While She Knits--Neglected Nooks of Bookdom

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

We all have books we love to rave about.
[That's why all the crazies congregate here, am I not right?]
I know I get even more vocal about books that people are likely not to come in contact with on their own.

So let's air our pet publicity projects.

What obscure books do you absolutely love and want everyone to know about?

Is there a neglected book by a favorite author you think more people should look into?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Sherryl Jordan--particularly THE HUNTING OF THE LAST DRAGON and THE RAGING QUIET. They are very different from each other, but both are well written and quite interesting.
~Feir Dearig

[rowana.livejournal.com]

I remember enjoying the Rook series, but you made me splutter with 'Freeglader'. I didn't know there was a third book! *will be rushing down to a bookshop tomorrow*

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm reading Sorcery & Cecilia, or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. I LOVE it!

Incantation by Alice Hoffman.

It makes me cry, how few people have read these amazing books.

Troy by Adele Geras.

The Bloody Jack Adventures by L.A. Meyer.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. (I know it's won a ton of awards, but I don't know a SINGLE PERSON who's read it!)

The Dalemark Quartet by Diana Wynne Jones. Yes, I know a lot of people read her stuff. But hardly anyone I know has read all four of these books, and that's an absolute travesty.

...And that's all I got!

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I read the Sorcery and Cecilia books. They were fun. :)

I'm pretty sure I read 'Troy' by Adele Geras as well, but it was so long ago that I can barely remember it.

Aaand, I read 'A Great and Terrible Beauty' probably a couple of months ago. Not one of my favourite books or anything, but the author really has a way with words, and her characters were very tangible.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I love the first three books of the Dalemark series, but when I finally found the fourth book a couple of years ago I wasn't very impressed. In fact I felt pretty let-down. Perhaps I should reread it now and see if that impression still holds (and if so, why!)

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

We have all of the above books except Incantation, including the entire series of Stravaganza, Bloody Jack, and Ember books.

I picked up all of those books, and the mwt ones, because of call out cards on them at our local Borders store. Wonderful recommendations (thank you, Borders!), wonderful books. Oh, except City of Ember, which my daughter discovered at school after a teacher recommended it.

Somewhat along the lines of Bloody Jack, the Boston Jane books are fun too, by Jennifer L. Holm

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Sorcery and Cecilia -- I would read for the covers and for PCW, but the only book of CS's books that I've read is A College of Magics, which left me totally ambivalent. So I've had a hard time getting into S & C

...I also put down Stravaganza, Troy and L.A. Meyer, now that I think of it.

I like Libba Bray, but she's also quite popular-she gets standees in Borders. I've read all the Dalemark books--it's been a very long time, but I liked them very much.

I've also read The City of Ember, but...sorry to be disappointing...I hated it. The only thing I liked about it was that it let me write a bibliography of OTHER BOOKS YOU CAN READ IF YOU LIKED THIS! for my local library. :\

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I read City of Ember!

It was a good book, I liked the concepts but The Giver was so much more deep that I think it didn't quite get me the same way.

[traboule.livejournal.com]

But hardly anyone I know has read all four of these books, and that's an absolute travesty.


Oooooh, me! I have! *bounces up and down* And I'm prepared to argue indefinitely that they're among her best - at least Drowned Ammet and The Crown of Dalemark are.

Oh, man, I haven't read Troy in years. I remember being a little disappointed that it was so fluffy, but I guess it's better than the Marion Zimmer Bradley Troy book, whatever it's called.

What is The City of Ember? I've never heard of it, but I'm prepared to be convinced.

Bloody Jack Adventures

[empmai.livejournal.com]

When the Bloody Jack books first began I really liked them, but by I think the 4th book I was annoyed with them for two reasons mainly;

Spoilers for those who haven't read them............


1) In every book the Bad Guy was Established with his attempted rape of Jack(a girl). There are more ways to establish bad people than having an attempted rape - be creative!

