Top Ten Most Unique Books I've Read

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish  - they provide a topic and the bloggers of the world provides lists that fit the topic.  It's a ton of fun.  This week's topic is most unique books I've ever read.  Lets see what I can dig around and find.

1) Any book by Mary Roach. 

Mary Roach was on last weeks list too which is making me feel...not terribly unique with this list, but I do believe she deserves a place on this list.  Roach writes non-fiction books about topics that most people would be extremely awkward about delving into.  Like all the various and sundry ways human cadavers can be used.  She does it in a fearless sort of way and provides really fascinating scientific information with a sense of humor while somehow still managing to be respectful.  I've never read anyone who has anything like her style.

2)  Most any book by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde writes fantastical mysteries and his style of writing, his clever imagination and his sense of humor is definitely unique in my experience.  Folks are likely most familiar with his Thursday Next Series, a mystery/police procedural series where the "cop" investigates crimes that happen within books.  As a bibliophile, you'd likely enjoy it.  My top recommendation for him is a book I read earlier this year called Shades of Grey (my review) which is the first in a new series and I LOVED it.  Need I mention that Mr. Fforde also has a unique name. 

3) Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delaney

The sum total of my review of this book on Goodreads: "An extremely creative book that has stuck with me despite the fact that I was not smart enough to understand most of it."  Very unique book and short.  Worth reading especially if you are smarter than I which you probably are.

4) Sunshine by Robin McKinley

 This book is on here because it was unique for the author.  Robin McKinley is a deservedly iconic and much loved writer, mostly of really fantastic YA including a lot of wonderful fairy tale re-tellings. Sunshine was a pretty adult book about vampires and other paranormal folk.  And cinnamon buns.  A lot of folks really hated it.  I came down on the side of really loved it and wish she'd write more in this world.

5) The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

This was a recent read from last year and it really rocked my world (my review), not in a life-has-been- forever-changed sort of way but in a wow-what-an-awesome-and-creative-read-that-was sort of way!  I'm not even sure how you would file it, genre wise - the closest is Urban Fantasy but its not like any Urban Fantasy I've ever read.  For one thing the heroine isn't particularly violent or physically kick ass - she's a paper pusher but she is tough.  Basically it was definitely one of the most unique reads of last year.

6) Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson

So what do you think this book is about?  If you guessed evolutionary biology you'd be right!  It's a non-fiction book about the evolution of various forms of reproduction in the form of  letters to a sex advice column from a myriad of creatures with bizarre sexual systems.  Much fun but also a unique learning experience about the science of evolution.

7) Anything by Kurt Vonnegut

I've only read two or three of his novels but I think it is safe to say that there is no other author like him.

8 and 9. Two Australian YA Writers: Garth Nix and D.M. Cornish

The Australian water must be honey for rich imaginations because I have found both of these writers to be utterly unique.  I'm in the middle of D.M. Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo series and I've only read The Keys to the Kingdom series and a few of his short stories from Garth Nix but I'm pretty confident in saying they are unique.

10) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This is another I am including because I felt it was a bit different than her normal books.  It has a lot of the standard Christie elements but also has a serious feeling of menace and creepiness. 

There are a number of others I thought of that could be included (like We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, The Flavia DeLuce series by Alan Bradley for a very unique heroine) and I'll probably think of many more later today.  None of the above are truly weird or out there but they are distinct.  What books would you have included on this list?