When I was in high school, one of my favorite books was the Cheerleader by Ruth Doan MacDougall- which had just come back in print after 3 decades after a single run in the 70’s. I could not believe it wasn’t more popular than it was, and I suspect others have books that are similar.
I like literary fiction, scifi, fantasy, horror, the whole lot.
by 7deadlycinderella
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If we disappeared by Jing Jing Lee! This book should be translated in every language!
Hangman’s Game by Kenna Hugo. That book broke me, and it only has ten reviews on good reads.
Alexievich, “The Unwomanly Face of War”. The only person I know who read it happens to be my therapist.
I’ve never met, or seen anyone on a reddit book group, who has read *The Lymond Chronicles* by Dorothy Dunnett. “The books follow Francis Crawford of Lymond, Master of Culter over a period of ten years in a tumultuous and eventful period of Scottish and English history ( ten years before Elizabeth the first ascends to the throne). Francis in the course of these books plays fugitive, spy, mercenary, courtier, politician, hero and villain. The books cleverly intertwine real history with historical characters into Francis’s story.” Unforgettable. I’ve read the series probably 5 or 6 times now. Desert Island books.
Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk!
I feel like Robin McKinley is not as widely read as she deserves. Like, basically her whole catalogue is wonderful and I rarely meet anyone that has read her. Beauty and Sunshine are my top picks, specifically.
The Sea and Summer by George Turner and We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen.
I have lots but more recently;
{{The Test by Sylvain Neuvel}}
{{Bridge Of Birds by Barry Hughart}}
The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden is always my favorite for this question.
Some of mine tend to be indie. One of the most recent that comes to mind is Camp Meltaway. A “choose your own adventure” horror book.
Miracle on the Hudson. Little Princes. In the sanctuary of outcasts
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh is one of my favorite books and I’ve never met anyone who has read it. It’s about a pseudo-dystopian future where China conquered much of the Western world and a gay man who is trying to make a life for himself in-spite of draconian anti-sodomy laws and genetic regulations.
I loved Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson because I loved the Go Ask Alice book as a teen and it was fascinating to see how much satanic panic bullshit the original author helped kick off.
Have you read The Wood Wife by Terri Windling? I guess you could categorize it as subtle urban fantasy set in Arizona. It’s similar to the writing of Charles De Lint. I reread it every year.
Going Bovine by Libba Bray. Saw it on Reddit, in fact.
Why be happy when you could be normal? Jeanette winterson okay I admit probably cheating since I know people in subs have read it just irl no one have heard of it. Also I’m ok high school (currently 16) and so It’s definitely an age thing I think as not many HS students are walking around reading these books lol.
The Bone People by Keri Hulme. It was written in 1986 and won the Booker Prize, so it’s not as though no one has read it. But you hear very little about the book these days. I thought it was excellent.
Jacket synopsis:
In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes: part Maori, part European, asexual and aromantic, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor—a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon’s feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality. Out of this unorthodox trinity Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where indigenous and European New Zealand meet, clash, and sometimes merge.
The Demonata saga by Darren Shan (especially ‘Lord Loss’). I loved the series when I was a kid and was astonished to find out no one I knew had read it!
‘I, Lucifer’ by Glen Duncan is another book I really enjoyed, very witty and uncommon, yet no one knows it
Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante
Not enough people have read it. It came out in 2019, and is sitting just under 1,000 ratings on goodreads. So it’s not a completely ignored book, but it deserves to be widely read. A perfect little book, just perfect.
Tomato Rapsody by Adam Schell
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6090444-tomato-rhapsody
The art of hearing heartbeats
The Rational Optimist – Matt Ridley
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Other people have certainly read it and it received a ton of praise but it’s not nearly as popular as I feel it should be. It’s such a gripping and thought provoking read.