2) Beyond the first book the love-interest story didn't work for me.
The letters basically showed the relationship woould never work in the long-term - Jack's letters were all about her apologizing and her trying to change her self into something she wasn't (a good 19th cent housewife) and the boy's were all deluded letters that alluded to the fact that he expected Jack to give up the sea life when the married and settle down. And then when Jack and the boy do get together they spend their whole time canoodling and not talking. Canoodling is fun, but you can't canoodle at the dinner table (forever).

Hmm, do they get together int he last book? Because if they don't I might actually finish reading the series.


Oh also maybe I have too reprobated of a mind but I think there was too much S&M hinting for the book to be in the 8-12 yr-old section of the bookstore

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Amy's Eyes (http://www.amazon.com/Amys-Eyes-Richard-Kennedy/dp/0064402207/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196513253&sr=8-1) by Richard Kennedy

Little Sister (http://www.amazon.com/Little-Sister-Kara-Dalkey/dp/0140386319/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514136&sr=1-1) and The Heavenward Path (http://www.amazon.com/Heavenward-Path-Kara-Dalkey/dp/015201652X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514167&sr=1-1) by Kara Dalkey

Warchild (http://www.amazon.com/Heavenward-Path-Kara-Dalkey/dp/015201652X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514167&sr=1-1) and Burndive (http://www.amazon.com/Burndive-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446613185/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514242&sr=1-2) by Karin Lowachee (Cagebird (http://www.amazon.com/Cagebird-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446615080/ref=pd_sim_b_img_1) was kind of a bust in my opinion.)

1066 and All That (http://www.amazon.com/Cagebird-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446615080/ref=pd_sim_b_img_1) by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman. All the British history you will ever need. Brilliantly funny. (Actually I have this edition (http://www.amazon.com/1066-All-That-W-Sellar/dp/B000RAGPHU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514369&sr=8-4), which I think is very cute.

Dust (http://www.amazon.com/Dust-Arthur-Slade/dp/0440229766/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514093&sr=8-2) by Arthur Slade - If you can get ahold of this, and you read one book on this list, make it Dust. I love this book. (In fact I convinced myself so much just now that I stopped in the middle of my comment to buy myself a copy. 9.9)

Connie Willis--I know she is full of awards and has an actual readership, but does that readership extend here? If not, she is a very funny, intelligent SF writer who often manages to get the same sort of exhilarated awe out of me that mwt does. I don't really recommend against any of her books, but my favorites are To Say Nothing of the Dog (http://www.amazon.com/Say-Nothing-Dog-Connie-Willis/dp/0613152425/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514758&sr=1-1) (best read with Three Men and a Boat (http://www.amazon.com/Three-Men-Boat-Nothing-Editions/dp/0486451100/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514628&sr=1-2) behind you), Bellweather (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Christmas-Stories-Connie-Willis/dp/0553580485/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514840&sr=1-5), and her Christmas short story collection Miracle (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Christmas-Stories-Connie-Willis/dp/0553580485/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514840&sr=1-5).

And my favorite YA book that, though read, still isn't as read as it should be, is The Year of Secret Assignments (http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Assignments-Booklist-Editors-Choice/dp/B000FDFW2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196514958&sr=1-1) by Jaclyn Moriarty. Funny, smart, and devastatingly teenaged.

I think that's enough for now, maybe. *innocent*

P.S. The preview shows my markup as not computing, and if it doesn't in my posted comment, I may cry. :\

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

*sigh* So I failed a little...sometimes when it is SUPPOSED to copy things, my computer doesn't actually copy them. Actual links for Warchild (http://www.amazon.com/Warchild-Karin-Lowachee/dp/0446610771/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196515539&sr=1-1) and 1066 And All That (http://www.amazon.com/1066-All-That-Memorable-Comprising/dp/0413775275/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196515567&sr=1-1). Rawr.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

*Has not heard of of these books*

*Goes off to order 1066 and All That so she knows what Ro and Leslie are talking about*

[traboule.livejournal.com]

*snerk* 1066 is fabulous. I remember getting a lot of my British history from that when I was wee and then having trouble explaining to everybody why I thought WilliamandMary were so funny.

