The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

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wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

This surely must be part of the Great Brain series by J.D. Fitzgerald. They are stories about Tom (T.D.) Fitzgerald, told from the point of view of his younger brother J.D. There's also a third, older brother named Sweyn. The books are set in turn-of-the-century Utah.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2008 03:13

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 07:18

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

TheLoquid posted:

Ok, I remember this book from like 5th grade that I never finished. I really just want to know how the book ends, but I can never remember its title.

All I remember is that it was about a family that ended up on an alien planet. There were green jellyfish and transluscent plants. If anybody can figure out which book this is, I will be amazed.

Maybe The Green Book, by Jill Patton Walsh? I can't recall if the plants are translucent, but they are described as glass-like (ie very brittle and sharp).

# ¿ Nov 10, 2008 08:50

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

That's one of the Shadow Children books by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I can't remember which one, but some of the titles are: Among the Hidden, Among the Impostors, Among the Betrayed, Among the Free, Among the Brave, and Among the Barons.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2008 08:25

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

That might be "Key to the Treasure" by Peggy Parish.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2009 02:51

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

This sounds like Alien Child by Pamela Sargent. Nita is raised by Llipel, and her counterpart Sven is raised by Llare. Nita thinks she is the only one of her kind until one day she sees a strange being on a security monitor. The copy I read had Nita on the cover, wearing coveralls.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2009 07:27

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Cortel posted:

I read a short story in high school about a kid whose mother bought him these really, really bland crackers or something and she made him eat them every day because they were good for him or something, and the package had pieces of a buildable house thing, and he built it and it was some magical thing that he could walk into (even though it was tiny). The story ended with him coming home not being able to find it, asking his mother where it is, to which she replied something about her throwing it away in spring cleaning, and then him posting adverts for the crackers for the rest of his life.

Second one was in the same literature book for high school (I think) was about this guy that had surgery to make him really smart, and there was a mouse that had the surgery a little bit before him and he fell in love with the female doctor and the mouse died and he revealed that to the scientific community. I later found out that the entire love sequence was edited out of the story, and I think it was actually a whole book. I think there was a movie too, because I'm remembering the part where he shows the dead mouse at the conference in a black and white film style from the 50s or something.

Number one is The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken. It's part of the Armitage family series. The kid just needed one more box to free the woman trapped in the tiny paper village. It's pretty :suicide:

.

Number two, as already mentioned, is Flowers for Algernon. The movie was called Charly and I think may have been a novelization with that name as well.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2009 08:07

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Jeece posted:

-A young guy just got his driving license, went driving on a road and got involved in a massive car crash. He then woke up in a white room, and was informed the whole crash thing was a "dream" he got under some kind of hypnosis as the final part of his driving lessons. He said fine, give me my license, but it was refused to him because he "normally should have been traumatized enough" to be afraid of driving for a few months after such a crash. Wanting to drive right now meant he wasn't aware enough of the dangers.

If it helps any, this is Test by Theodore L. Thomas. The kid experiences a horrific crash that kills his mother, only to wake to find it was virtual reality. If I recall correctly, he's dragged off at the end by the driver's-license police, down a corridor with grooves carved in the floor by the heels of the many failed applicants hauled away in the past.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2009 08:28

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

veril posted:

I'm not sure this is enough to go on, but..

Scifi novel, main character is some kind of mercenary or warrior. He gets kicked out or leaves his home, and has some sort of special glowing object. He wanders around in the snow, makes camp there, and some bird spies on him. Eventually, he reaches a spaceport and gets hired by a merchant. The main mercenary isn't very used to technology at all. The merchant gives him a debit card, and they go shopping in some weapon shop - I remember the main character bought a lot of coiled wire. No idea what happens for the last 2/3rds of the novel.

This sounds like Brother to Shadows by Andre Norton. Jofre is a young orphan who belongs to a ninja-esque order. The organization is being taken over by corrupt priests who want him dead or exiled. He escapes to a spaceport city and rescues an alien scholar (a Zacanthan; a race that Norton frequently refers to) who hires him as a bodyguard. He buys wire to make a sort of bolo-type weapon. They go offworld, he meets a female ninja from a related order, they adopt a weird telepathic pet, and together they all manage to trigger some centuries-old device left by the Forerunners. Sound familiar?

