Little known books...

[fajrdrako]

January 24, 2008: What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

I suppose a lot of my favourite books are fairly obscure. It's hard to know... Have other people read the Eugenides books by Megan Whelan Turner, the Macedon universe books of Karin Lowachee, the works of Dorothy Dunnett, Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword, The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox, the wonderful books of Mary Doria Russell?

Yes, some people have. In some cases I read them because they were recommended to me. But most of the above I found on my own, and I'd venture to say that they aren't books that have been read by all - even if they've won awards, or been nominated for them. Even though they are so exquisitely good.

Some of my favourite books are those which have been read by everybody, or at least heard of: Jane Eyre, the Bujold novels, the Georgette Heyer novels, the Baroness Orczy novels - that's the Scarlet Pimpernel, for the uninitiated. Precious Bane was once famous, though maybe isn't now. Shellabarger's books were made into movies. Horatio Hornblower is famous, and so is Charles Dickens.

Comments

[katesutton.livejournal.com]

This is...kinda random, but you know what I want to know? Why on earth has no-one ever put Georgette Heyer to film? So many of her books are practically begging for it and with the success of all the Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell stuff, you'd think it would get greenlighted somewhere.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

you know what I want to know? Why on earth has no-one ever put Georgette Heyer to film?

I've always wondered that too, especially when Pride and Prejudice has been filmed a few times every decade. Or more. There was one Heyer movie once - in the 50s - it was awful. The Reluctant Widow, it was called, though it had precious little resemblance to the book of that name.

But now? They do such a beautiful job with the costumes and the setting for the Austen movies - I want a Heyer movie so much I can taste it, and no one is making it. Faro's Daughter, maybe, or Black Sheep, or, well, any of them. If the right people did it, think how wonderful These Old Shades could be on film. If they dared.

I wish they would film one of them. I'd love it, I really would.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Well, I know all of the books you've mentioned -- but at least some of them because you burbled on about them! (The Vintner's Luck, for example).

Less known books: I have to divide this between my Girlsown-friends and my non-Girlsown friends. The non-GO ones haven't read anything by Antonia Forest (whom I love), or Jean Webster's two Patty books (I think The Virgil Strike in Just Patty aka Patty and Priscilla is one of my all-time favourite funny short stories, but it's not one that others will have read.) Or I could blether on about why The Imp at Westcombe by Irene Smith or The Fortunes of Billy by Pamela Grant are perfect examples of the girls' school story at its best -- but hardly anyone else will have even heard of them.

My suspicion is that most of the "rarer" books I love have simply gone out of fashion because they're pre-1970 (not that I'm much older than that, but I always liked old books). They were popular in their time, but not now.

Trying to think of authors who are good but less known: Kate Fenton (Lions and Liquorice). Maybe Nelson Bond (Lancelot Biggs)? Hmmmm... Honestly, it's hard to think of author names based on their obscurity! You tend to forget them, on the whole.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find it difficult to guess what books other people will or will not have heard of. It depends on so many factors - their taste, their location, availability. And as you say, sometimes it's just a matter of availability due to time. Some of the authors I mentioned were best sellers in their day, but long out of print now. So what are they? Obscure or not?

[gypsylady.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean by little known books and I've got a few favorites like that. I'll confess to them, although the first one isn't rare (it's got a sequel just published) but it's kind of obscure. It's book one of Rashi's Daughter, Joheved. I'm about to start book two, Miriam.

I'm also fond of Tanya Huff's "Summoner" series. (Lesser known work by a kickass author, best known for the "Blood" books recently turned into a tv series which may or may not go into second season...)

And, more to find out who's actually heard of it, I'll bring up The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which was on the NY Times best seller list for a time yet no one I know has heard of it. (It's really a fun book, and I highly recommend it.)

Of the books you've listed, I've heard of Kushner and never read anything by her. I'll take your suggestion, though, and check her stuff out.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What interesting-sounding books. I'll take that as recommendations! And that, of course, is the real value of this little exercise. Hearing about books one might not otherwise hear about.

I haven't read any Tanya Huff, but I've been meaning to for some time. Mixed feelings: I'm not feeling the least bit interested in vampires these days, which is why I haven't read her yet. But not all her books are about vampires, are they?

The Yiddish Policemen's Union - I think it's been recommended to me before, but I've forgotten by whom. Thanks for the reminder.