I believe the authors did a similar thing with four Shakespeare plays ("Twisted Tales from Shakespeare"...the reason I sound so dubious is because I can't remembert the author, not because I doubt the book exists) but that may now be out of print. It is wonderful, though, so if you're a person who goes used bookstore hunting, it's definitely worth tracking down. The essay questions alone make it worthwhile. My favourite is, "Was Macbeth thane? How does he compare in this respect to Hamlet?"

Lowachee & Willis

[peanut13171.livejournal.com]

Yes,yes yes!! on Lowachee's books (tho I haven't read Cagebird yet). Warchild was very powerful.

The Connie Willis book I liked a lot, but which rarely gets mentioned, is Uncharted Territory. Very quirky and funny and I wondered what sex the main characters were throughout the whole book.

*scribbling down your other recs and finding links very useful*

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

My pet publicity project, forever and always, is Leon Garfield. Practically anything you can get your hands on by Leon Garfield, though the strongest ones (off the top of my head) are Jack Holborn, Smith, The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris, The Sound of Coaches, Black Jack, The Confidence Man, and The Apprentices. These are almost entirely out of print, which is a CRIME. The man was an absolute genius. The writing is ooh-worthy, the plotting is spot-on, the characters are memorable, and the humor is ever-present.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

That's it--my mum has a bunch of his books and I've never, ever read any, but in my brief days at home between semesters, I am reading one.

Thanks for that, Philia. :)

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) is one I'll proclaim anywhere. Her short story collections are worth it, too; these are all stories published in magazines like Anne tries to publish...some of them I didn't think were that great, but some are just awesome.
And Jane of Lantern Hill was excellent, in many ways.
[I recommend AGAINST the novella Kilmeny of the Orchard. I need to find the original short story to see if that was better.]

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen gets neglected because it's a different sort of book than Emma and Pride and Prejudice, but it is hilarious...and still has that Austen sparkle.

King of Shadows by Susan Cooper (of the Dark is Rising series) is probably the book I think would fit most of the people in this community: historic/semifantasy with fascinating set-up.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like King of Shadows, and it does get surprisingly neglected for a book by Susan Cooper.

[traboule.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite obscure books is Melissa Scott's Five-Twelfths of Heaven, the most uncanon sci-fi book I've ever read. It's vaguely reminiscent of Asimov's Foundation books, but the comparison ends after p. 15 when you see the spaceship. Scott's concept of space travel is mind-bending and wonderful, especially if you're a closet tarot fan like I was in high school, and the tantalizing romance plot is so played down its really rather soothing. This one's a bit hard to find, but I think it's still in print. Maybe? My copy was a gift from a used book sale, I think.

Another great book that a lot of people have never heard of is Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. It has its problems, but then, it also has once of the greatest anti-heroes I've ever read, so things balance out. ;) Mostly I just respect the project and the dimensions of it, and the weird little cracks of beauty that creep into the story on the sly. Plus, the carnivorous owls have been a fond memory ever since I read about them.

And Christopher Fry's oddly- but appropriately-named play "The Lady's Not for Burning" is gorgeous. If you haven't read it, you owe it to yourself to indulge...or at least to watch the obscure made for TV movie with Kenneth Branagh. But that's not really a book, so...never mind.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Gormenghast--it's so utterly strange. I haven't had a chance to read all of it, but I half love and am half wrecked in the head by MP's completely mad writing. I actually saw the BBC series before I read any of it, and I was a little bit stunned at how accurate the weird feeling of the series was to the writing of the book.

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

I have to second Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's a time travel novel about the bombing of Coventry Cathedral and it's both moving and hysterically funny. And smart, like all her stuff.

I like Sorcery and Cecilia as much as the next person, but I really love Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics. It's set in an Edwardian AU with a strong and imperfect main character. I have incredibly visceral visual images from this book (if that makes any sense). I went to a women's college where it was okay to sit around on a cold Friday night with a bunch of friends, reading and drinking tea, so her scenes of Greenlaw College, where women with magical talent are sent, are a bit nostalgic. (And Stevermer went to my college, so it's not surprising). Lots of women's solidarity in this book, but not in a cloying way, and a tense, complex, disquieting political backdrop. I think this is a book that leaves some people cold, though.

