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pandabear posted:Wow, that's totally it - you have no idea how happy I am! Thanks so much for clearing this up for me! I can't wait get my hands on the whole series and read through them. I think the book I might have been thinking of is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Brrr-James-Stevenson/dp/0688092101/ref=pd_sim_b_2 Hey, thank you-- I'd completely forgotten those books existed. Now I have something to buy the next time I need to give a kid a present  Edit for content: The Duke of Avon posted:I'm looking for a kids book (middle-grade, I guess, separate chapters but not very long) that had to have been published prior to the 1990s. It's about a boy whose parents have to go away for a day or two, so they get this older girl to look after him. The kids somehow end up in the woods in the middle of a blizzard, and they run into this pilot who's also stranded there because he crashed his plane. Eventually they get rescued (by helicopter, I think). I can't find the book you want, but this site has a list of lists (if that makes sense) of books along similar lines. You might be able to find it there. I also found this interesting site: http://www.zbarn.net/adult/books_content_css.php It lets you search for children's books using a number of variables like theme, setting, relationships, or character traits. I haven't really tested it yet but it looks like it might be useful to someone looking for books they read as a kid. titus androgynous fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Apr 19, 2011 |
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Apr 19, 2011 19:40
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eating only apples posted:The Secret of Killimooin, by Enid Blyton. Almost definitely. Yep, thank you!
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Apr 20, 2011 03:03
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BobTheJanitor posted:I recall once reading a sci-fi short story that I can't find now with any amount of Googling. It was about a generational starship, and the POV character was a guy who was a caretaker for the trip that stayed in some sort of stasis or cryo-sleep for most of the trip, only waking up every 100 (I think) years to check on things. I recall something about him waking to find that the ship had become massively overpopulated at one point, and then maybe later that the population had almost degenerated into savagery and that his own existence was only mentioned in myths and that he was referred to as a troll or an ogre or something like that, living in his hidden cave. Until I read your edit, I could have sworn you were talking about "Mayflower II" by Stephen Baxter.
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Apr 21, 2011 06:37
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This book I've been trying to find forever is one I read in elementary school. I know the title was something very simple like "Wings" or "Flight" The cover was a shadow on the ground in the silhouette of someone with wings. The story was about a boy who's dad is running for mayor, and one day he starts getting terrible back pains, his back gets so sensitive to touch that when his friend slaps him on the back one day, the pain causes him to howl and fall to the ground. His parents send him to a doctor who takes x-rays of his back and discovers that he is growing the bone structure of wings under his skin. He tells the parents that soon they will burst from his back, they do and turn out to be huge feathery wings. The parents are miserable because for some reason the father thinks this will ruin his chances for mayor (The parents were just the most unsympathetic bastards in this book, they never once seemed concerned about the kid's well being, just about what people would think about them) The kid goes back to school and everyone is too stunned to say anything about him, they just compare him to another "deformed" kid in the class, a girl with six fingers on one hand. Anyways the kid ends up hiding out on the girl's farm to hide from reporters, learns how to use his wings to fly and loves every second of it, but then his poo poo parents come and plead with him to have the wings surgically removed so that he can come home and be normal so his worthless dad can maybe get elected mayor of their stupid city. All I remember is the mom pleads and cries and guilt trips the kid into giving up his amazing gift. Kid gets the wings cut off and the book ends with him crying in his hospital bed as the six fingered girl holds his hand. Anyone know this book? Blue Pony fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Apr 21, 2011 |
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Apr 21, 2011 08:40
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Sounds like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Bill-Brittain/dp/0064406121
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Apr 21, 2011 10:49
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OK this is a hugely long shot but I'll try anyway. I read this book maybe 10 years ago, but I don't think it was new at the time. It's a young adult novel, in the horror genre. The main characters are two teenagers, a girl and a boy, with maybe a romance subplot between them? The big thing I remember is that there's some kind of horrible thing stalking them. I remember imagining it as like a man, skinned, who crawled on all fours like an animal - I don't know how much of that is actually from the book. The final showdown is in a graveyard and I think the monster ends up locked in a crypt. I think the author's surname began with M, I remember thinking for ages it was Michelle Magorian but I don't think it actually is. Sorry for being vague. 
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Apr 21, 2011 19:27
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I'm looking for a young adult book I read in about 1997. The main character was a girl and the world was locked in winter because they burned so much coal (or something) to keep warm that it made the sky always cloudy or smoky. She revolutionizes the world when she teaches people to keep warm by just thinking warm thoughts and blue sky breaks through. That's about all I can remember about it.
