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Dec 9, 2014 06:20
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This is a long shot but there's a book I've been trying to find for years now and despite reading it half a dozen times as a kid at this point I'm half-convinced I imagined the entire thing. It was an older book and I can't even describe the cover because my copy just had some boring green library binding. It was all about the Klondike gold rush and there was this boy who runs away from home I think...he sneaks onto a ship filled with dogs in cages, and when the ship goes down later he manages to rescue one. There's all the usual stuff all these books have about having to haul his outfit up the Chilkoot Trail and how horrible that was and at some point he meets Soapy Smith and starts working as an assistant to a doctor. At the end of the book they get attacked for reasons I forget and the dog kills the bad guy and the kid gets adopted by the doctor and they all live happily ever. I could have sworn it was literally just called 'Klondike Gold', but I may have imagined that after the fact and even if I didn't it's the most generic name in all existence and searching on Google doesn't help at all. (There's a little kids' book on Amazon called Klondike Gold too but it's not the same one.)
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Dec 9, 2014 18:38
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Trail-Klondike-Kid/dp/1417632461 That maybe? It's a little series.
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Dec 10, 2014 00:49
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A few years back i read a book in the days after getting out of the hospital. I was laid up on some serious pain meds so my recollection is really patchy - almost non-existent, but it's been on my mind a lot the last couple of days. The only thing I can remember for sure is that it was set in NYC, and it was about a gang or a group of thieves - I'm not sure. The story was told from the POV of a female character, and the gang communicated with each other using some sort of whistle-code. It was a historical novel, too - not exactly sure of the era, but I have the feeling it was around the same time-frame as Newsies. If anyone can help, that'd be great. Alternately, maybe it was just some weird drug-dream.
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Dec 14, 2014 10:18
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I have a long shot but in having a conversation with a thread I had a vivid recollection of a book I read in the fifth grade that now I'm just trying to convince myself was a real book. It was about a kid (also in fifth grade, I'm pretty sure) that was fat, and his friends helped him get thin by eating salads at McDonald's (and yes it was explicitly McDonald's, not a fake name). There were subplots about a bully and sisters (other classmates?) that would sunbathe topless in their backyard and kids would throw balls and stuff at them to try and get them to sit up, but never could. The climax of the book was the protagonist fighting the bully with his newfound swole strength, accidentally punching through a screen door that tore his arm open. Then he chased the bully through the topless girls' yard, causing them to freak out and sit up, showing their boobs. I swear to god this was a book intended for children, middle schoolers at most. It was bizarre and now I can't find it. I could swear it had "Tales of" or "Fifth Grade" in the title but I'm blanking. EDIT: Oh poo poo I found it! "The Biggest Klutz in Fifth Grade" Doomsayer fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Dec 18, 2014 |
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Dec 18, 2014 03:42
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Doomsayer posted:I swear to god this was a book intended for children, middle schoolers at most. It was bizarre and now I can't find it. I could swear it had "Tales of" or "Fifth Grade" in the title but I'm blanking. I see you found your book, but this is funny to me. You were almost certainly channeling "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" while trying to remember the title.
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Dec 19, 2014 03:59
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Dear thread, I think I read this in my early high school years, so '70s. If you recall, there were some pretty famous experiments done re: overpopulation using large colonies of rats back then, when Malthus's ideas were still novel in mainstream US. The protagonist is a scientist running one of these experiments, making observations about his overpopulated colony of white rats, who starts following the news concerning a serial killer and realizes the serial killer's behavior is paralleling that of the most pathological of his rats, who has taken to ruthlessly killing the others in the nest until it's the last remaining rat. Based on his unique understanding of the killer's psyche, he tracks him down and confronts him. And I think the killer's MO is mass poisoning in public places like train stations using Malathion. I did a quick Google search and on Amazon a few weeks ago but couldn't locate it. Chronologically it was not to far away from those two popular rat movies in the 70s, "Ben" and "Willard" but not them. Thanks in advance, this has been bugging me for a while now. I'd also like to know if it was ever made into a movie.