This isn't really that obscure, but it's always worth a mention: Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, set in an intellectual midwestern college. This is another book that tends to polarize people into love it/found it annoying, pretentious, and boring. One of the many reasons I love it is that it introduced me to the work of Christopher Fry, the playwright (his The Lady's Not for Burning plays a part in the novel).

Sherwood Smith's Inda. Not a light read, as it requires a certain level of attentiveness, but it richly pays off. She's an incredible storyteller with a genius for worldbuilding. The second book, The Fox, came out over the summer and she's working on the third.

And I've rarely heard of anyone reading these, but K.M. Peyton's pony club books starting with Fly By Night have an eternal place in my heart. She's best known for her Flambards series, but I don't think those are anywhere near her best work. My other favorite is Pennington's Last Term, which coincides with the Fly By Night characters in The Beethoven Medal and its sequels. Oh, and Darkling. I was a horse-mad teenager, but the reason I still go back to these books is the writing and the vivid sense of working class Britain in the 70s and the way she's realistic without being dark and hopeful without being sentimental. She also has a number of impeccably researched historical novels mostly published in the 60s like Thunder in the Sky and The Maplin Bird.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Uh, strange anecdote. I don't actually like A College of Magics (I feel as though I should, but it always falls short of how much I want to like it), but my mum rather does because she went to BMC as well. Actually, she went to BMC with Caroline Stevemer. Actually, she was a semi-member of the denizens of the Denbigh Back-Smoker to whom A College of Magics is dedicated.

Small fact. :)

(I don't go to BMC, by the way, but I do go to one of her sisters. *makes obvious statement with icon* :D)

[rowana.livejournal.com]

I often go on about Michelle Magorian, but 'Cuckoo in the Nest' and 'A little love song' are great books for 9-12 year olds which really don't get as much attention as they deserve.

John Marsden's 'Tomorrow' Series is a decent read, and doesn't seem to be that well known here in the UK, at least. (I know it's incredibly popular in Australia, not sure about the US). Start with Tomorrow, When the War Began , and then follow it up with the other six books in the series. Ellie Linton comes back from a camping trip with her friends to find that their part of Australia has been invaded. It's a thriller, but a nicely character-orientated one, I thought.

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is a fantastic book. Penelope finds herself going back in time at various periods, to the Babbington Household, during the time of Elizabeth I, when Mary Queen of Scots was in prison. Anthony Babbington is famous for plotting to free Mary QoS, which shapes part of the plot. The most interesting thing about the book though, was Penelope's relationship with Anthony's younger brother, Francis.

[(Anonymous)]

Michelle Magorian? YES!!
Good Night Mr. Tom (should there be a comma in the title--I don't remember?) is a wonderful book that, if you have not read it, you should read.
~Feir Dearig

[faerie-music.livejournal.com]

This is really unfair, since most of them are out of print, but: the Antonia Forest books, particularly Player's Boy and Players and the Rebel, which follow a fictional apprentice to one William Shakespeare. They are the best representation of Will I know, and I know quite a few (I once basically wrote a paper about them all). Most of hers, though, are British school stories (of a distinctly superior grade), set in that ambiguous time "After the Wars", which are a lot of fun.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

A couple of years ago I started a bibliography of children's fiction about Shakespeare. From reading those books, one gathers that most of the Lord Chamberlain's men were in fact runaway children, and that of those at least half were girls masquerading as boys. : ) I need to dig out my list and see if you can add to it.

I second, third, and fourth the recommendation of Antonia Forest's books. I love the two historicals, but more than that I love the modern Marlow books. She had a fascinating way with words and with sentences that were complex and amusing.

Mixed Blessings

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

I would like to put in my two cents worth for Mixed Blessings (also published as Mixed Company) by Marian Cockerell. This is also out of print, but it id definitely worth reading if your library has a copy. Not fantasy or SF it is set in the American South around the turn of the 19th century. After the death of her mother, the protagonist opens her family home as a boarding house to a bunch of wacky characters. It is really funny and the author gently skewers the manners and mores of the time.