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Apr 22, 2011 05:04
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AreYouStillThere posted:I'm looking for a young adult book I read in about 1997. The main character was a girl and the world was locked in winter because they burned so much coal (or something) to keep warm that it made the sky always cloudy or smoky. She revolutionizes the world when she teaches people to keep warm by just thinking warm thoughts and blue sky breaks through. Winter of Fire by Sherryl Jordan? This is one of those books that I've never read but gets asked about all the time in booksleuthing threads.
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Apr 22, 2011 08:04
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Here is my "please help ID book" Sci-fi story about soldiers in training onboard a spaceship to their destination. The training is VR based, if I remember right there was real life feedback (either physical or mental pain?) and I want to say they may have used tanks or fought a tank in a battle. I also think some/lots of the trainees may have died in training but it's all hazy to me. I would have read this in the late 80s most likely to help give some vintage. I know it's not a hell of a lot to go on...
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Apr 22, 2011 20:53
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A HUNGRY MOUTH posted:Until I read your edit, I could have sworn you were talking about "Mayflower II" by Stephen Baxter. AE Van Vogt wrote similar stories as well - Voyage of the Beagle and I think The Beast is the other one I'm trying to think of.
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Apr 22, 2011 20:56
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Okay, I've already posted this twice in the thread in the past couple years, and haven't gotten any answers... but someone has to know what this drat book is! I've added a couple more details from the last time I posted this. I read this book maybe 8-10 years ago. I don't know if it was new at the time. It MAY have been written by a well known horror writer, or I may have gotten it confused with other books I was reading at the time. I probably got it from the public library, but there is a small chance it was an advance preview copy of a book... which might explain why no one knows what it is. I am pretty sure it was from the library, though. It was about this boy who as a baby was basically just left alone in his crib and never played with or physically handled. I remember something about his crib being in the dining room, and he had brothers and sisters who did get normal affection I think? The story follows him when he is an adult and I think he's either already a murderer/serial killer, or is having fantasies and planning to kill. I remember something about a house that the man was living in that wasn't really his, I think maybe he killed the owner and then was living there? Maybe he was supposed to be the caretaker? I think an old woman owned it and he killed her. There was a short passage about the man getting access to his victim's bank account by figuring out that their pin number was written in their address book under the heading "le pin" as if it was a restaurant. This is probably the most important clue because for some weird reason this is what I remember most clearly about the book. I am 100% sure that this passage is found in the book I am looking for. There is a girl/women who features prominently, who I think is a girl he's recently starting dating/hanging out with. I think she starts to figure out that there is something weird going on with the house he's living in. There was something about a loose tile on the back step that led her to think something was wrong. I think the narrative switched back and forth between the woman's and the man's POV. If anyone can figure out what this drat book is, I'll love you forever! Seriously, I think about this drat book about once every couple months. It's probably not even well-written, but I'd really like to read it again. squeegee fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Apr 22, 2011 |
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Apr 22, 2011 23:10
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It sounds familiar... Was it a computer techy kinda thriller? For some reason I am thinking it's The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver. I remember something about the villain guy photoshopping his own self into some pics so people think he has family, and something about le pin as well. Not 100% though...
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Apr 22, 2011 23:58
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:It sounds familiar... That's definitely not it, but thanks for the tip. I suppose the "le pin" thing could be in more than one book. There may or may not have been computers in the book but it definitely wasn't any kind of tech thriller. As far as I remember it, the main point of the book was that this man was the way he was because of being neglected as a child, and he was (I think) written as a somewhat sympathetic character. For some reason I had a kind of vibe that this took place in the past, but it couldn't have been too long ago because he used an ATM when he discovered the old woman's pin number (or maybe it was the young woman's?)
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Apr 23, 2011 00:27
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Friend of mine is looking for a young adult/kids fantasy type book, probably written in or before the 90s. The basic premise is that a girl goes on vacation with her family and somehow winds up in mystical undersea ruins where someone named Merlin lives, who has been there for a thousand years trying to get his immortality McGuffin back. He teaches her magic to try to get it back for him, but apparently she accidentally destroys it (which he is somehow okay with?) and becomes immortal herself by absorbing its power or something. Said mcguffin was some sort of liquid flowing from a magic shell thing that was described as tasting like colors. Also the mcguffin may have been sort of metaphor for addiction.