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Dec 22, 2014 14:57
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I read this back in the middle 90's. The protagonist was a geeky sickly young man who was in a love triangle with this girl and a jock-ish guy. The twist at the end of the novel was that she was a time traveler from the future who had come back to maybe warn everyone of some future calamity (possibly nuclear war). Further twists were that she had married the other guy, who had become a general. They managed to survive by being relocated to a space station. Afterwards, when the station was about to run out of air and they were all about to die, they were saved by aliens who I think sent her back in time to help fix things. She described them as being a bunch of lights. I remember the protagonist asking her if he died during the war, and she said no he died of some sickness, maybe asthma? On the plus side, apparently the geeky protagonist became something of a success. I read it when I was like 10 so it wasn't exactly advanced stuff.
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Dec 23, 2014 04:10
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On the edge of America's involvement in WW2, a group of people put on a big radio play for I believe NBC in a coastal town in some northern Atlantic state, maybe New England?
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Dec 23, 2014 15:02
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It bums me out how slowly this thread moves. I love reading descriptions of half-remembered stories, and I love it even more when someone solves the mystery. I wonder if this thread would do better by going on tour. Maybe it could spend a month in GBS, or maybe there could be a feeder sticky or something. Wishful thinking, I imagine, but I have a feeling there are people who could use the help of this thread, but don't know it exists. In an effort not to let this thread fall four or five pages deep, here are some stories that I am still trying to identify. These are cut-and-pasted from my previous posts. First, a youthful overcoming obstacles story. The story (a shortish novel?) was about a high school (I think) track and field athlete who wanted to pole vault, but kept being held back by his (her?) own fears. At the top of the vault, he would always freak out and end up clinging to the pole instead of pushing it away. I don't remember if he always had this problem, or if it started after an accident (I seem to remember an injured ankle in there, somewhere), but the main conflict in the story was about this kid overcoming his fear and finally pushing away the pole to make a successful vault. Here's another one I've been trying to find for a long time. It's a book about a kid with a high IQ, I think the number might be 154. Mostly, I think it's just a book about him dealing with being so unusual, intelligence-wise. There is a scene in the book where the kid (sneaks?) into his father's workplace to tell his father this great scheme the kid has come up with for preventing war: make all the countries buy insurance from each other. The father was probably an insurance salesman, or actuary, or some such. I remember the kid gets a beating from his dad for this little stunt. I think my parents brought this home for me when I was in the general age bracket of the kid in the story, so, maybe twenty-five years ago, give or take. I've tried combinations of "154," "genius kid," "insurance," "kid with high IQ comes up with plan to end wars," and so on, with no luck. The 154 number may or may not be correct, but it's the number I always think of when I think of the book. The number may be the title of the book, but, if it is, 154 is unlikely to be correct, because it doesn't come up under that title. The first story is about a guy with pyrokinetic powers (I think), who tries to blackmail the military (I think) into paying him off for not setting random citizens and cities aflame. The other characters probe the bad guy for what other powers he might have, such as seeing the future, but the guy has no other powers. So, a dude hides behind a door and caves the bad guy's head in with a hammer - because the bad guy couldn't see the future. Secondly, I read a story about an office building, or other building full of people, that came under attack from a nutjob who walked around gunning down everyone in sight. The whacko finally corners some character, and gives a crazy speech about how much he hates liars but also hates to be told things he doesn't want to hear, or something to that effect, and offers to let the character go if the character answers just one question completely honestly: "Do you think I'm crazy?" The third story is actually a series of stories that showed up in a new (I think) science fiction magazine about twenty years ago. I don't think the magazine lasted very long, but just about every (maybe every) issue had a story featuring these two ne'er-do-well space-trading schlubs. They always had big plans for getting rich, and they always failed in comically tragic (as in, Shakespearean tragedy - undone by their own faults) ways. It was as if they were Harcourt Fenton Mudd and his twin brother.
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Dec 29, 2014 07:54
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I'm just annoyed that Zoe never told me if I was right or not.  Validate me internet person.
