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tauntonlake t1_jaw6lis wrote

Steinbeck's Travels with Charley

I found it by accident at a book sale year ago, and had never heard of it.

I've always loved the cross country road trip books, so I picked it up.

became one of my favorite books of all time.

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AmazingAtheist94 t1_jawayyp wrote

Steinbeck has a lot of unerrated works.

Once There Was a War is his other major nonfiction work, it's a compendium of his columns as a war correspondent during WWII.

In Dubious Battle is my favorite of his novels. It's an early one, it's not as polished as his later works he's known for, but it's a solid story on it's own and fascinating to read in relation to the themes of The Grapes of Wrath. It's almost like a trial run for Grapes.

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gogorath t1_jawx7sd wrote

Winter of Our Discontent is one of my favorites and rarely mentioned.

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bhbhbhhh t1_jawx3dm wrote

I really want to read A Russian Journal, his recollection of visiting the Soviet Union. In his fiction, I'm curious to see if The Wayward Bus is good.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_jaw8ozq wrote

I also loved Travels with Charley. It is ironic and witty. It makes me want to have a drink with Steinbeck. The eyewitness account of school desegregation is fascinating.

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removed_bymoderator t1_jaw598u wrote

God Knows by Joseph Heller. I think it is far funnier than Catch 22.

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ColdSpringHarbor t1_jawqyv6 wrote

I see a lot of people love Something Happened also. Some people even saying it's better than Catch-22.

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DongSandwich t1_jax0fs5 wrote

I couldn’t finish Something Happened, I don’t know what it was. Picture This though, just as good as Catch-22 and God Knows. I, Claudius was hilarious on the same vein and would highly recommend

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JonKon1 t1_jawp2y9 wrote

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

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clickclickdomino t1_jawmw1v wrote

There’s a random book by Aldous Huxley called Antic Hay, and I enjoyed it more than Brave New World…

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Nizamark t1_jawvmzk wrote

A Widow for One Year by John Irving

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richg0404 t1_jaxc6d5 wrote

I liked that one but my favorite under rated book by John Irving is "Last Night in Twisted River"

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non_clever_username t1_jawd5tt wrote

I was surprised how much I like Joyland by Stephen King. Made me nostalgic for a time I never lived in.

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mailordermonster t1_jawjnz2 wrote

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S.Lewis.

Sci-fi, about exploring Mars. It's part of a trilogy. I meant to read the other books but haven't gotten around to it yet.

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Jake_Titicaca t1_jawvgz9 wrote

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Kinda gets overshadowed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

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Rlpniew t1_jaxgjhy wrote

I love the book and the hugely underrated film, but I do have a problem compartmentalizing the anti-union sentiment

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campganymede t1_jaw94bk wrote

“Icerigger” by Alan Dean Foster👍

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Canucklehead_Esq t1_jawa6wn wrote

Lost in the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut

The Road to Gandolfo by Robert Ludlu.m

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Negative_Gravitas t1_jawkuo8 wrote

Not to be that guy, but it's "Welcome to the Monkey House."

Also, I agree it's great, but folks should know it is a collection of short stories.

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Canucklehead_Esq t1_jawl8w0 wrote

Sorry, old brain. I read that as a teenager

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Negative_Gravitas t1_jaxgujs wrote

No worries at all. Old brain here, too. Also . . . hm. I've been going back to Vonnegut a bit in my senescence. Just re-read Sirens of Titan and Galapagos a couple of months ago. Maybe it's time to give Welcome to the Monkey House another look. It's only been about 45 years. Cheers and good luck out there.

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svevobandini t1_jax5bw9 wrote

Holds many of my favorite short stories, but one in particular gets me every time. "The Manned Missiles"

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Negative_Gravitas t1_jaxh7hp wrote

Damn. I had forgotten that one. Epistolary, right? I think I need to go back to that book. I also think I have a copy of it here somewhere . . . thanks for the reminder and best of luck out there.

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svevobandini t1_jaxxc3p wrote

Yes, an American father and Russian father writing back and forth. Incredible.

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CraftyRole4567 t1_jaxgp4d wrote

Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald. Personally I think it’s a lot better than Gatsby, but it’s been forgotten.

Frank Norris’ McTeague is still read, but I love his book Vandover and the Brute. It’s a sort of fantasy story about social Darwinism in action where a pampered, wealthy man begins devolving as he loses his housing and begins to spiral down through worse and worse living conditions, eventually >!becoming a werewolf!<

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Ineffable7980x t1_jaxv1vt wrote

I love McTeague! But very few people other than literature majors seem to know it

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CraftyRole4567 t1_jb0ltrd wrote

We read it in high school! I sometimes think of it when I’m being cheap about something… don’t be like Trina!

