Great Non-Bestseller Books That Challenge(Part 1)

Discover hidden gems with these great non-bestseller books that challenge conventional thinking. Explore thought-provoking reads that deserve more attention in Part 1 of our curated list.

The Wasp Factory Cover
Book

The Wasp Factory

by Iain Banks

Powerful, perverse, and engrossing, this controversial novel offers a graphic portrait of a serial killer told in the first-person. "Read it if you dare!"--"The Daily Express".
The Man who was Thursday Cover
Book

The Man who was Thursday

by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Supreme Anarchists Council is dedicated to overthrowing the world order. To keep their identities a secret, each of the members has been named after a day of the week. Gabriel Syme, an eccentric poet, is recruited by Scotland Yard to infiltrate the group. He tracks down the six other men and manages to win a place on the council. But after a bizarre twist of events, Syme quickly realizes that appearances are never what they seem in the dangerous world of the political underground.
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ID: 0938410733
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ID: 0786889470
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ID: 038533429X
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ID: 0684838648
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ID: 0876855540
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ID: 1880985195
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Johnny Got His Gun Cover
Book

Johnny Got His Gun

by Dalton Trumbo

For use in schools and libraries only. The powerful story of a young boy and his tragic fate in World War I makes a terrifying statement on the horrors of war and a compelling plea for peace.
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ID: 0679732535
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I am Legend Cover
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I am Legend

 

No summary available.
Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s (LOA #94) Cover
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 40s (LOA #94)

by Robert Polito

Presents six early classics of American noir fiction: James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, Edward Anderson's Thieves Like Us, Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock, William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley, Cornell Woolrich's I Married a Dead Man, and Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They'. A companion volume collects works of the 1950s. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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ID: 0948238038
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ID: 1893626229
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ID: 0385414242
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ID: 0434413399
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ID: 0863561381
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Sex, Art, and American Culture Cover
Book

Sex, Art, and American Culture

by Camille Paglia

A collection of twenty of Paglia's out-spoken essays on contemporary issues in America's ongoing cultural debate such as Anita Hill, Robert Mapplethorpe, the beauty myth, and the decline of education in America.
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ID: 0820317594
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The Demon Cover
Book

The Demon

by Hubert Selby

Harry White is a man haunted by a satyr's lust and an obsessive need for sin and retribution. The more Harry succeeds - a good marriage, a good corporate job - the more desperate he becomes, as a life of petty crime leads to fraud and murder and, eventually, to apocalyptic violence.
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ID: 0876855451
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ID: 0962761206
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Europe Cover
Book

Europe

by Norman Davies

Here is a masterpiece of historical narrative that stretches from the Ice Age to the Atomic Age, as it tells the story of Europe, East and West. Norman Davies captures it all-the rise and fall of Rome, the sweeping invasions of Alaric and Atilla, the Norman Conquests, the Papal struggles for power, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the powerhouse of the world, and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating World Wars. This is the first major history of Europe to give equal weight to both East and West, and it shines light on fascinating minority communities, from heretics and lepers to Gypsies, Jews, and Muslims. It also takes an innovative approach, combining traditional narrative with unique features that help bring history alive: 299 time capsules scattered through the narrative capture telling aspects of an era. 12 -snapshots offer a panoramic look at all of Europe at a particular moment in history. Full coverage of Eastern Europe—100 maps and diagrams, 72 black-and-white plates.All told, Davies’'s Europe represents one of the most important and illuminating histories to be published in recent years.
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ID: 0938410407
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Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and other stories Cover
Book

Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and other stories

 

No summary available.