Great books that are a bit out there
Discover unique and unconventional reads with our list of great books that are a bit out there. Explore mind-bending, offbeat, and extraordinary literature for curious readers.
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Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates
by Tom Robbins
âAs clever and witty a novel as anyone has written in a long time . . . Robbins takes readers on a wild, delightful ride. . . . A delight from beginning to end.ââBuffalo News Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy; a cyberwhiz who hates computers; a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesnât merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. And as we dog Swittersâs strangely elevated heels across four continents, in and out of love and danger, discovering in the process the âtrueâ Third Secret of Fatima, we experience Tom Robbinsâthat fearless storyteller, spiritual renegade, and verbal break dancerâat the top of his game. On one level this is a fast-paced CIA adventure story with comic overtones; on another itâs a serious novel of ideas that brings the Big Picture into unexpected focus; but perhaps more than anything else, Fierce Invalids is a sexy celebration of language and life. Praise for Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates âSuperb.ââNew York Post âDangerous? Wicked? Forbidden? You bet. . . . Pour yourself a bowl of chips and dig in.ââDaily News, New York âRobbins is a great writer . . . and definitely a provocative rascal.ââThe Tennessean âWhoever said truth is stranger than fiction never read a Tom Robbins novel. . . Clever, creative, and witty, Robbins tosses off impassioned observations like handfuls of flower petals.ââSan Diego Union-Tribune
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Dune
by Frank Herbert
⢠DUNE: PART TWO ⢠THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert ⢠Starring TimothĂŠe Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, LĂŠa Seydoux, with Stellan SkarsgĂĽrd, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem Frank Herbertâs classic masterpieceâa triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreidesâwho would become known as Muad'Dibâand of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
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Lamb
by Christopher Moore
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years -- except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer). Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more -- except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala -- and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.
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Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein
The complete, uncut version of Robert A. Heinleinâs all-time masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a science fiction classic. Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teaches them about grokking and water-sharing, he also inspires a transformation that will alter Earthâs inhabitants forever...
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Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn
One of the most beloved and bestselling novels of spiritual adventure ever published, Ishmael has earned a passionate following. This special twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new foreword and afterword by the author. âA thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species on the planet . . . laid out for us with an originality and a clarity that few would deny.ââThe New York Times Book Review Teacher Seeks Pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person. It was just a three-line ad in the personals section, but it launched the adventure of a lifetime. So begins an utterly unique and captivating novel. It is the story of a man who embarks on a highly provocative intellectual adventure with a gorillaâa journey of the mind and spirit that changes forever the way he sees the world and humankindâs place in it. In Ishmael, which received the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship for the best work of fiction offering positive solutions to global problems, Daniel Quinn parses humanityâs origins and its relationship with nature, in search of an answer to this challenging question: How can we save the world from ourselves? Explore Daniel Quinnâs spiritual Ishmael trilogy: ISHMAEL ⢠MY ISHMAEL ⢠THE STORY OF B Praise for Ishmael âAs suspenseful, inventive, and socially urgent as any fiction or nonfiction you are likely to read this or any other year.ââThe Austin Chronicle âBefore weâre halfway through this slim book . . . weâre in [Daniel Quinnâs] grip, we want Ishmael to teach us how to save the planet from ourselves. We want to change our lives.ââThe Washington Post âArthur Koestler, in an essay in which he wondered whether mankind would go the way of the dinosaur, formulated what he called the Dinosaurâs Prayer: âLord, a little more time!â Ishmael does its bit to answer that prayer and may just possibly have bought us all a little more time.ââLos Angeles Times
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Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
by Tom Robbins
âThis is one of those special novelsâa piece of working magic, warm, funny, and sane.ââThomas Pynchon The whooping crane rustlers are girls. Young girls. Cowgirls, as a matter of fact, all âbursting with dimples and hormonesââand the FBI has never seen anything quite like them. Yet their rebellion at the Rubber Rose Ranch is almost overshadowed by the arrival of the legendary Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash goddess literally born to hitchhike, and the freest female of them all. Freedom, its prizes and its prices, is a major theme of Tom Robbinsâs classic tale of eccentric adventure. As his robust characters attempt to turn the tables on fate, the reader is drawn along on a tragicomic joyride across the badlands of sexuality, wild rivers of language, and the frontiers of the mind.
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A Dirty Job
by Christopher Moore
Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okayâuntil people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death. It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.
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Gun, with Occasional Music
by Jonathan Lethem
In a bizarre, noirish world shared by people and intelligent animals, Conrad Metcalf, a human private detective, finds one of his cases has drawn him into a conflict between gangsters and the Inquisitor's office. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.
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Already Dead
by Charlie Huston
Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: theyâre true. Only itâs not like the movies or old man Stokerâs storybook. Itâs worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt. Thereâs a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folksâ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but heâs still the one who has to deal with them. Thatâs just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word. From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and heâs not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and heâs tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus thatâs eating at him isnât his idea of a good time. And Joe doesnât make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattanâit ainât easy. Itâs worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalitionâthe cityâs most powerful Clanâand finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl whoâs gone missing in Alphabet City. Now the Coalition and the girlâs high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.
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No Dominion
by Charlie Huston
Joe Pittâs life sucks. He hasnât had a case or a job in God knows how long and his stashes are running on empty. What stashes? The only ones that count to a guy like Joe: blood and money. The money he uses to buy blood; the blood he drinks. Hey, buddy, itâs that or your neckâyou want to choose? The only way to lay his hands on both is to take a gig with the local Vampyre Clan. See, something new is on the streets, a new high, a high so strong it can send a Vampyre spazzing through Joeâs local watering hole. Till Joe sends him through a plate-glass window, that is. So itâs time for Joe to gut up and swallow that pride and follow the leads wherever they go. It wonât be long before heâs slapping stoolies, getting sapped, and being taken for a ride above 110th Street. Someoneâs pulling Joeâs strings, and now heâs riding the A train, looking to find who it is. Heâs gonna cut them when he finds themâthe strings and the hands that hold them.
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American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path. One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.