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Dec 29, 2014 09:44
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Short story from the 1980s I think. Set in a future where everyone has ear implants that force them to listen to advertising whenever they buy or use products. The lead character is a stay at home mum who keeps asking her children to choose cereal boxes and jams with the least annoying jingle. She specifically hates a cereal box which has marching soldiers and drums, because it gives her a spitting head ache. A granny lad a kind of anti advert revolution when she figures out how to disable the advertchip. I think she ends up in jail, and at the end there is something about music.
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Dec 29, 2014 22:13
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Wondering if anyone can help me identify a book I read a while ago. The only thing I'm able to remember is two women are travelling through some strange land were violence is impossible and everyone is a vegetarian. I feel like they got to this place by escaping through a portal when someone was trying to capture one of them. One of the women is from a carnvirous species or something because she gets weaker and eventually tells the other to go on without her as she is "burning the oil of the last lantern" or something very similar to that. The other woman eventually goes and meets the ruler/god being of this place and rejects his offer to stay. I want to say this was written by some contemporary of Silverberg but I'm not 100% sure.
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Jan 2, 2015 23:10
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BattyKiara posted:Short story from the 1980s I think. Set in a future where everyone has ear implants that force them to listen to advertising whenever they buy or use products. The lead character is a stay at home mum who keeps asking her children to choose cereal boxes and jams with the least annoying jingle. She specifically hates a cereal box which has marching soldiers and drums, because it gives her a spitting head ache. A granny lad a kind of anti advert revolution when she figures out how to disable the advertchip. I think she ends up in jail, and at the end there is something about music. Some of the details are off but it sounds a lot like Harrison Bergeron
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Jan 8, 2015 18:28
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regulargonzalez posted:Some of the details are off but it sounds a lot like Harrison Bergeron Sorry, absolutely not it. It was written in a very different style than anything by Vonnegut. But thanks for trying.
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Jan 9, 2015 11:36
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Right here's a couple that I've been struggling with for a while: Old man lives in a mansion with animals (possibly farm animals?). He has very specific timings for dunking biscuits in tea. Possibly the house burns down at the end. I suspect this is a kids story or one for young adults. Second story: Probably also a kids or young adults story. A mum and a dad take separate planes on the off chance the plane they are on crashes and their child is orphaned. As it happens both planes crash simultaneously and the kid becomes an orphan. My apologies for the scant detail. Godspeed goons.
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Jan 18, 2015 00:39
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A read a couple of pulp/YA books many years ago about some independent space traders and the main protagonist had some kind of body augmentations that gave him claws and immense speed. It was mentioned that he had these done before they were made illegal. In the first book he rescued some girl who turns out the be the daughter of someone who wanted to lead/trigger a revolution against the rulers. I think there was something about how the commoners had to all wear brown. In the second book I believe he found an ancient ring that healed him by sucking the life out of some grass he was lying on. Anyone have a clue what these books are? I have been trying on and off for years to find them again.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:14
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Jihad Joe posted:
Ha! No clue what that is, but I just love reading the story descriptions in this thread.
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Jan 22, 2015 04:41
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I know this is a long shot, but I'm hoping someone has an idea of this book, or where to dig further. My grandfather worked on the Manhattan project, and he once gave me a book about atomic energy. I believe it was written in the 50s or 60s, possibly commissioned as a report, possibly not. I only ever read the first quarter or so, which consisted of information about the history of atomic theory and the mechanics of atomic fission. The name was something very simple. I thought it was "Atomic Energy", but I haven't found anything by that name. I really hope I still have that book in my boxes of books at my dad's place, because I would feel lovely about losing one of the few things I still have of my grandfather's, but if not I'm hoping someone has read the same book and knows what I'm talking about.
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Jan 31, 2015 04:02
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I'm looking for a science fiction novel (or novels, I think it's a trilogy) which starts with a crew of scientists and soldiers coming to a planet which was colonized, but barely (small colony of religious folks). The main characters are a soldier (an officer, if I remember correctly) and an alien. The alien is the protector of the planet, or something like that, and is something of an outcast both to his own and to the human colony on the planet. Also, he's immortal because of a parasite of some kind. The soldier gets infected with the parasite as well, and goes to live with the aliens.
