[Snapcat]

In another thread I've been discussing the commercial success of authors such as J.K. Rowling. But this thread isn't about that- why don't we list novels that haven't been successful, but are worth reading? Maybe books that are out of print or overlooked. Any such suggestions of authors I never would have thought to look at simply because they are unknown? Or favorite books no one would have heard of? 

 

[Cuechick]

I mentioned her in another thread but Penelope Evans is a great mystery writer with a very unique voice. I have read most of her books, esp liked The Last Girl and First Fruits. She is english and unfortunately her stuff is not in Kindle version but she is worth reading, I promise. I loaded two of her books to my neighbor and she devoured them.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

One of my favorite books of all time is Five Smooth Stones, long out of print....I think my copy is missing the last couple of pages, and copies are hard to come by...

Betsy

 

[marianneg]

Everyone's heard of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, but not as many have heard of his space trilogy. The first book is called Out of the Silent Planet. It is about a man who is kidnapped and taken to Mars and meets the creatures there and has all kinds of adventures. In Perelandra, he is taken to Venus to save that planet from falling into sin Garden-of-Eden style, and That Hideous Strength is weaker on the time travel and such, but involves a creepy Institute that wants to deceive the world. Unfortunately, they are not available on Kindle yet, but, since the Narnia books have recently all been published for Kindle, I'm hopeful that they'll show up soon.

Click to request on Kindle!

Along those same lines, many of us probably read A Wrinkle in Time, but Madeleine L'Engle's subsequent books about the Murray-O'Keefe family are also quite good. All involve one or more members of the family being pulled into some kind of adventure that culminates in confronting evil across space and time, or just in more ordinary ways. I think the next one chronologically would be A Wind in the Door, in which Charles Wallace has contracted a mysterious illness and Meg and company must save him at the sub-cellular level.

Click to request on Kindle!

 

[Cuechick]

Marriner reminded me of another favorite... Walter Tevis. Many know the movies based on his books, The Hustler, The Color of Money (book is completely different and amazing) and The Man Who Fell to Earth. He also wrote one of my all time favorites, The Queen's Gambit about a female chess prodigy. It is incredible, seriously, you do not have to be into chess (I'm not) it is great.

Sadly, none that I can find are in Kindle versions. I am plan to do some clicking right now!

 

[Leslie]

Marriner reminded me of another favorite... Walter Tevis. Many know the movies based on his books, The Hustler, The Color of Money (book is completely different and amazing) and The Man Who Fell to Earth. He also wrote one of my all time favorites, The Queen's Gambit about a female chess prodigy. It is incredible, seriously, you do not have to be into chess (I'm not) it is great.

Sadly, none that I can find are in Kindle versions. I am plan to do some clicking right now!

I read The Queen's Gambit last winter (in paper). Heath Ledger was going to direct the movie version of this and was hard at work on developing it when he died. They were in discussion with the young woman who played the lead in Juno to be the lead character (the chess prodigy). Supposedly there is a finished 126 page screenplay out there somewhere in the world. I would love to read it.

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to get this on the screen and this time it looked like it really was going to happen, when Heath died. So sad...

L

 

[Snapcat]

A lot of people have mentioned on these boards (including myself) how much they love Watership Down.

I just wanted to mention two novels that remind me of Watership Down in both style and suhstance and aren't nearly as well known.

Tad William's 'Tailchaser's Song' which is about cats and I don't think it is on kindle.

Also there is Mary Shanton's 'The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West' which is about horses, and has been out of print for a while.

I prefer 'Tailchaser's Song' out of the two books, and I think 'Watership Down' has a bigger place in my heart, but these two books are worth checking out if you enjoyed 'Watership Down'.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

By all means, post some of these covers in our Birthday Celebration topic
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,644.0/topicseen.html

(Tip: Since I've added covers to your posts--if you're not sure of how to add a cover, you can go to your post below, click on "Modify" (you can always modify your own post) and copy the gobbledygook that starts with [url ] and ends with [ /img], then paste it into a post on our Covers topic!

