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Oddest Quirkiest and Interesting Books
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Hashem_Yaazor




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 07 2020, 11:40 pm
I don't think I saw The Mysterious Benedict Society mentioned. Really for kids but definitely quirky.
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youngishbear




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 08 2020, 12:45 am
Kiwi13 wrote:
Now I gotta know, what's your least favorite kind?


Bodily functions jokes.

Perfect for 8-year-olds but I don't find them amusing.
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youngishbear




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 08 2020, 12:47 am
lilies wrote:
Beneath the cringe humor there's sharp wit.
It's definitely quirky or odd, so there's that.


Definitely. Lots of satire. And I don't regret reading it. It gave me a lot of food for thought and some very memorable images lol. Reading it was a painful experience though. I hope this makes sense.

I guess I can sum it up as intellectually impressive but emotionally cringey.
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amother
Coral


 

Post Wed, Apr 08 2020, 1:21 am
Blindness by Jose saramago
The bus on Thursday by Barrett Shirley
The vegetarian by han kang

These are three I remember off the top of my head. All are really really weird. Like I finished reading them and was like.....Huh??

Also , of course house of stairs. So disturbing I read it as a child and then again as an adult just to see if it was still as weird as I remembered. And as another poster mentioned, Robert Cormier has a bunch of weird books.
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amother
Olive


 

Post Wed, Apr 08 2020, 1:24 am
I don't enjoy the dystopian genre, way to confusing for me. I started one discworld book but I think I didn't end up finishing it.

I do enjoy fantasy that's not too way out. The Menyms series by Sylvia Waugh is about a family of human size cloth dolls. I think there are five books. She also has a three part series about people from another planet living on earth. I would say the books are Young Adult and quite clean.

Can everyone who recommends a book offer a short summary? Also if clean.

(Going off topic somewhat: I was very disappointed to find The Yiddish Policeman's Union quite vulgar. I threw it out.

I'm debating about finishing the Marrying of Chani Kaufman. So far a bit too vulgar & I suspect it will get worse. The author is clearly not frum and I feel like she's projecting her ideas of what frum dating, engagement and marriage MUST be like, because how could it possibly be as pure as it seems.)
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imorethanamother




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 08 2020, 2:08 am
This one was weird. Genesis, a book by Bernard Becket. But I somehow loved it? And I mean, LOVED IT. Don't be freaked out by the plot summary on wikipedia. Just read it without knowing anything. It's a very short book.

Also, speaking of Terry Pratchett, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman produced my favorite book, Good Omens. To me, it was kinda quirky as well. They made a tv series out of it recently, but it's just awful.


Last edited by imorethanamother on Wed, Apr 08 2020, 2:13 am; edited 2 times in total
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imorethanamother




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 08 2020, 2:11 am
I cannot for the life of me remember the title, but it was a book where it turned Cinderella completely around and I loved it. It was weird and quirky, where Cinderella was some kind of witch and Prince Charming was cursed because he charmed everyone so he grew up to be a horrible horrible person who was surrounded by sycophants.
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imasoftov




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Apr 10 2020, 7:42 am
Finnegan's Wake
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Apr 10 2020, 8:08 am
"Uncle Shelby's ABZs" By Shel Siverstein.

My foster mom introduced this book to us girls when we were around 16. I still wonder what she was trying to say to us?
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ora_43




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 1:02 pm
Cheshire cat wrote:
Ora,
Do you mind providing author's name for The Leftovers and The Age of Miracles? (A quick search turned up several.)

Also, would love to hear of interesting book recs that are not necessarily dystopian or depressing!

Tom Perrotta and Karen Thompson Walker, respectively. Both are a bit depressing (especially the second one), but I recommend them.
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ora_43




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 1:06 pm
The entire Discworld series falls into the "odd but not unhappy" category IMHO.

Here's a potentially controversial one - The Host, by Stephanie Meyer (the woman who wrote the Twilight series). The book is set in a dystopian future in which aliens have taken over earth and possessed 99.9% of humans. It's told from the POV of one of the aliens.

Because it's Stephanie Meyer, there's also a weird love triangle with creepy undertones. And the alien-brain-parasite thing is barely explored. But still, the concept itself is fascinating.
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 1:21 pm
momaleh wrote:
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It was hailed as a masterpiece, I couldn't get through it. Way too disturbing, especially tied into Judaism.


This. Same experience. When I saw the title of this thread, this is the first book that came to mind.
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DrMom




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 2:14 pm
momaleh wrote:
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It was hailed as a masterpiece, I couldn't get through it. Way too disturbing, especially tied into Judaism.

I liked it.

I couldn't get past the first few chapters of his next novel, Here I Am. I thought it was horrid.

How about The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro?

For kids' books: anything by Daniel Pinkwater
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carrot




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 2:46 pm
lilies wrote:
A Confederacy of Dunces (Penguin Essentials) by John Kennedy Toole

Don't know how to describe this one properly, here's the New York Times quote;
‘A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities..


Was thinking of this one too. Though I agree with the cringe factor.
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amother
Khaki


 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 9:21 pm
imorethanamother wrote:
This one was weird. Genesis, a book by Bernard Becket. But I somehow loved it? And I mean, LOVED IT. Don't be freaked out by the plot summary on wikipedia. Just read it without knowing anything. It's a very short book.

Also, speaking of Terry Pratchett, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman produced my favorite book, Good Omens. To me, it was kinda quirky as well. They made a tv series out of it recently, but it's just awful.


OMG I loved Good Omens! And the show was everything I wanted it to be. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 9:33 pm
Just read very quirky book over yom tov.
Etiquette and Espionage.

Then again most steampunk books are quirky by default.
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 9:35 pm
imorethanamother wrote:
This one was weird. Genesis, a book by Bernard Becket. But I somehow loved it? And I mean, LOVED IT. Don't be freaked out by the plot summary on wikipedia. Just read it without knowing anything. It's a very short book.

Also, speaking of Terry Pratchett, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman produced my favorite book, Good Omens. To me, it was kinda quirky as well. They made a tv series out of it recently, but it's just awful.


Good Omens is brilliant. Every time I reread it I get more and more references.
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Kiwi13




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Apr 11 2020, 9:45 pm
When I was a kid I had a book about the three little pigs, told from the perspective of the wolf. It was really fun!
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rachel6543




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 12 2020, 12:46 am
About 15-20 years ago I read an interesting, humorous book about hiking along the Appalachian Trail. I remember it being quirky and very different from any other book I had read and quite enjoyed it. I’ve tried searching online to figure out who the author was. I *think* the book is “A Walk in the Woods” by author Bill Bryson.
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amother
Emerald


 

Post Sun, Apr 12 2020, 1:57 am
amother [ Olive ] wrote:
I don't enjoy the dystopian genre, way to confusing for me. I started one discworld book but I think I didn't end up finishing it.

I do enjoy fantasy that's not too way out. The Menyms series by Sylvia Waugh is about a family of human size cloth dolls. I think there are five books. She also has a three part series about people from another planet living on earth. I would say the books are Young Adult and quite clean.

Can everyone who recommends a book offer a short summary? Also if clean.

(Going off topic somewhat: I was very disappointed to find The Yiddish Policeman's Union quite vulgar. I threw it out.

I'm debating about finishing the Marrying of Chani Kaufman. So far a bit too vulgar & I suspect it will get worse. The author is clearly not frum and I feel like she's projecting her ideas of what frum dating, engagement and marriage MUST be like, because how could it possibly be as pure as it seems.)
I don‘t recommend finishing Marrying of Chani Kaufman!
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