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Feb 2, 2015 13:49
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I know this is a long shot, but I'm hoping someone has an idea of this book, or where to dig further. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/collections/science_library/new_collections/~/link.aspx?_id=A8419B8CD3294423AE590FB3BF304572&_z=z Might be able to help. Immortality Parasite: Could it be this? Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 14:46
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Nettle soup, that's it, thanks!
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Feb 2, 2015 15:19
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Barbe Rouge posted:I'm looking for a science fiction novel (or novels, I think it's a trilogy) which starts with a crew of scientists and soldiers coming to a planet which was colonized, but barely (small colony of religious folks). The main characters are a soldier (an officer, if I remember correctly) and an alien. The alien is the protector of the planet, or something like that, and is something of an outcast both to his own and to the human colony on the planet. Also, he's immortal because of a parasite of some kind. The soldier gets infected with the parasite as well, and goes to live with the aliens. Reminded me of this series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keeper_of_the_Isis_Light But there are some differences--I don't think the religious angle comes up until the later books, particularly the second one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian_of_Isis.
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Feb 2, 2015 15:27
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Jihad Joe posted:Right here's a couple that I've been struggling with for a while: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Ape-Dick-King-Smith/dp/0440863570 Could it be this? I remember reading this one as a kid. Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 19:22
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Barbe Rouge posted:I'm looking for a science fiction novel (or novels, I think it's a trilogy) which starts with a crew of scientists and soldiers coming to a planet which was colonized, but barely (small colony of religious folks). The main characters are a soldier (an officer, if I remember correctly) and an alien. The alien is the protector of the planet, or something like that, and is something of an outcast both to his own and to the human colony on the planet. Also, he's immortal because of a parasite of some kind. The soldier gets infected with the parasite as well, and goes to live with the aliens. That sounds kind of like a Niven book, Protector.
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Feb 2, 2015 20:30
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Like I said above, it's the Karen Traviss book series, Nettle Soup figured it out.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:31
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Gryff posted:A read a couple of pulp/YA books many years ago about some independent space traders and the main protagonist had some kind of body augmentations that gave him claws and immense speed. It was mentioned that he had these done before they were made illegal. In the first book he rescued some girl who turns out the be the daughter of someone who wanted to lead/trigger a revolution against the rulers. I think there was something about how the commoners had to all wear brown. Phone posting so I can't link you, but these are "The Space Mavericks" and "Children of the Night* by Michael Kring. The first one was by far the better off the two, but I was disappointed there was no conclusion (as far as I know)
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Feb 3, 2015 00:24
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I know this is a long shot, but I'm hoping someone has an idea of this book, or where to dig further. You're probably thinking of The Smyth Report. It was supposed to be titled Atomic Bombs, but for security reasons, most of the copies were distributed with the title A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Nuclear Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940–1945, so people called it The Smyth Report after its author.
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Feb 3, 2015 07:47
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Ok, everyone did so well on the last two questions I had, I'm going to try it again! I know I read this short story in the 70's, it was in a big book of short horror and supernatural stories, I want to say it had a dark cover showing some kind of creepy bedroom late at night with all the shadows turning the furniture into monsters. I KNOW I got it from the library, it had the plastic slipcover over the real cover. The story I vaguely remember is about a couple (or maybe a family? Not sure but I know one of the people involved was a teenager) who inherit a house from an old woman. Inside the house is a dollhouse in a birdcage, no birds, just the dollhouse. And somehow, I don't remember how, the new owners realize it's a fairy's house. I remember vividly a description where someone knocks on the dollhouse door with a pencil stuffed through the bars of the cage and then later writes 'Let Us In' on the door. This apparently freaks the fairies out and they leave, the dollhouse stays empty for a few weeks, and then what I can only describe as 'stereotypical po' white trash' fairies move in. Couch on the dollhouse porch, washing hanging on the line, some scattered junk in the 'yard'. And the people who've inherited it start to notice their luck is changing - it's good, but good with a twist. They DON'T get into a car crash, but only because their car gets stuck in the mud. Someone gets a job - not the one they wanted, but one that's 'just enough' to pay the bills, etc... I remember the story was illustrated with a drawing of a tiny door with a HUGE eye staring in, from the perspective of inside the dollhouse, and that freaked me out when I was a kid. I distinctly remember the phrase "It's not bad luck, it's good luck, just sloppy" being the last or nearly the last line of the story. I hope someone remembers this and can steer me to it, I've used the phrase ''sloppy good luck" for the bad/good luck combo for almost 40 years now and I really want to read this story again. Thanks guys!