# ¿ Jan 4, 2010 11:12

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

.Z. posted:

Okay, I've got 2 books I can't seem to find/remember the correct title for.

The first I think is just titled "Warlord" but I haven't any luck finding the correct book. It was the last book in a series/trilogy/something. No clue what the series is as I only ever read this particular book. The book shifted to the viewpoints of various characters, but the main focus was on a man I think was named Demask, or Damask. Demask was going around and conquering everything.

Two scenes I remember are:

1. Demask's daughter is thinking about how the soldiers would train their formations on fields covered in pig corpses to simulate a battlefield littered with bodies.

2. Towards the end of the book there was a expedition/colonizing fleet sent out and they set up two towns called Demask and Demask Too because they ran out of ideas for town names, like Demaskville, Demaskburg, etc.

The book was mostly fantasy, sword fighting, spearmen, etc. But it had some scifi elements in it that showed up in these disembodied voices that followed one of the characters around due to some high-tech machinery.

Is it at all possible that you are conflating more than one book? I ask because there's an omnibus book called "Warlord" that includes 3 books in the General Series by SM Stirling and David Drake. They're set in the far future after humanity has spread to the stars and descended into a new Dark Age due to constant infighting and civil war. The hero Raj Whitehall hears the voice of "Center" in his head. Center is a supercomputer that helps him become a great warrior to reunite his planet and drag the people back into a more civilized era. So it sounds sort of similar, but I don't recall anybody named Damask/Demask. If you remember people riding giant dogs instead of horses though, this is probably it.

There are also later books in the series, where Raj himself (or an AI based on him) becomes the "voice in the head" for other promising young warriors on other planets. They're all full of war and conquest. So possibly one of the sequels?

# ¿ Apr 26, 2010 07:57

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Default User posted:

I used to adore this book where there's some sort of end of the world scenario, and all the kids are left without adults or civilization. This girl takes charge of a group, and they fortify a school against the roaming gangs of feral kids. What the the hell book is this?

The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2010 03:15

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

morestuff posted:

I remember reading a series of children's books - I think they were written in the 70s. They were kind of similar to Harry Potter. A young kid moves in with his uncle (I think), and he learns that he's in some way magical. I also think umbrellas were involved in some way.

I figured out what it was a few years ago, and I remember reading that the author died in the middle of writing the series, so it was never completed. I've forgotten it again since then, though.

Wild-rear end guess, but maybe The House With a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs? Lewis is an orphaned (goony) kid who moves in with his uncle, who turns out to be a warlock. There are several sequels.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2010 08:32

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

ianvincible posted:

I'm trying to remember a series of books from my childhood, in the hopes of maybe checking them out to revisit my youth. Unfortunately, I remember very little.

I (probably) read them about 5th/6th grade, so they should be around that reading level. They were all kind of spooky, involving things like voodoo dolls and the occult and mysterious plots. I'm not sure if it was always the same characters, but I think there was a boy who gets wrapped up in said spooky stuff and has an uncle (possibly named Benedict) who dabbles in the occult and helps him out.

If I remember right, the covers of the editions I read all had rough black and white sketches of the people/scenes involved. I'm wracking my brains for other details, but coming up blank.

Maybe the Lewis Barnavelt books by John Bellairs? I suggested it a few posts back for somebody else, but darn if yours doesn't sound like it too.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2010 10:26

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

mamelon posted:

I'm looking for the names of two stories, unrelated to each other.

Story 1:
In '91 or '92, I read an adult or young adult story in grade school. No clue if it was long or short, and maybe there were some illustrations. I remember:

- kids/tweens/teens (siblings?) travel into the chambers of a nautilus seashell.
- They could move inwards easily, but on the way back out, they were obstructed by riddles/puzzles in each chamber. They needed to solve them and exit the shell quickly, on pain of permanent entrapment/death.

I think you're looking for The Diamond in the Window, by Jane Langton.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2010 08:41

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Fatkraken posted:

I know neither of these are the story you're after, but GRRM wrote two stories called "the pear shaped man" and "the monkey treatment" which are both disturbing/horror shorts about extremely fat people. It's possible he might have written more?

