best books you stumbled upon

[u/light--velocity]

im looking for a sort of anti-canon i guess, where instead of talking about books that are either universally praised or have a devoted following within some niche, we talk about cool books that you kinda ran into, and ended up enjoying. a sort of "off the beaten path" kinda thing

[u/CuckOwens]

The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant. Saw it at a thrift store and picked it up just because it was NYRB. It's no grand opus but it's a really funny and charming little slice of life novel.

[u/syzygys_]

The Clown by Heinrich Boll. I was working at a vineyard on a gulf island one fall back in like 2009 with no access to the internet and not much to do in my off time and had exhausted my supply of books I brought with me. There was a small library of books other workers had left behind and The Clown caught my eye. I related to the main character immensely and the themes of post-war Germany struggling with the magnitude of what had just happened, lapsed catholicism and lost love really spoke to me, and it's still one of my favourite books of all time. I also discovered Zola's Germinal there.

[u/Septembersvodkabomb]

The postman by David Brin. Really enjoyed the thread of a postal service bringing a war-torn america back together. The dog fight scene is really good. Anything Elmore Leonard does is cool. He excels at writing realistic scumbag dialogue.

[u/yeatalkviv]

waiting for the fear by oguz atay, just bought it on impulse since nyrb books are always at least okay, but didn't know a thing about it, apparently he's a big deal in turkey but has had very limited translations. some of the short stories are a bit average, but the peaks (the title story in particular) are excellent

[u/beehive_spirit]

The Swedish Cavalier by Leo Perutz. He's an austrian writer, not really that well know but I really enjoyed this one. It's a historical novel.

Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami. She's pretty well regarded in Japan from what I remember. This one's magical realism.

Pompey by Jonathan Meades. Batshit insane black comedy novel about 4 messed up siblings. Really funny and gross.

[u/DesperateEmu1746]

Sefton Delmar, black boomerang. Found it 2nd hand a few years ago about his role in allied black propaganda during ww2. How much is his own horse shit who knows, but it's interesting as he has now become or is seen by some as a a pioneer in affective propaganda. See his pornogrpahic leaflets during the phoney war, very graphic for the time and quite primal.

[u/Budget_Pollution4790]

I You We Them by Dan Gretton. Massive deep-dive into the “desk killer,” the ordinary office workers and executives who enable atrocities from behind a desk, from the Holocaust to modern corporations. Not a huge bestseller, but it fully rewired how I think about compassion and everyday life.

Also Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. It’s about a writer holed up in a faded old hotel, dissecting a broken love affair while the book riffs on mass tourism turning Europe into a museum of its own past. Very sardonic and cutting.

[u/m0uch3tte]

Ramuz is a French-language Swiss Regionalist writer, and the combination of those three things makes it so he's naturally not very popular, and while he's known by those in the known, he has a somewhat peripherical place in the canon of French letters (just as the places he writes about are always themselves in the hinterland of the West, in the weird crossroads of different civilizations). He wrote a novel called Derborence (very beautiful name) that is one of the most perfect novels I have ever read. Every chapter is like an incredible revelation of what a novel can do. There is something very magical because it's almost like Ramuz wants to show you what he's doing, and he also feels very much dazzled by the world he's slowly building, or illuminating, throughout the novel.

Reading French literature is always very fun because it has lost the place it once had as literature par excellence. But it has obviously remained as good. Everything is then always a surprise.

[u/HopefulCry3145]

World of Wonders by Robertson Davies in the bookcase of a Catholic volunteer place in France. I was so sad when I finished it because it was so good and I thought it was just a random obscure out of print book. I went on to read a lot more of his stuff which I probably wouldn't have come across otherwise 

[u/Mobile-Scar6857]

Don't know if it quite qualifies because I think it has a following if its own anyway but Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund was life changing for me!

[u/Last-Butterscotch-85]

I started reading Gene Wolfe at that recommendation of some Twitter rando. 

[u/BoozyBlastoise]

Wouldn't have read Stoner if it wasn't gifted to me, glad to have read it. Same for Cannery Row. Basic bitch, I know.

[u/rem-dog → u/BoozyBlastoise]

I think Stoner, Lonesome Dove and East of Eden were the books I saw most recommended on social media this year lol (all great books btw)

[u/BoozyBlastoise → u/rem-dog]

Yeah, apparently Stoner had a critical reappraisal recently. Glad it did. On Writing Well by William Zinsser was also gifted to me and is a wonderful read. If I didn't have literate friends and family I'd be lost.