Can you recommend any little known books that you really enjoyed?
What did you like about these titles? Why do you think they are not so popular?
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I am reading A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, and thoroughly enjoying it, I had never heard of it or the author until a friend gave it to me for my birthday.
T Tembarom is a rags to riches novel for adults by Frances Hodgson Burnett who wrote The Secret Garden. It is a delightful story of a newspaper boy in 1910s NYC who is discovered to be the long lost heir to a stately home in England. The characters and plot are pure magic. My mother gave it to me and I have reread it several times.
Time and Again by Jack Finney is magic of another sort. It is a novel about a time travel project in the 1970s in which the hero goes back to NYC in the 1880s. I just sent it to my grandson and he loved it as much as his father and I did.
The education of oversoul seven. It explains my time travel in a chart in the book.
Daniel Goldman’s Emotional Intelligence.
A course in miracles.
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
I read all three in university and they saved my life.
“I Hear You”, a thin book about how to listen to others.
“Let’s Take The Long Way Home”, a beautifully written memoir about friendship. It’s a sad book, but somehow soothing and nurturing too. Touches on some difficult subjects such as alcohol abuse and terminal illness.
“The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry”, lovely story about books and family. Recommended by @janbb.
“You Are Not So Smart”, a book about the many ways our brains trick us. Recommended by @tom.
“The Rock” by John Masters. A historical novel about the Rock of Gibraltar. From prehistory to the 20th Century. Sold pretty well in its day from what I understand, but probably more suited for a niche audience today. History buffs like myself.
A book from my childhood I loved but didn’t seem to be popular with other kids: A Cricket In Times Square.
@zenvelo I remember that from the library.
On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. A beautiful book. Vuong is a poet, and this is his first novel.
A few years ago I came across a psychologist/researcher called Edwin S. Shneidman. He is unheard of today, but he was a pioneer in psychology, particularly suicide. He was one of the first people to suggest deep, individualized analysis on the reason of suicide rather than going for the surface answer of “they have mental issues”. I have read three of his books:
- The Suicidal Mind. It’s his introductory work on his philosophy on suicide and his three case studies.
– Autopsy of a Suicidal Mind. A detailed case study of a young man who worked as both a doctor and a lawyer and died from overdose. It contains interviews of family members as well as other psychologists.
– Suicide as Psychache. A collection of his research papers. This one reveals more about his research method.
These books have boosted my knowledge of psychology significantly. Shneidman’s work isn’t just about suicide, but about human psyche in general. There are a lot of things in those books that can be applied into real-life situations to understand people around you.
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