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Yeah, that second one really sounds like Needful Things by Stephen King.
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Jul 17, 2014 02:34
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I got two here. One is a kid's book I read in the mid-90s about a kid who steals an orb from inside a tree, and it gives him the ability to stop time by saying "stop." He finds this out when he's late for the school bus and yells "stop!" and everything freezes. He goes buck wild with the ability but realizes that this black goblin dude can also move around when time is frozen, and he's like stalking the kid through a forest of frozen people. The other is a short story I read in the early 2000s. It's set after the end of the world, it's about this woman who lives in subway tunnels. She doesn't see anyone. She hallucinates distant screams in the night sometimes. She survives by letting cockroaches crawl on her and then eating them. Super gross. Eventually she finds another guy and is really happy, except she realizes he's a serial killer that had been prowling the city before the fall of the world. As he kills her, she realizes that she wasn't hallucinating those screams from before. Anything?
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Jul 17, 2014 22:01
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I don't know those stories, but holy hell do I want to read them. 
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Jul 18, 2014 00:11
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penismightier posted:I got two here. I really want to read those.
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Jul 20, 2014 01:14
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foxatee posted:Yeah, that second one really sounds like Needful Things by Stephen King. It's been a long time since I read it, but I thought that in "Needful Things" the stuff he sold always worked, but part of the price was that the person buying it had to sabotage someone else.
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Jul 20, 2014 01:34
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bromplicated posted:2) Story about a snake-oil salesmen, but I think he sells different "needful things" that turn out to be bad or defective. I think this is The Strap Box Flyer by Paul Jennings: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/sbf_text.pdf
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Jul 20, 2014 01:58
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ToxicFrog posted:It's been a long time since I read it, but I thought that in "Needful Things" the stuff he sold always worked, but part of the price was that the person buying it had to sabotage someone else. Yeah, I believe you're correct. I think I just remembered the one character "purchasing" a figurine (in the movie)/carnival glass (in the book).
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Jul 20, 2014 03:37
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Okay so any help here is appreciated. Young adult/kids book, kinda creepy, kid gets whisked away to some house where everyday is a different holiday, bad mojo ensues.
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Jul 20, 2014 03:47
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TryAgainBragg posted:Okay so any help here is appreciated. Young adult/kids book, kinda creepy, kid gets whisked away to some house where everyday is a different holiday, bad mojo ensues. That's Clive Barker's The Thief of Always.
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Jul 20, 2014 04:22
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You rock, I've been wondering over this one forever
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Jul 20, 2014 04:54
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Trying to find a book someone recommended in this forum earlier in the year. A few things I can remember from their description of the book: it was set on modern day earth. A hero (who we don't meet) saves the world, and then the book follows the reactions of the people that lived in the hero's community. The narrative had multiple (possibly conflicting?) view points from said community members. The book might have had an interview format? I don't there was much plot to it, it was more a character study. Google hasn't been much help, so hopefully someone here remembers what I'm talking about.
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Jul 20, 2014 18:32
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Eindyin posted:Ok, it's a story about a diary some people found in Antarctica. The writer is an orphan, raised by his grandmother, he goes to Africa and does some peacekeeping with a couple of warring tribes, one which has big noses and the other big ears. He eventually finds out that his mother had him after she was raped by a Nazi. In the end he tracks down his Nazi dad in Antarctica and kills him. Aahh, I thought I knew this one until I realised that not only could I not actually remember the name of it but also it wasn't the same book at all. The one I'm thinking of had a main character called Ish who was lame in one leg, and he got abandoned by his tribe, I think? He travels with his pet dogs and one of them is named Jill who dies trying to jump across a ravine? I think there were three books in the series. I've just tried to look them up but had no luck, so hopefully somebody recognises them. There's a good chance they are by an Australian or New Zealand author. For some reason the name "Jack" pops into my head in relation to these books so it could be the author's name or a different character's name.
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Jul 21, 2014 13:13
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Laverna posted:Aahh, I thought I knew this one until I realised that not only could I not actually remember the name of it but also it wasn't the same book at all. Earth Abides, probably?
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Jul 21, 2014 14:50
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Piell posted:Earth Abides, probably? Some of the things in that look kind of similar, but I don't think it's the one at all. I don't recognise any of the covers and it might be a bit too old. I think this one must have been around late 90s early 2000s. Thanks anyway! Edit: I found it! I was right, it was a book by a New Zealand author so no wonder I had such trouble finding it. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1575899.Because_We_Were_the_Travellers (I remember it being very exciting and scandalous to little 11 year old me when I read it at the time, I'll have to try and find it again when I get home) Laverna fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Jul 21, 2014 |
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Jul 21, 2014 17:55
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Laverna posted:Aahh, I thought I knew this one until I realised that not only could I not actually remember the name of it but also it wasn't the same book at all. Thanks for giving it a go, interesting coincidence in that I'm a New Zealander, so maybe that's part of my problem identifying it too!