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Apr 23, 2011 00:58
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wheatpuppy posted:Winter of Fire by Sherryl Jordan? This is one of those books that I've never read but gets asked about all the time in booksleuthing threads. You're amazing! That's it!
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Apr 23, 2011 05:08
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I'm looking for a book title or an author for someone. I've never read it or heard of it, but I do have some details. The book is probably about 50 or 60 years old and likely out of print. Its about a Mexican boy who is captured by an indian tribe, probably Comanches, after they kill his parents, and then traded to another tribe up north. He escapes and spend the rest of the book evading re-capture and surviving in the wilderness while making his way back to Mexico. Anybody got ideas on this one? I can probably name a dozen different Disney movies that sound just like it. Satone fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Apr 24, 2011 |
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Apr 24, 2011 13:42
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Satone posted:I'm looking for a book title or an author for someone. I've never read it or heard of it, but I do have some details. The book is probably about 50 or 60 years old and likely out of print. Its about a Mexican boy who is captured by an indian tribe, probably Comanches, after they kill his parents, and then traded to another tribe up north. He escapes and spend the rest of the book evading re-capture and surviving in the wilderness while making his way back to Mexico. Hmm... my friend just did a big paper on Joaquin Murrieta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murrieta who had a similar life.... There are a number of books about him. Could that be it?
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Apr 24, 2011 15:12
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SassySally posted:Hmm... my friend just did a big paper on Joaquin Murrieta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murrieta who had a similar life.... There are a number of books about him. Could that be it? Looking at the wikipedia I'd say its possible, but he said the story took place in Texas or maybe Oklahoma.
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Apr 24, 2011 17:51
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I've been looking for a fairly short children's book, about twenty pages or so. I used to read it all the time during the early '80s. The story is about an oyster that made magical pearls. If someone were to steal a pearl, they would be granted a wish. The oyster was guarded by some Medusa-like monster that would turn anyone attempting to steal a pearl to stone. There was a blind girl that wanted a pearl so she could see. A knight, a wizard (not sure if he was a wizard or something else), and a thief all wanted a pearl too for whatever reason. The knight thought he would be safe because of his armor, but he was turned to stone. The wizard, I can't remember. The thief disguised himself in seaweed thinking he could sneak by the monster but he turned to stone too. The girl managed to survive thanks to her blindness and grabbed a pearl. Instead of wishing to see, she wished that the other three went back to normal. Afterwards, the thief admitted that he did manage to grab a pearl before turning to stone and he used his wish to cure the girl of her blindness. What book is this? It's been driving me nuts for years.
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Apr 25, 2011 05:13
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squeegee posted:Okay, I've already posted this twice in the thread in the past couple years, and haven't gotten any answers... but someone has to know what this drat book is! I've added a couple more details from the last time I posted this. I'm happy to say I finally got the name of this book-- it's "A Sight for Sore Eyes" by Ruth Rendell. Someone on a book-finding forum got it for me. I had almost given up on ever finding this book!
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Apr 25, 2011 17:20
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I have two books that have been bugging me, let me try to explain them. 1. I was listening to NPR the other day, and a woman was on reviewing a book. It was kinda post-apocalyptic, or maybe sci-fi-ish and the author was like Kommik? Or Cohmicks or something? It was written in the 20's or 30's, I think? Anyway. One thing that stands out was that they worshiped a Carburetor as a God, and it was kinda satirical or something? It was on My Favorite Books last week, or the week before, I was just driving and not paying a lot of attention. 2. The second has been bugging me forever. I read it likely about ten years ago, it was either a short story or a really short book (young adult or something) about some people who live in crappy villages growing food, with a big, broad, nicely paved road that runs across it. The road lets them trade with some gypsies, who give them a plant they can't grow that contains iodine, or potassium or some other ingredient necessary to human life. Anyway, the main character fucks up somehow and is exiled, and the gypsies let him travel with them, and he starts banging the gypsy daughter. Then at the end of the book is the big reveal, where the gypsies are actually traders, working for an advanced hyperCommunist civilization (you get a card, allowing you to eat our x number of times a month, depending on your job, etc.) that grows the plant and uses it to control all the villages down the road to grow food for them. Anyway, at the end of the book, the guy goes out and spreads the plant, in its fertilized form (so it'll grow) at one of the villages, knowing it will free them all from the slavery of the hyperCommunists. That second one I may be misremembering parts of. He may also gently caress gypsy girl's mom?
