Name a good book that you're pretty sure nobody else has read

Cafe Society
41

Well, so far I haven’t read any of the books mentioned. . .

My own entries, and honestly, I’m hoping that I’m proved wrong – I hope somebody has read these as I think both authors should be wider read and known than they are:

Divine Right’s Trip by Gurney Norman

Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories also by Norman

And a short story collection by a friend of mine: The Resurrection Man’s Legacy by Dale Bailey.

Sir Rhosis

ETA: You won’t walk into a typical bookstore and find any of these, but I’m sure they’re fairly available through Amazon and those type places.

42

Mendel’s Dwarf by Simon Mawer

It still amazes me that this book didn’t win all sorts of awards. It is breathtaking.

43

Some more:

Thunder on the Mountain by David Poyer
Trying Hard to Hear You by Sandra Scoppettone
Coming Soon!! and Letters by John Barth
A Thousand Pieces of Gold by Adeline Yin Mah
Barnaby #1-5 by Crockett Johnson
**Sorry Chief . . . ** and Captain Nice by William Johnstone
The List of Seven and The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost
The Other Side of the Clock edited by Philip Van Doren Stern
Frank Merriwell’s School Days by Burt L. Standish

44

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]

Coming Soon!! and Letters by John Barth
[/QUOTE]
Read both. Wrote my best paper in college on Welcome to the Funhouse.

45

[QUOTE=Yookeroo]
Dreamhouse by Alison Habens.

[/QUOTE]

Well phooey. That’s another one I owned for awhile and got rid of before reading it.

Savannah, I’ve read The L-Shaped Room. Loved it.

Since my first entry failed, how about Soledad by R. G. Vliet? Hmmmm? Hmmmmm?

46

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
I’ve read The Carpet Makers and Bride of the Rat God, do I win a prize?
[/QUOTE]

I’ve also read Bride of the Rat God and I own The Snouters.

47

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]

Frank Merriwell’s School Days by Burt L. Standish
[/QUOTE]
Actually own it.

How about:

The Day Lincoln Died, by Jim Bishop.

Regards,
Shodan

48

Oh look, I inspired a thread! (I’m a she, BTW, AuntiPam, not that it matters.)

I have read Bride of the Rat God – very good book.

Also the beautifully written Ballad series by Sharyn McCrumb, the first one of which is If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O.

49

A couple of SF masterpieces, since this thread seems to lean that way:

Rachel Pollack’s Unquenchable Fire. An alltime masterpiece of SF, but not even listed at Pollack’s entry at Wikipedia.

Michael Blumlein’s The Brains of Rats.

Non-SF:

Halldor Laxness’s Salka Valka
Sigrid Undset’s The Master of Hestviken
Henri Fabre’s The Hunting Wasps (lifetime topten)

50

[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael]
The Wimsey Family: A Fragmentary History Compiled from Correspondence with Dorothy L. Sayers, by Charles Wilfrid Scott-Giles, Dorothy L. Sayers

This one is pretty obscure, because it is so hard to find. Last I looked, you have to order it directly from the Dorothy L. Sayers Society.

Sayer’s great detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, is the second son of the 15th Duke of Denver, and carries with him eight centuries of aristocratic history. This book, a collaboration (mostly for fun) between Ms. Sayers and Mr. Scott-Giles, a Wimsey fan and expert in heraldry, details that history.

Here you will find the origins of the Wimsey family (with a minor vassal of Duke William of Normandy, aka William the Conqueror), its rise through the ranks of the nobility from a humble barony, through a modest earldom, to become the wealthiest dukedom in England.

Along the way, we find Crusaders and villains, cursed suits of armor, the origin of the Wimsey arms with its curious three mice, the story of the glazier’s widow, the story of Lord Mortimer Wimsey (who founded a religion with himself as its only adherent), the founding of Bredon Hall, and how and why Queen Elizabeth “slept here in the usual way and nearly bust the family bank”.