But I always thought it’s weird that of his books, McTeague is the only one that blames the individual more than it does capitalism – he mainly critiqued capitalism but somehow that’s not the famous book. I’m not saying it’s a conspiracy but…

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Ineffable7980x t1_jb1dr1d wrote

It's a great book. I don't think of Norris as anti-capitalist as much as a proponent of naturalism. McTeague is a great example of that

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Reasonable-Leave7140 t1_jaw4xt0 wrote

If you want to delve into the lives of coal miners in England do I have an author for you!

I've enjoyed most of DH Lawrence so far- the Tresspasser and Lost Girl are both less regarded but good.

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pedrynn1109 t1_jawy9zs wrote

The Woman with the Velvet Necklace by Alexander Dumas. Found it for sale in an old book shop. Am a fan of Dumas but had never heard of the book. Turned out to be a very enjoyable short read with a gnarly ending.

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dunwall_scoundrel t1_jaxhltk wrote

Since you mentioned Orwell, I’d like to raise you ‘Homage to Catalonia’!

It’s hardly unknown, of course, but more people need to hear about it.

It’s a surprisingly droll, even humorous piece of writing, in spite of the work being a personal account of the Spanish Civil War in which Orwell participated as a volunteer soldier of the republican army.

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sakellen t1_jaw6lcn wrote

"The Eve of Saint Venus" by Anthony Burgess is absolutely hysterical but most people only know "A Clockwork Orange."

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helvetiq t1_jawadz1 wrote

The Crocodile is a short story by Dostoevsky and it's absolutely hilarious.

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PBYACE t1_jawc33u wrote

End of Eternity, Asimov, and The God Makers, Herbert.

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IusedtobeaChef t1_jawh8r2 wrote

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card, who has written much more than the Ender’s Game books.

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zebrafish- t1_jawlrhx wrote

When people talk about Toni Morrison, they usually talk about Beloved and Song of Solomon — or to a lesser extent, The Bluest Eye and Sula. Those are great books, but one of my favorites by her is Tar Baby. I feel like it is on par with her most famous four. I think it gets overshadowed because it came out right in between Song of Solomon and Beloved!

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Bao-Babe t1_jawpofo wrote

I don't know why Huckleberry Finn is lauded as one of Twain's best and most progressive works; the Phelps chapters at the end are particularly frustrating. Pudd'nhead Wilson is far less known than Huck Finn but it's about 100× better, especially in terms of its anti-slavery message.

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DerpWilson t1_jawuvgq wrote

I’m a huge fan of Roughing It.

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CraftyRole4567 t1_jaxg8mo wrote

King Leopold’s Soliloquy is amazing, and no one reads it. Twain was objecting to the same Belgian policies in the Congo with the Soliloquy that Joseph Conrad was criticizing in Heart of Darkness, which also makes it interesting.

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TheGlaive t1_jawuztl wrote

Samuel Beckett's Endgame.

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CrusaderKingstheNews t1_jawwlmb wrote

"Homage to Catalonia" by Orwell as well. His first-hand account fighting against the fascists in Spain.

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bhbhbhhh t1_jawxbio wrote

The Mirror of the Sea is Joseph Conrad's major nonfiction work, in which he says everything he has to say about what it means to be a sailor and struggle with the wind and waves, visiting adventurous ports.

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RickyRichardRick t1_jax2ywz wrote

Anything and everything by Sinclair Lewis, but especially Babbitt. The book played a large part in Lewis winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.

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xXCoffeeCreamerXx t1_jax67so wrote

Hocus Pocus and Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut are both pretty underrated

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Radirondacks t1_jaxe1xl wrote

Desperation by Stephen King. I love most of his work and it's really not anything special comparatively but I just adore everything about it for some reason. The characters, the setting, the points of view, the antagonist, they just all hit some weird sweet spot for me lol.

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srslymrarm t1_jaxhdiz wrote

Fahrenheit 451 eats up all of Bradbury's press because it's dystopian lit that's taught in schools, and it's a pretty good book. But The Martian Chronicles is a masterpiece.

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ScullyBoffin t1_jaxj6ac wrote

I loved Orwell’s Down and Out in London and Paris. Such a marvellous account of poverty in that era and class observations that still ring true now.

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