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Apr 26, 2011 00:47
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nucleicmaxid posted:2. The second has been bugging me forever. It's by Larry Niven and maybe someone else, but I'm not able to look up the title right now. That should be enough for you though.
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Apr 26, 2011 02:05
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nucleicmaxid posted:1. I was listening to NPR the other day, and a woman was on reviewing a book. It was kinda post-apocalyptic, or maybe sci-fi-ish and the author was like Kommik? Or Cohmicks or something? It was written in the 20's or 30's, I think? Anyway. One thing that stands out was that they worshiped a Carburetor as a God, and it was kinda satirical or something? It was on My Favorite Books last week, or the week before, I was just driving and not paying a lot of attention. Yeah I wanna read this now. http://www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135241076/a-rollicking-critique-of-absolute-religious-fervor
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Apr 26, 2011 03:25
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It was Destiny's Road, if anyone was super curious. You guys are good (and fast.) Thanks a lot! And yeah, I'm looking forward to The Absolute at Large too, it seems pretty interesting.
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Apr 26, 2011 03:40
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Ok, I finally decided to ask for help. I read this book in high school (about 6 or 7 years ago) so I apologize if it's not enough info. It had something to do with people (children/teens?) being set up in pairs (male + female) and they wore masks; they couldn't take them off. I guess they were partners for life and they all had to follow a a set of rules. If you acted differently, you would be punished. Eventually, one of them does something wrong and they were sent to this place where they were put in some chamber/machine (?) & they were given an alternative life. I guess they were put in a deep sleep or something. That person lived the life of a Jewish person. All that I can remember is that she dies in the end with her family. Nazi's put her in a building and then set it on fire. If anyone tries to escape, they were shot. I guess when she's dying, she "wakes" up and is returned to her partner. It ends with her taking off the mask. Any help appreciated 
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Apr 29, 2011 02:18
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I read this book a long, long time ago and was trying to think of the title/author and realized i'd forgotten it. It was about this guy on a very long spaceship voyage who I think is one of the only people not in cryosleep, he's like the custodian or they do it in shifts or something. It flashed back between him on the ship and him back on Earth, and it turns out one of the crew members was sleeping with his wife or something, there was something awful about his marriage. I believe it ended with him killing everyone in cryosleep and slowly going insane alone in space. The big thing I remember is that it began and ended with a series of statements about space, like "Space is big. Space is quiet. Space is very, very cold." or something like that. I want to say it was Vernor Vinge, but none of his books seem to match up and it felt like a more 60's sci-fi book. edit: I think the reveal was actually that he'd already killed the crew and was pretending to tend/check on them as he slowly went nuts alone on the ship. Maybe.
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Apr 29, 2011 23:30
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Pretty sure that's Moorcock's Black Corridor.
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Apr 29, 2011 23:33
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Ballsworthy posted:Pretty sure that's Moorcock's Black Corridor. YES! Thank you, as soon as I read the name it came back to me. You guys are awesome.
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Apr 29, 2011 23:41
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I read a short story in high school in which a guy visits North Africa in the late 19th or early 20th century, gets kidnapped (I think in Morocco) and sold into slavery. They cut off his tongue so he can't tell people his story, and make him dance as entertainment. In the end he basically goes crazy and wanders off into the desert, babbling. It was a good decade ago now, so I could have a fact or two wrong. It might have been Arabia and not Africa. The end may be slightly different. The part I'm sure about is that he got kidnapped, enslaved, and had his tongue cut off. Pretty disturbing stuff, but I'd like to know what the gently caress my 9th grade teacher was having us read.
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May 1, 2011 05:04
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When I was a kid I had some kind of cartoon book. Each illustrated page had several puzzles on it. It was about time travelling kids or something. They traveled through some sort of forest (through some secret mirror/portal thing) back to where there were dinosaurs, and then to where there were Romans, and then to some sort of futuristic moon base or something. What was this book?
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May 3, 2011 04:29
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Orzo posted:When I was a kid I had some kind of cartoon book. Each illustrated page had several puzzles on it. It was about time travelling kids or something. They traveled through some sort of forest (through some secret mirror/portal thing) back to where there were dinosaurs, and then to where there were Romans, and then to some sort of futuristic moon base or something. What was this book? Usborne Puzzle Adventures?: http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?cat=1&area=pz&subcat=pza ShutteredIn fucked around with this message at 17:41 on May 3, 2011 |
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May 3, 2011 17:39
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Yes, thank you. I think I had one of the 'omnibus' ones as I distinctly remember 3 of the stories in one book.
