BTT: Huh?

(From 24 January 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?”

There are a couple of books I love that people have generally never heard of. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith is one of them. It's actually a classic and I think it's more well-known in England, where it originated, but it's not something that a lot of people have heard of around here.

And in reverse, I love a series of books by Australian author John Marsden, beginning with Tomorrow, When the War Began. They're very well-known in Australia but not so well overseas, I don't think (at least, I don't get much of a reaction when I mention them).

I was once given a book for Christmas called These is My Words by Nancy Turner. It wasn't a bestseller or anything, but it's a remarkable story of a young American woman who travels with her family from New Mexico to Arizona in the 1880s. A terrific story full of triumph and tragedy. It's been high up on my 're-read pile' for quite a while now.

Also, I'm a bit behind the rest of the world in the fantasy genre, but one overlooked author I love is Jonathan Wylie (aka Julia Gray). Both names are pseudonyms of a husband/wife writing team and I've always enjoyed their books. I think I now everything they've written but haven't had a chance to read most of it yet, having only tracked most of the books down in the past 12 months. Of the books I've read, I particularly love the Unbalanced Earth trilogy and Dreamweaver.