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Jul 21, 2014 22:09
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I'm not sure of the target audience at all, but there's a part where the main character ends up on a world with gravity, and the native humans are always fighting against the animals that attack their compound. The main character stays inside lots as he gets tired from the higher gravity world, and the people are pretty much Catachans, bred to fight for survival from childhood. The main character ends up being the saviour by working out that the animals are being controlled by something, or that they can live in harmony or something? Hopefully that's enough to go off.
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Jul 22, 2014 01:58
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crowtribe posted:I'm not sure of the target audience at all, but there's a part where the main character ends up on a world with gravity, and the native humans are always fighting against the animals that attack their compound. Deathworld by Harry Harrison.
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Jul 22, 2014 07:20
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A long shot because the details are so vague and generic enough that they've thwarted my attempts to Google it. Mystery novel from a first time writer, published around 2007-ish. Contemporary American setting, main character was a fairly young detective although for some reason I remember him being rather jaded with his career and/or wanting to get out of it. Case he was investigating involved some serial killer, possibly a resurrected cold case or something a previous partner had worked on. One of the supporting characters was a psychiatrist -- our protagonist kept visiting him over the course of the novel. Protagonist was either estranged from his father, or trying to live up to his father's expectations, or something, and it was tied into the psychiatrist somehow. Sorry, that's all I've got. I never really read mystery novels (SF&F and literary fiction are more my thing), so I'm struggling to remember why I started reading this one. Either there's some other hook I'm forgetting or the writing style was very engaging. Yes, I started reading this but never finished it. I work in a book store and we had an ARC. I literally got to the last chapter and some co-worker borrowed it when they went on long term disability leave but they (and the book) never came back. Still bugs me that I never knew how the book finished, even though I barely remember anything about it.
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Jul 28, 2014 06:42
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Help me out, I'm trying to remember the name of this old sci-fi story and who wrote it. Whole story is narrated by a guy who's being interviewed by the police. He and his wife had a son, who had something wrong with him and the wife was having trouble accepting it, so they got another kid who was some kind of robot kid who helped the wife emotionally and acted as a brother to the real kid. At the end of the story there's a fire when the dad is away, and the wife can only save one kid. The dad comes home and discovers his wife crying and talking about how she only had enough time to save one kid, he's all "oh honey I'll buy you a new robot" but then he realizes she saved the robot and left their real kid to die. I think it was Asimov, but I can't remember the title and Google isn't helping me.
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Jul 28, 2014 21:31
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Popular Human posted:Help me out, I'm trying to remember the name of this old sci-fi story and who wrote it. That's Kid Brother, from the Asimov short story collection Gold; one of the few robot stories not included in The Complete Robot.
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Jul 29, 2014 00:19
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ToxicFrog posted:That's Kid Brother, from the Asimov short story collection Gold; one of the few robot stories not included in The Complete Robot. Thanks! There's this documentary coming on HBO tonight called Love Child about a Korean couple who let their baby die of malnutrition while taking care of virtual babies in an MMO, and it reminded me of this story and made me want to read it again. I appreciate it!
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Jul 29, 2014 00:54
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My wife's been trying for a few days to remember a romance she read "recently". She posted on goodreads, but no one responded. Any takers here? Here's her description:quote:I can't remember the title or author but the general synopsis is:
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Aug 4, 2014 02:11
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hooah posted:My wife's been trying for a few days to remember a romance she read "recently". She posted on goodreads, but no one responded. Any takers here? Here's her description:
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Aug 4, 2014 09:27
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A couple of decades ago, I read a book (I think) about a young man who wins the lottery. The following is what I think I remember: The main character had just turned 18, and bought the ticket to celebrate, or because he could. The story is set in New York, maybe New York State rather than New York City. The jackpot was $2,000,000. Any or all of the above could be completely wrong.
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Aug 4, 2014 10:50
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Centripetal Horse posted:A couple of decades ago, I read a book (I think) about a young man who wins the lottery. The following is what I think I remember: Uneasy Money by Robin F. Brancato.
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Aug 4, 2014 17:52
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Hah, thanks. The title doesn't really ring any bells, but that is definitely the book. Did you find this for me, or did you know the answer off the top of your head? Man, I almost hedged my bets with New Jersey 
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Aug 4, 2014 18:10
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Centripetal Horse posted:Hah, thanks. The title doesn't really ring any bells, but that is definitely the book. Did you find this for me, or did you know the answer off the top of your head? I read it a long time ago, and somehow I remembered the title.
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Aug 4, 2014 23:10
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Anyone remember a book where a lizard king's brain is replaced by his servant? I'm pretty sure it took place in a Florida swamp. edit: It might have just been bodyparts rather than the brain.
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Aug 6, 2014 22:41
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I remember reading this in the early 90s and would love to find it again. Children's gamebook (CYOA-style book) probably published in the 70s/80s, high fantasy. Had a few full-page simple black and white illustrations. At some point, the reader has to choose from six magical items, and I remember one caused time to run backward (or the perception or something like that) and another involved a phoenix. I don't think it was from a numbered series. Pretty sure it's not from Endless Quest or Find Your Fate. Any ideas?
