Top Ten Underrated Books

It's Top Ten Tuesday over at The Broke and the Bookish!  Today's topic is underrated books.  This took some thought.  I tried to focus on books that I loved that I didn't hear much buzz about - the kind of books I want to tell everyone about!  If you are interested in my list of underrated books for kids and teens, check out Great Books for Kids and Teens.

Here is my list of Top Ten Underrated Books:

1. Replay by Ken Grimwood – this book appears on many of my top ten lists because it is one of my favorite books, though its official designation as sci-fi tends to make people draw incorrect conclusions and skip over it.  Too bad - it's thought-provoking and compelling.
2. All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India by Rachel Manija Brown – a memoir about a young girl’s experiences when her parents move the family to an ashram in India.
3. 12,000 Miles in the Nick of Time: A Semi-Dysfunctional Family Circumnavigates the Globe by Mark Jacobson – another one of my favorite memoirs, about both travel and family.
4. One Mississippi by Mark Childress – I often hear about his other novels, especially Crazy in Alabama (also wonderful) but rarely hear anyone mention this one which my husband and I (and all the friends and family I lent it to) loved .
5. China Run by David Ball – now out of print (though available used) but my entire book group loved it, and I’d never heard of the author (before or since).
6. Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Glidner – another fabulous memoir, about growing up in the 50’s near Niagara Falls – everyone in my book group loved it.
7. Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh – read it twice and recommended it to my book group.
8. The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca  Wells – everyone raves about her Ya-Ya books (which I liked, too), but Calla Lily didn’t garner much attention – my mother and I both loved the audio.  I laughed, I cried…
9. Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers – didn’t hear much about this unique, tear-jerker novel told entirely in notes left between a mother and daughter. 
10. Building a Home with My Husband by Rachel Simon – this second memoir didn’t attract nearly as much attention as her first, Riding the Bus with My Sister, but was just as well-written and thoughtful.

 
How about you?  What are your favorite underrated books?