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May 3, 2011 19:56
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I've been lost on this one easily for a decade now... A young adult novel, about a girl who is living in a 1700's village. Until it turns out it's actually a big experiment and actually present day, and that her entire village is about to be killed off for said experiment with a disease. She escapes through an underground tunnel, and much of the story is from her (very confused) perspective of hundreds of years prior as she discovers her way into surviving in the outside world. She calls a press conference and tells all about the whole experiment and gets it stopped, saves her family etc. edit: sure as poo poo I found my entry! everyone read this book http://www.amazon.com/Running-Time-Margaret-Peterson-Haddix/dp/0689812361 
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May 4, 2011 09:21
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I'm trying to find the name of a book I read in middle school about 16 years ago. It was a fantasy book, might have been in the YA section of the library. The one I remember the best was actually the second book in the series. I guess it was about a girl who was being trained to do magic by a knight or some person of a similar status. They were going to a land to help it from something bad that was going on and she was friends with the wolves in the area. There was a book before it where I guess the girl came from a small village and she was in a larger castle area where she met up with the knight thats also in the second book. I think in the second book she had a baby dragon as a pet. I read the book for a book report from school and I really enjoyed it and read the first book. My dad was super christian back then and when he saw that I was really liking the books, he took them and read them and said that I shouldn't read them anymore because the magic was satanic. The hilarious thing was reading Lord of the Rings was ok. I'm really curious what these books actually were. I felt really ashamed and pushed a lot of it from my memory. Now I'm older and comfortable with my agnostic self, but it was a really weird time in my life.
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May 4, 2011 18:17
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Alterian posted:I'm trying to find the name of a book I read in middle school about 16 years ago. It was a fantasy book, might have been in the YA section of the library. The one I remember the best was actually the second book in the series. I guess it was about a girl who was being trained to do magic by a knight or some person of a similar status. They were going to a land to help it from something bad that was going on and she was friends with the wolves in the area. There was a book before it where I guess the girl came from a small village and she was in a larger castle area where she met up with the knight thats also in the second book. I think in the second book she had a baby dragon as a pet. This sounds a lot like Tamora Pierce's The Immortals series. I haven't read them in years so I wasn't sure, but looking it up the second book is the one where she hangs out with her wolf friends and gets the baby dragon. The "knight", I'd imagine, is Numair the mage.
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May 4, 2011 19:13
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eating only apples posted:This sounds a lot like Tamora Pierce's The Immortals series. I haven't read them in years so I wasn't sure, but looking it up the second book is the one where she hangs out with her wolf friends and gets the baby dragon. The "knight", I'd imagine, is Numair the mage. Haha yes! I recognize the covers. Do you know if these books are any good? I feel like reading them as a big old middle finger to my past. It really messed me up for a long time. I was too scared to read anything fictional in case it was "satanic". Hilariously enough we never went to church. My dad's better now. Alterian fucked around with this message at 19:28 on May 4, 2011 |
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May 4, 2011 19:19
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Alterian posted:Haha yes! I recognize the covers. Do you know if these books are any good? I feel like reading them as a big old middle finger to my past. if you have the soul of a preteen girl, you will probably enjoy them. I break out the one I keep locked in the dungeon every once in a while to read whatever the latest is from Pierce and Lackey.
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May 4, 2011 19:29
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When I was a kid, I had a puzzle book filled with weird puzzles and a meta-puzzle in the back. It was structured similar to a CYOA, in that the solution to a puzzle gave you a page number to turn to. It would also give you a letter to fill in on the back page to answer some sort of riddle or question or something. I believe it had a haunted mansion type theme. A few of the puzzles I remember are: Trying to figure out which mushroom among many was safe to eat, and deciphering alien currencies.
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May 4, 2011 20:21
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAZE:_Solve_the_World%27s_Most_Challenging_Puzzle There was an awesome goon thread about it, too, I think.
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May 4, 2011 21:14
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Hogburto posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAZE:_Solve_the_World%27s_Most_Challenging_Puzzle Hm. Sorry, that's not it. The book I read was geared more toward children. I'm sure yours is better, but it just doesn't satisfy my nostalgic needs.
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May 4, 2011 21:53
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