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Aug 8, 2014 21:55
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I am looking for a children's/pre-teen's book I read as a kid that I would like to pass on. Here is what I remember about the plot, can't for the LIFE of me remember the title or author. The plot is about a girl around her early teenage years who is a tomboy. She loves football (believe the setting of the book is the UK, so that would be soccer otherwise). Her younger sister who I think is called Rose is their mother's baby. Rose is pretty, a talented singer, dancer and actor and it's really clear that she is the apple of her mother's eye and everything in their family revolves around making Rose a superstar. One day the protagonist kicks her football and smashes the window of a lady who happens to be a ballet instructor. The instructor wants the protagonist to take ballet lessons as penance, believing she has the physical build and form to make a great dancer. However their mother pushes Rose on her instead because she does not believe that the protagonist could ever be better than Rose. In the end the protagonist loves dancing and has great talent at ballet, but gives up the starring role in their production to the sister who is okay but not as good as her due to pressure from their mother and her own issues surrounding her identity. I cannot remember how the book ends but I do believe it was bittersweet.
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Aug 9, 2014 19:04
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penismightier posted:I got two here. That sounds very much like the Gizmo series by Paul Jennings, there are four books, all of which have plots revolving around someone finding a small sphere that does some crazy and specific thing. I only read one of them and a casual google doesn't find any plot synopses, but I don't think they ever changed the cover art, see if you recognise one. Here's one I only vaguely recall, pretty sure it had a green cover, set in the near future, the protagonist had a motorbike that may have been charged by a solar panel he could strap onto it, and an AI saved or damned the world by blowing up a nuclear power plant. Mega vague, any ideas?
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Aug 9, 2014 19:21
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Sir_Substance posted:Here's one I only vaguely recall, pretty sure it had a green cover, set in the near future, the protagonist had a motorbike that may have been charged by a solar panel he could strap onto it, and an AI saved or damned the world by blowing up a nuclear power plant.
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Aug 9, 2014 19:23
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I've got a couple, here. I think I might have asked about this one before. Maybe twenty years ago, I read a book about a high school boy who does the pole vault for his school's track and field team. He may have been talked into it by the coach or something. He has a problem with not being able to let go of the pole when he gets to the top of the arc. A lot of the story as I remember it revolves around him dealing with this fear. I think that was the main conflict in the book. Also sports-themed, I remember a book about a young lady who was very good at tennis. I think she played competitively, possibly professionally or semi-professionally. I don't remember a whole lot about the story, but I do remember a scene where she drank from a water fountain, and swished the water around in her mouth, then spit it out so she wouldn't get a cramp. This last one is probably hopeless, because I remember almost nothing about it except for a single phrase. This was a children's book, or, rather, two children's books. They were under one cover but you had to flip the book upside down and start from the other side to read the second story. Anyway, the phrase that I remember being in the book is, "about as bright as a two-watt light bulb." I think a bicycle may have been involved. Good luck.
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Aug 9, 2014 19:39
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Runcible Cat posted:Futuretrack 5, Robert Westall. That's exactly what it is, I knew the instant I read the title, thanks! Centripetal Horse posted:This last one is probably hopeless, because I remember almost nothing about it except for a single phrase. This was a children's book, or, rather, two children's books. They were under one cover but you had to flip the book upside down and start from the other side to read the second story. Anyway, the phrase that I remember being in the book is, "about as bright as a two-watt light bulb." I think a bicycle may have been involved. Good luck. I can only find three books that use that phrase, two of them are christian self-help books, the third is this one, but it doesn't read like a childrens book. Still, see if it looks familiar. Otherwise, give some more thought to the phrase. It's a bit of a quirk of english (well, language in general, I guess) that the longer the sentence, the more unique it is. Unless it's a saying, a 9 word sentence like that has a good chance of being totally unique in publishing history, but we need the exact wording the book used to find it that way. Sir_Substance fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Aug 10, 2014 |
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Aug 10, 2014 03:49
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Sir_Substance posted:That's exactly what it is, I knew the instant I read the title, thanks!
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Aug 10, 2014 09:37
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Operation Juicebox posted:I am looking for a children's/pre-teen's book I read as a kid that I would like to pass on. Here is what I remember about the plot, can't for the LIFE of me remember the title or author. Hi There, Supermouse. Jean Ure.
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Aug 10, 2014 10:16
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You are a star! Thank you so very much. I even managed to find a copy with the exact same cover I read as a girl. 
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Aug 10, 2014 14:00
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I can't recall if this is from a book, or a story, or a movie or something instead. All I can recall is a guy who's apparently immortal, and a line of dialogue being something like "If I had known how popular that book was going to get, I'd have chosen a different name than thomas", referring to the bible. I thought it might be Immortal by Gene Doucette but he actually plays against the generic "immortal guy who meets everyone" trope and just says "I was in the area at the time, never met the dude". Any helps appreciated.
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Aug 11, 2014 14:50
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I can't recall if this is from a book, or a story, or a movie or something instead. Sounds similar to the movie The Man From Earth.
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Aug 12, 2014 17:06
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Kinda, cept TMFE was Jesus apparently. I thought it might be something vampire related but the only ones I really read recently were the Bill the Vampire books, and after a quick search it's not in there.
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Aug 12, 2014 21:57
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