If you read Ellen Kushner - and I heartily recommend her books! - start with Swordspoint, which is set something like fifteen years before The Privilege of the Sword, and has some of the same protagonists.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

My fave books no-one has ever heard of are Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, and King of Morning, Queen of Day and Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, both by ianmcdonald. Which reminds me that it's so totally time to re-read all three, cos it's been ages....

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well - Tigana is certainly one of my favourite books, and should be on my list, too. I love that plot! And the characters. I haven't read the others you mention and will take this as a reading list.

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

I've only read one Dunnett, and that one of course is King Hereafter, her take on Macbeth. Obscure books I have read? How about obscure-but-brilliant authors? Most of my fave historical fiction is practically unknown outside the genre:
Bryher.
Alfred Duggan: particularly Lord Geoffrey's Fancy.
Most of Cecelia Holland. I get blank looks from people when I talk about The Earl.

Then there is early fantasy ... I've always liked Branch Cabell's stuff, particularly the books that never got reprinted in paperback. The First Gentleman of Virginia. There Were Two Pirates. I was lucky enough to find them in the stacks in the University of Florida Library, in the Storisende Edition, forty-some-odd years ago. It would be nice to read them again sometime though ... a copy of either of those would now set me back several hundred loonies.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've only read one Dunnett, and that one of course is King Hereafter, her take on Macbeth.

I love that one. Powerful ending.

Who is Bryher? Historical fiction is my favourite thing - for all the genre is in the doldrums these days. I like Duggan, too.

And Cecilia Holland! I think her quality is uneven and I haven't read all her books, but I love The Earl, and Great Maria, and Antichrist, and the one about Hungary - is that Racoszy? The woman writes about the 12th century and gets her history right. That's rare. At every opportunity I quote the lines from Antichrist (paraphrased):

Emperor Frederick's friend: An Emperor just doesn't act like that.
Frederick: I am an Emperor. I act like that. I don't see your point.

I'd like to put those words in Emperor Gregor's mouth, but of course, he does act like an Emperor.

Have you read Holland's science fiction? Is it any good?

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Tnx for the recc re James Branch Cabell: I've only ever seen his fantasy in the old Ballantine paperbacks. Maybe ILL will come through? Bryher and Duggan sound worth looking at, too.

I've tried Cecelia Holland, and find I'm completely allergic to her prose style. I can't last more than 1.5 pages before putting her books down (tried Great Maria, Floating Worlds, and several others).

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've read the Kushners - fun fun! - and The Vintner's Luck (kiwi author, natch) - not my cuppa because of the unmitigated misery for as far as I read. I've been trying to pin a Russell book for ages, but the library doesn't seem to have them, and nor do secondhand bookshops (...not that I've seen them in regular bookshops either).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't particularly remember misery in The Vintner's Luck - well, yes, I guess, it sort of comes and goes. There are some dark books I like... Russell too is pretty dark. But in both cases, I like that because the payoff is so good.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Have other people read the Eugenides books by Megan Whelan Turner

Read the first one, will eventually read the other, probably. Not hugely enthusiastic. Not sure why.

the Macedon universe books of Karin Lowachee

Oh yes! Wonderful! And I introduced glinda_north to them too, Christmas before last. I sent her Warchild and she promptly went out and bought the other two. What's the Lowachee equivalent of a toaster? ;)

the works of Dorothy Dunnett

Repeatedly and continuously. *g*

Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword

I've read Swordspoint but was slightly underwhelmed. Haven't read Privilege of the Sword yet - do you think I'd like it?

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

Yes!

the wonderful books of Mary Doria Russell?

I love The Sparrow and Children of God. And I have the new wartime Italy one but have yet to find the time to read it...

An author I haven't seen much about online is Garth Nix. His Abhorsen trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen) is brilliant - and it's another one I introduced glinda_north to, just this Christmas. ::iz bookpimp::

I'm using my Fraser icon because he was brought up by his grandparents who were travelling librarians. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the Lowachee equivalent of a toaster would be, but it would probably be rather frightening. I'm so glad glinda_north likes Lowachee too.

I read Sabriel, and enjoyed it well enough to read on, though probably not in a hurry. (Sort of like your reaction to The Thief?)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart (though by a strange coincidence, one of my best friends read it around the same time as me and we then recommended it to each other), a novel of ancient China that never was featuring Master Li, a sage with a slight flaw in his character, and Number Ten Ox. The series isn't in print as far as I know and I really need to get around to tracking down the other two books at some point

Beauty by Robin McKinley, a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. Also picked up secondhand - I've seen other books by her in shops since, but not that one and it's great.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I read Bridge of Birds long ago - soon after it came out, I think. A friend of mine had loved it and sent me a copy as a Christmas present.