Utterly useless to anyone who is not a fan of the Lord Peter stories, this book is essential reading to anyone who is.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’d never heard of this, and it sounds marvelous! I ordered a used copy on Amazon ($11.98, including shipping), and I await it with Buntered breath!

51

*Shoot, Don’t Shoot *by J.A. Jance
*Life Probe *by Michael McCollum

Shoot is an excellent murder mystery.* Life Probe* might be the best SF you haven’t read.

52

I forgot Silverlock, by John Myers Myers.

53

[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael]
The Wimsey Family: A Fragmentary History Compiled from Correspondence with Dorothy L. Sayers, by Charles Wilfrid Scott-Giles, Dorothy L. Sayers

This one is pretty obscure, because it is so hard to find. Last I looked, you have to order it directly from the Dorothy L. Sayers Society.
[/QUOTE]

And I just checked; the second edition is now sold out. The Dorothy L Sayers Society website says that the Third Edition will be published online and, if there is sufficient demand, on CD-ROM, possibly sometime in 2009. I guess I’ll have to check the local library and see if I can get a copy on loan.

54

[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer]
I forgot Silverlock, by John Myers Myers.
[/QUOTE]

I have that one! I’ve started it a couple of times but haven’t finished it. It was recommended by a Doper. Imagine that. :wink:

55

"Take Five" by former National Review columnist D. Keith Mano.

A strange but brilliant book about a filmmaker who loses each of his 5 senses, one by one.

56

Worm the Red wrote:

I read it back in High School. The copy was an old paperback tie-in to the release of the movie of the same name, starring Richard Widmark. Wortn seeing, if only for Vikings in the Mediterranean and some surreal scenes. The book has an entry in Wikipedia.
Reality Chuck – I read those William Johnstone books, and several other of his Get Smart books besides

Get Smart!
Get Smart, Once Again
Missed it by THAT Much!
Sorry About That, Chief
Max Smart and the Perilous Pellets

The second of those was the first “adult” book I ever finished in one sitting.

57

I just realized that my post was referring to a different book than the one that was in the BrotherCadfael post I quoted. The book that is currently out of print is The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion, compiled & edited by Stephan P Clarke.

Which also explains why I was so confused by pinkfreud’s post, as used copies of the Companion are selling for over $500. :eek:

And now, off in search of the correct book, and then to bed, as I’m obviously short of sleep.

58

[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael]
The Wimsey Family: A Fragmentary History Compiled from Correspondence with Dorothy L. Sayers, by Charles Wilfrid Scott-Giles, Dorothy L. Sayers
[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately, The Companion is too expensive for my blood, but I did just order this one. Thanks for reminding me! I’m working my way through the Wimsey books for the first time now (3 1/2 more to go) and I know I’m going to be jonesing when I’m done. This will have arrived just in time.

My entries to the OP’s request are An Owl On Every Post (a memoir) and Whose Names Are Unknown (a novel inspired by the previous memoir), both by the amazing Sanora Babb. Oh OH how I wish I’d read these when I was an adolescent, they would have been my favorite books, especially Owl. I guess, better a few decades late than never.

59

Tik-Tok—By John Sladek
Kinda like Gulliver’s Travels, only with more robots, and less respect for human life.

Back to the Moon—By Homer H. Hickam
Nice techno-thriller adventure, if occasionally a bit over the top and occasionally amateurish. Though I’d swear I caught a few little bits that the author must have put in to lure an editor into cutting* that slipped through.

The Marching Morons—Cyril Kornbluth
Actually, quite a few of his short stories. “The Slave” and “The Adventurer” really stand out in my mind. ::Whimsical shrug::
*Is there a universal term for these? You know, adding scenes or expenses that you don’t really want anyway, but that you know a higher-up will veto, drawing attention away from the stuff you don’t want cut? I’ve heard about half a dozen different terms from as many seperate sources for what you call the practice. I think “add a helicopter [shot]” was even used by a Doper, specifically, years back.

60

Replay by Ken Grimwood. I love this book, and re-read it once a year or so. It makes my ponder my own existence and where my life is going and how I want to get the most out of things, and that it’s never too late to make changes in your life.