[Darth-Apple]

It goes without saying that the bestsellers list isn't a bad place to start when it comes to quickly vetting books that might be interesting. If I'm not lying, most of the books I read are probably either from the bestsellers list, or they are too specific in niche to get that kind of an at-scale audience. They're easy to find, and they're usually pretty good. 

It has, however, also had me wondering about the lesser-known circles of the writing world (a world I know very little about). How many excellent books, fiction or nonfiction, never had the kind of audience to get that level of attention? And of course, a quick stroll through a library (or these days, a few searches on the Amazon Kindle Store) shows that there are far more books that have been written than a Barnes and Noble can really give me a fair comprehension or appreciation of. 

What are some of the less-popular (but heavily underrated) books that you've read, and what makes you recommend them?

[tc4me]

Unfortunately I'm overwhelmed. My books are just laughing. I can't do anything with the fact that we are subject to serious literature
My books are of course all in my mother tongue German
Here is my favorite list
Tommy Jaud

• Vollidiot
  
• Millionär
  
• Überman
  
• Resturlaub
  
• Hummeldumm
  
• Ein Scheiß muss ich
  
• Der Löwe brüllt
  

[Guardian]

Lesser known circles...

I really enjoyed S.M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time books covering the "Nantucket" series from his The Change series. I wish he would have kept that going. The Emberverse books from The Change series is also really good.

Potentially controversially, Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series was also fascinating.