinely hilarious. Obviously it was easy for me and my mum to relate to, but I don’t think you need to have seen ASD at close quarters to find it funny. Can’t recommend it highly enough. I read it in less than a day.

The author has written quite a few books and I’ve since read several other of her books and they were equally good.

My other pick is Whatever Love Means by David Baddiel. He’s obviously very famous, but his writing is less so. Love all of his novels - in particular Time for Bed is very funny and The Secret Purposes is very beautiful- but WLM is a genuine edge-of-your-seat page turner (as well as very funny). His recent memoir, My Family, is also amazing- poignant and so, so, so, funny- but unlike his other books it’s been a massive best seller, so I don’t think it fits the brief of this thread.

I bloody loved Standard Deviation.

Terpsichore · 27/10/2025 08:29

Standard Deviation is hilarious. Katherine Heiny has such a droll turn of phrase; when I first read it I felt there was something slightly English about her humour, then I discovered she’s married to a Brit. I loved her next novel, Early morning Riser, too - very different setting but just as funny.

insomniaclife · 27/10/2025 08:48

ive found the one I bet absolutely no one else has read- and it’s such a funny clever book … How I ate my father by Ray Lewis.

Pallisers · 27/10/2025 12:19

insomniaclife · 27/10/2025 08:48

ive found the one I bet absolutely no one else has read- and it’s such a funny clever book … How I ate my father by Ray Lewis.

If that is Evolution Man or How I Ate My Father by Roy Lewis then yes I have read it - so very funny!

If you liked it you will also like The Bear We Over the Mountain by william kotzwinkle which is also a very funny clever book.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 27/10/2025 12:38

insomniaclife · 27/10/2025 08:48

ive found the one I bet absolutely no one else has read- and it’s such a funny clever book … How I ate my father by Ray Lewis.

Read it too - a very funny book.
I had to look it up as I know it just as 'The Evolution Man'

TonTonMacoute · 27/10/2025 13:23

**
A Book of Princesses - I think edited by Sally Patrick Johnson, its a collection of 12 or so fairy stories from around the world, all containing at least one princess. It had some great writers, Oscar Wilde, Walter de La Mere & I read it over and over. I was particularly fond of A Light Princess and The Long Nosed Princess.

I have still got my copy!

Books you thought no one else has read
Pallisers · 27/10/2025 14:37

LittleBitofBread · 09/05/2025 18:35

I LOVED ThePhantom Tolbooth. It's probably actually a bit clever-clever and annoying (the car that goes without saying...), but at the time it was an eye-opener for me in how you could play tricks with language.

About 15 years ago my daughter was reading The Phantom Tollbooth at school and did a performance of it for school and parents. The school had Norton Juster come and speak afterwards. Kids weren't bothered but all of the adults who had read it as children were so excited. I have a photo of my dh with him.

CatChant · 27/10/2025 15:33

Pallisers · 27/10/2025 14:37

About 15 years ago my daughter was reading The Phantom Tollbooth at school and did a performance of it for school and parents. The school had Norton Juster come and speak afterwards. Kids weren't bothered but all of the adults who had read it as children were so excited. I have a photo of my dh with him.

Wow!

I’m excited vicariously! What a coup for your daughter’s school.

Judith Kerr signed my battered copy of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit after giving a talk and a reading about twenty years ago. I hope I managed to convey to her how very much we loved Pink Rabbit, and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and the Mog books but I fear I may have been too awed to be articulate. But she was so lovely.

Pallisers · 27/10/2025 16:17

In fairness the school is in Massachusetts where he lived. He was lovely though.

Fernticket · 27/10/2025 17:43

Trying to trace a series of book I read as a kid back in the 70s. It was based in Wigan and featured 4 children who solved mysteries. As far as I can remember,there were 3 girls, one of whom was called Becky and another called Camille (who was French), and Becky's brother. Any idea anyone?

mum2jakie · 28/10/2025 20:53

Howyoualldoworkme · 26/10/2025 19:59

She wrote 'Morning has broken' 🙂

Oh wow! I never knew that!!

insomniaclife · 30/10/2025 12:18

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats@Pallisersyes that’s the one!

insomniaclife · 30/10/2025 12:19

Ok what about Victor Klemperer’s diaries?
absolutely mind blowing stuff

CatChant · 31/10/2025 14:38

@insomniaclife aren’t they just. The many, many spiteful petty indignities and cruelties multiplying over time to make life as narrow and wretched as possible. And when he describes the horrors of the Dresden bombing and firestorm, which ended up probably saving his life by preventing him being deported to Auschwitz. As you say, mind-blowing.

EBearhug · 03/11/2025 00:59

@witheringrowan
I just finished Snowfall - thank you.

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