I liked Beauty too. Didn't like the other books by McKinley as much.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

ooooh I loved BoB! The sequels, alas, less so. But the bookstore I worked at for a minute and a half in the 1990s actually published it as an omnibus. I wish now I'd got a copy there, cos all my paperbacks have fallen to bits.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I read Swordspoint and started Privilege of the Sword. Don't know the other books, though.

... No one seems to know Marion Zimmer Bradley's Trapez. People know other books by her, but never that one. It makes me sad, 'cause it's one of my favourite books.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

... No one seems to know Marion Zimmer Bradley's Trapez.

Is that an alternate title for The Catch Trap? If it is, I really loved it - don't know Trapez, though.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Novel-wise, probably Gladys Huntington, Madame Solario.

Mostly non-fiction. Anything about His Loveliness, such as Ilgen's biography, probably qualifies as too bloody obscure.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Obscure but precious! Yes.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

sry if someone asked this already, but which are the books in Lowachee's Macedon universe, and where do you suggest a new reader start with Russell?

I love Turner's Thief trilogy : D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think Turner is wonderful. And Eugenides is wonderful. I love those plots.

which are the books in Lowachee's Macedon universe

So far there's a trilogy. I started with the third - so I don't think writing order really matters, though they are at least partly chronological.

The books are:
Warchild (http://www.amazon.com/Warchild-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446610771/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201268905&sr=8-2) - Jos's story
Burndive (http://www.amazon.com/Burndive-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446613185/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1) - Ryan's story
Cagebird (http://www.amazon.com/Cagebird-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446615080/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1) - Yuri's story

where do you suggest a new reader start with Russell?

The Sparrow, I suppose. Children of God is a sequel to The Sparrow, so they're best read in order. You could also start with A Thread of Grace, which is a stand-along historical novel about Italy in World War II. Russell has a new book out but I haven't read it yet and don't know what it's about. Looking forward to it.

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

Alone, by Admiral Richard E. Byrd. In certain circles it's a classic, but mostly it gets a "buh?". It's the tale of his disastrous months in an underground weather station in the long Antarctic night of 1934.

I find I read it every year, usually over Christmas break. It's so immensely satisfying as a Ripping Yarn, and he's so not-quite-modern in his reticence in emotional and spiritual matters. His not-quite-telling is more expressive than the modern way of laying it all out. There's a great quiet in his writing that reflects the wide-open perpetual night sky, the blue-white plain, his beautiful prison.

You can read it online here (http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/haverah/spaseman/bookalone.shtml), or just the introduction.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That sounds fascinating! I once read a marvellous book by and about the woman who was a doctor at the South Pole station and who got cancer while there... with no way to leave and get medical treatment. A fascinating story. And a fascinating study of the kind of people who live and work over the polar winter, and what it's like to be in isolation together in such a strange environment.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Thought of one less common author: Chris Hunt, who wrote a series of gay-themed historicals which are surprisingly good, even if you're not gay and not into slash.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

...I'm trying to think why I have not read Chris Hunt. There must be a reason.

Can't imagine what.

Oversight?

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux (Paul Theroux's crankier brother) - a very, very odd book. Alaric Darconville, an English teacher at a Southern girls' school, falls in love with a student; they plan to marry; things go to hell. There are chapters in the form of regular prose, blank verse, romance-novel style, letters, poetry, bibliography, etc. The writer has an unbelievable vocabulary, which he makes use of to amazing effect. An especially memorable character is Dr. Crucifer, an evil eunuch; however, it also features backwoods Klansmen, goofy Southern girls, and (obviously) a cat who may be a metaphor for God.

The only person I know other than myself who has read it is my mother, who I recommended it to.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful! I have to find it!

Daphne Du Maurier's The House On The Strand

[raissad.livejournal.com]

I just got through listening to 12-part abridged reading of Daphne Du Maurier's The House On The Strand on the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/drama/radio/the_house_on_the_strand.shtml

It reminded me why I loved the book when I read it years ago. It's a psychologically disturbing time travel/historical/old school Romantic/Suspense story. It's right up your alley.

Re: Daphne Du Maurier's The House On The Strand

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I read that book once - very long ago! I love Daphne du Maurer's writing style. Yes, thanks for the link, that will be fun to hear.