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Oddest Quirkiest and Interesting Books
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Post Mon, Apr 06 2020, 8:03 pm
What have you come across?

Read at your own risk!

Here's one - The Dry Bones Passover Haggadah (Hebrew and English Edition) by Yaakov Kirschen
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librarygirl




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 06 2020, 11:24 pm
Shalom Japan by shifra horn, the wife of the then Israeli ambassador to Japan. Definitely inappropriate stuff but fascinating read about a VERY different culture. Read years ago.
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:13 am
My Lady Jane
The first time I read it I decided it was weird and returned it to the library. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and that was when I realized there was genius in the madness.
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chanatron1000




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:19 am
Ravenclaw wrote:
My Lady Jane
The first time I read it I decided it was weird and returned it to the library. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and that was when I realized there was genius in the madness.

Have you read My Plain Jane?
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:20 am
House of Stairs by William Sleator. A dystopian novel before the genre existed!! I think it was published in the 70s though I read it early 90s. I read it as a preteen and didn't read it again for probably 20 years. It still stood the test of time and I was amazed by now well I remembered it which shows how memorable it was. I had literally never read anything like it before and all the dystopian novels that came after seem kind of vanilla after it.
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Cheshire cat




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:40 am
amother [ Ruby ] wrote:
House of Stairs by William Sleator. A dystopian novel before the genre existed!! I think it was published in the 70s though I read it early 90s. I read it as a preteen and didn't read it again for probably 20 years. It still stood the test of time and I was amazed by now well I remembered it which shows how memorable it was. I had literally never read anything like it before and all the dystopian novels that came after seem kind of vanilla after it.


I read that book in the seventh grade. It made such a deep impression on me! A grand, haunting masterpiece. I ought to reread it.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:43 am
Lol, I just looked it up on Amazon and pretty much all the reviews were from people saying they had read it, like, 25 years ago and were so haunted by it they eventually tracked it down to reread it! And they all thought it was just as haunting and well done when they reread it as adults.
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:48 am
chanatron1000 wrote:
Have you read My Plain Jane?


Yes! I love how they dealt with everything that bothered me about Mr. Rochester. And blended Charlotte in so well (especially with her brother the parson and Lowood, etc).
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:58 am
I just ordered House of Stairs thanks to this thread.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 12:59 am
You'll have to come back and update us. Very Happy
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Kiwi13




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:19 am
Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe
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naturalmom5




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:21 am
How about Handmaidens Tale
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:24 am
Kiwi13 wrote:
Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe


Yes! Whoever hasn’t read it, I personally think the following quote is a pretty good overview of what the book is about. It’s probably my favorite part:

Quote:
Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.

And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.

This is a complete record of its thoughts from the moment it began its life till the moment it ended it.

Ah … ! What’s happening? it thought.

Er, excuse me, who am I?

Hello?

Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?

What do I mean by who am I?

Calm down, get a grip now … oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It’s a sort of … yawning, tingling sensation in my … my … well I suppose I’d better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let’s call it my stomach.

Good. Ooooh, it’s getting quite strong. And hey, what’s about this whistling roaring sound going past what I’m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that … wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do … perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I’ve found out what it’s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What’s this thing? This … let’s call it a tail – yeah, tail. Hey! I can can really thrash it about pretty good can’t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn’t seem to achieve very much but I’ll probably find out what it’s for later on. Now – have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

No.

Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I’m quite dizzy with anticipation …

Or is it the wind?

There really is a lot of that now isn’t it?

And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like … ow … ound … round … ground! That’s it! That’s a good name – ground!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:26 am
naturalmom5 wrote:
How about Handmaidens Tale

That came after House of Stairs, lol. Published in the 80s, I believe. Definitely not the first dystopian novel. (Personally, I'm not a fan. But I read it before the tv show came out.)
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:29 am
amother [ Ruby ] wrote:
That came after House of Stairs, lol. Published in the 80s, I believe. Definitely not the first dystopian novel. (Personally, I'm not a fan. But I read it before the tv show came out.)


If we are discussing old dystopian novels then there is The Giver by Lois Lowry.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:31 am
That was early 90s I think.
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Kiwi13




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:32 am
The Time Machine by HG Wells is another great dystopian.
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:33 am
More sci fi/futuristic than dystopian, I think.
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Kiwi13




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:37 am
amother [ Ruby ] wrote:
More sci fi/futuristic than dystopian, I think.


The Time Machine? Definitely dystopian in my view. The whole underworld situation vs. the ignorant happy go lucky people at the top for example... I don’t remember that much about it. I read it a very long time ago, but it was not the happy future he hoped to find, that much I remember.
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daagahminayin




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 1:57 am
If we’re going back to childhood for haunting stories:

Marianne Dreams

Tom’s Midnight Garden

Flower’s for Algernon

Goodnight Mr Tom
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