Betsy

 

[Cuechick]

I read The Queen's Gambit last winter (in paper). Heath Ledger was going to direct the movie version of this and was hard at work on developing it when he died. They were in discussion with the young woman who played the lead in Juno to be the lead character (the chess prodigy). Supposedly there is a finished 126 page screenplay out there somewhere in the world. I would love to read it.

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to get this on the screen and this time it looked like it really was going to happen, when Heath died. So sad...

L

Now that you posted that, I do recall reading about it somewhere... Ellen Page (from Juno) would be really good. I sure hope that it still gets made. I am going to have to run over to IMDB to see

 

[Bacardi Jim]

While he has a certain cult following, Tom Robbins is largely overlooked. My favorite of his is probably

Then

Followed by

And then

I have also read Robbins best-known second book, the bestseller:

but it is my least favorite of his novels I've read.

Robbins reigns alongside Mark Helprin

(book not on Kindle) as one of our current Masters of magical realism.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Thanks, I've downloaded samples!

Betsy

 

[Kirstin]

Here are some from a series that I read and enjoyed. I don't hear much about them but they have a decent number of reviews on Amazon.

 

[Chad Winters]

I wish these publishers who let their books go out of print because they don't merit another print run would consider Kindle releases. Much cheaper than a print run and at least they could make some money off their backlist.

 

[Leslie]

I wish these publishers who let their books go out of print because they don't merit another print run would consider Kindle releases. Much cheaper than a print run and at least they could make some money off their backlist.

Or give the erights back to the author who could then pursue an epublisher (or do it themselves). Authors like to have their books available for when someone "discovers" them anew even if the book is years and years old.

L

 

[Kilgore Trout]

As the editor of PODBRAM, I can suggest a few POD books that you have probably never heard of, but they impressed us as book reviewers with their various qualities. I am quite amazed that these few are the only ones that are available in the Kindle format. Several others have already been covered in other posts by Board Members who are also PODBRAM reviewers. These are ones I wanted to mention because you would otherwise have never discovered them.

 

[Forster]

A lot of people have mentioned on these boards (including myself) how much they love Watership Down.

I just wanted to mention two novels that remind me of Watership Down in both style and suhstance and aren't nearly as well known.

Tad William's 'Tailchaser's Song' which is about cats and I don't think it is on kindle.

Also there is Mary Shanton's 'The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West' which is about horses, and has been out of print for a while.

I prefer 'Tailchaser's Song' out of the two books, and I think 'Watership Down' has a bigger place in my heart, but these two books are worth checking out if you enjoyed 'Watership Down'.

In a similar vein, the Ducton Wood series by William Horwood are outstanding. Kind of hard to track down all the books (6 of them) but well worth the effort if you are a Watership Down or Tailchaser's Song fan. The first one Ducton Wood should be fairly easy to track down a used copy, but the second trilogy is a bit harder. IIRC I had to get one of them shipped from Canada and two of them shipped from England but Alibris was my friend.

Anyway here is a link at Amazon for Ducton Wood. I'm also very curious as to whether any here have read the series and their thoughts on the books. Some excellent reviews and info about the book on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Duncton-Wood-William-Horwood/dp/0345341899/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240263198&sr=8-2

 

[pidgeon92]

In a similar vein, the Duncton Wood series by William Horwood are outstanding.

I read this book when I was a kid, I really loved it.... I didn't realize it was a series.....

 

[Forster]

I read this book when I was a kid, I really loved it.... I didn't realize it was a series.....

Yeah! Someone else has read this book.

Anyway here are all the books:

The Duncton Chronicles:
Duncton Wood
Duncton Quest
Duncton Found

The Books of Silence:
Duncton Tales
Duncton Rising
Duncton Stone

 

[pidgeon92]

I wish I could give you my thoughts on it, but it must have been 30 years ago that I read this.... It was a really huge book, I just gave it away to the library in the last few years.... I shall have to click for the whole series....

 

[Aravis60]

Oooh.... I love C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, marianner! They are some of my all-time favorites.