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Feb 3, 2015 22:07
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Housing Problem, by Henry Kuttner and CL Moore.
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Feb 3, 2015 23:02
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Runcible Cat posted:Housing Problem, by Henry Kuttner and CL Moore. Holy poo poo! How did you DO that? Title led me to a PDF file. I'm reliving my childhood with the enjoyment of this story! Thank you! If I had a firstborn, I'd name him or her Runcible Cat!
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Feb 3, 2015 23:56
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ThatGirlAtThatShow posted:Holy poo poo! How did you DO that? Title led me to a PDF file. I'm reliving my childhood with the enjoyment of this story! And a good name for either gender, I think.
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Feb 4, 2015 05:43
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Gorbash posted:Phone posting so I can't link you, but these are "The Space Mavericks" and "Children of the Night* by Michael Kring. The first one was by far the better off the two, but I was disappointed there was no conclusion (as far as I know) That's it, thank you very much.
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Feb 4, 2015 18:17
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I recently remembered reading a book about a bunch of kids at some sort of telepathy/telekinesis school when I was young. I don't think the school was particularly malicious, but I think the kids wanted to leave anyway? Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?
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Feb 6, 2015 14:48
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My wife likes to talk about books she remembers, then I end up obsessed about figuring out what they are... It's a YA book. A high fantasy world, includes dragons (possibly telepathic), trolls, and wizards. There's a prophecy of impending disaster. The disaster turns out to be an alien mining ship that doesn't recognize the planet as inhabited. The solution involves building signal fires in geometric shapes. I can find one other person asking about the book online, here, so she's not just making it up. Unfortunately that thread came up empty on a title.
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Feb 7, 2015 02:44
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Two stories: 1) A young adult novel about a boy whose family adopts a Vietnamese boy with the last name Nguyen. I believe the main character also ordered a pet raccoon through the mail. 2) This one is kind of generic. I don't remember much about the book, except it involved a tribal culture where it was unusual (I think) for a child to know his father. I remember a scene where they were having some sort of fertility rite, and the main character dragged his choice of woman off into the woods and railed her silly. I also remember the main character having a wet dream. Some other member of his tribe/group/whatever, rolled over and grunted "Now you're a man," or something close to that.
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Feb 7, 2015 06:48
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hooah posted:I recently remembered reading a book about a bunch of kids at some sort of telepathy/telekinesis school when I was young. I don't think the school was particularly malicious, but I think the kids wanted to leave anyway? Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? possibly Escape From Witch Island?
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Feb 7, 2015 13:39
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regulargonzalez posted:possibly Escape From Witch Island? I don't know, since Google can't find such a book.
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Feb 7, 2015 14:47
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hooah posted:I don't know, since Google can't find such a book. Sorry, got the title wrong. Escape to Witch Mountain and Return to Witch Mountain. Been decades since I read them so maybe they're not even close to being right but it's what my brain coughed up.
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Feb 7, 2015 16:11
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regulargonzalez posted:Sorry, got the title wrong. Escape to Witch Mountain and Return to Witch Mountain. Been decades since I read them so maybe they're not even close to being right but it's what my brain coughed up. Hmm, that may be it, although the aliens bit doesn't sound familiar; this was around 20 years ago, though. Thanks.
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Feb 7, 2015 23:00
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