OnlineBookClub.org

I'm sure a lot of our favorite authors are popular. However, we each must like a few unpopular authors as well. Sometimes unpopular authors have a small but very loyal fanbase. Who are your favorite unpopular authors?

I'm the only person I know who's into Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a radical Kenyan novelist. He composed his entire novel "Devil on the Cross" by writing it on toilet paper in his prison cell (he was locked up for opposing the Kenyatta dictatorship). He used to translate his own books from English into his native language Gikuyu, but decided to write them in Gikuyu and translate them into English from now on. He called this shift the "decolonization of the mind". I would recommend "Devil on the Cross", "A Grain of Wheat", "Petals of Blood", "River Between", and any of his other books.

Eric wrote:I'm the only person I know who's into Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a radical Kenyan novelist.

Thanks for the tip! I've never heard of this guy at all, I look forward to checking him out. I'm racking my brain for something a bit obscure which I can reccomend but I guess I'm too cautious, I spend all my time reading things that others have already said are good. One book which I really loved and I don't think many people have heard of (though it isn't fiction), was The Old Way by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. It is about the so-called bushmen of the Kalahari, very interesting story.

I can't think of any off hand but I'll put my mind to it and come back.

I really like Caleb Carr. Is he unpopular?

Not really unpopular, but probably not too widely read nowadays is Eleanor Roosevelt... since she is better known for a different role in history. Her writing is highly intelligent and yet readable. I prep'd for my GRE by reading one of her books. It was full of fancy words...

Rob Thurman, who in fact is a woman. She has a small but very loyal fan base. Its kinda like Supernatural, despite the fact that she came up with it before Supernatural was a thought in the creator's mind.

UN-popular, that's a bit different. Well, I downright loved Christopher Morley's books, they're usually viewed as rather boring and pointless... but they're aimed straight at true booklovers, that's probably why. But I used it for a quote in my signature, that has to count for something!

Has anyone read:

Venus in Furs
by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

?

C.N. and A.M. Williamson; a husband and wife team. They wrote several books together from 1898 through 1920 or so. Nobody remembers them today, which is a shame! Their novels mainly focused on road trips and adventures in several different counties, and there was always plenty of romance and sugary wit.

When I bring up Holly Black or Washington Irving, I mostly get blank stares. But I'm sure everyone knows The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; they just don't know the man who wrote it.

I really like Will Leitch's work.
He's humorous, yet oddly insightful.
He puts a lightness on heavy topics.
He's not afraid to make an ass of himself.

I love Patricia Nell Warren, Jay Quinn, and William J. Mann.

All fantastic writers who do not get the attention they deserve.

C.N. and A.M. Williamson; a husband and wife team. They wrote several books together from 1898 through 1920 or so. Nobody remembers them today, which is a shame! Their novels mainly focused on road trips and adventures in several different counties, and there was always plenty of romance and sugary wit.

Oh, I'll be sure to check that out; it sounds like just what I'm into.

I tend to go for what other people recommend, too. But, has anyone read Elizabeth Smart's At Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept? I found it at random when I was 13 and loved it. Because I was 13 and a sap, I don't know if I'd like it today. It's "prose poetry" and recounts the affair Smart had with a then-famous poet who was married. Very lyrical and~painful.

Ayn Rand comes to mind as one of the most polarizing fiction writers. She certainly does have loyal fans and vehement critics.

I also really like Ngugi! I first read him in an African and Caribbean lit class, and one of the reasons I liked it was because they write about topics that aren't on a lot of Americans' radars. It was a horizon-expanding experience. I also recommend Chinua Achebe, J.M Coetzee, and Jean Rhys.

I also admit that I like Dan Brown's books. The Da Vinci Code is my favorite, followed by Angels & Demons, Inferno, and Deception Point. I am just a sucker for his thrillers and I have no shame (well, maybe a little) admitting that I really cannot put his books down.