Is "The Monkey Treatment" about an invisible creature that latches on to the protagonist's back and snatches the food he tries to eat? If so, thanks! I've been trying to remember the name of that story for ages.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2010 06:51

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Just possibly Montezuma Strip by Alan Dean Foster? The main character Angel Cardenas is a highly intuitive cop who was blind, but by the start of the book he's recovered his sight due to an eye transplant. He still has his guide dog Charliebo who is very strongly bonded to him. The more I type the less it sounds like what you described, but maybe?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2011 08:20

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

angelofdeath0430 posted:

I read this book back in middle school and I only remember about the first 10% of the plot.

It was set either in future dystopian Earth or a dystopian planet, most of the people were slaves who lived in tents. These slaves worked in a gigantic mine, mining some sort of crystal (it might have been a fuel source) all day, and had to meet a certain quota or face being worked to death.

The protagonist was a girl, who turns 16 in the novel, I specifically remember her having to work at the mine on her birthday, and refusing to fill her quota. She runs away from the village at night. After this, I cant remember what happened. I believe she gained or developed a magic power at some point.

The cover had a chick wearing a purple/black robe, and I believe she had blonde hair.

I really want to read this again so any help will be greatly appreciated!

Winter of Fire, by Sheryl Jordan?

# ¿ Mar 20, 2011 09:51

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Thoughtless posted:

2) I swear this was a legit scifi book I read as a kid and not some strange fetish fantasy. (I didn't have Internet back then!)

It's about insectoid aliens and has very explicit descriptions of how they reproduce. One part has the protagonist alien looking as his genitals, which are on his back, and probably masturbating, and it's mentioned this is very taboo in alien spiderland. He gets crushed by something later on and that's pretty vividly described too.

For some reason this makes me think of Alan Dean Foster. His Commonwealth series has an insectoid species called Thranx. Phylogenesis is the "first contact" novel so it has a lot of detail about thranx society etc. I'm pretty sure the main character is described as a pervert for some reason, and he dies at the end. It came out in about 2000 so it's maybe possible depending when you were a kid. Sorry I don't remember anything about thranx genitalia.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2011 08:24

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

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.

That's about all I can remember about it.

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.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2011 08:04

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

FetusSlapper posted:

I'm trying to remember a couple books I read back in 5th or 6th grade. The first one was about three sisters who were supposed to go to their aunts for the rest of summer vacation for some reason, but they snuck back to their island cottage and had to fend for themselves for like the last few weeks of their summer vacation. I remember that the oldest sister was named Alice, and wanted to be an actress and the youngest liked to glue periwinkles on things.

I just saw a query about this on another booksearch site, and several suggestions were made. I think this one sounds right:

Anne Lindbergh's The Worry Week

"'Just think - we'll be on the island and we won't have a worry in the world.' When her parents are forced to cut short the family's visit to their summer cottage on a Maine island, eleven-year-old Allegra Sloane and her sisters - thirteen-year-old Alice and seven-year-old Edith (aka Minnow) - decide they'd much rather spend a week alone on the island than languish in steamy Boston. So the ever resourceful Allegra concocts a plan for herself and her sisters to surreptitiously remain behind.

"At first everything proceeds according to plan; the girls slip away from their parents (and avoid a visit to stuffy Aunt Edna) and the promise of freedom beckons brightly. Unfortunately, their plan has a few holes in it; when the girls return to the cottage they find it emptied of food. Allegra realizes it's up to her to provide for her impractical sisters. The bookish Alice is more interested in reading Nancy Drew stories and declaiming Shakespeare and Minnow is preoccupied with gluing seashells to every canister in the house."

# ¿ May 8, 2011 00:12

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

evil spiff posted:

You got it! Amazing... Seriously, MY WIFE thanks you - she had been trying to remember for days.

Darn, beat me to it. :arghfist:

I had to go dig up my copy to confirm that one of the girls she stays with is named Katie.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 07:31

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

SimianNinja posted:

I have posted about this accursed, accursed book book a few times over the years but never to any effect:
A brother and sister are sent to live with their evil aunt and uncle (presumably after their parents perish). The aunt and uncle put them to work as basically full-time slaves. The girl works in the house doing, well, housework, while the boy does all of the labor-intensive work outside. On the boy's birthday, he receives nothing but a pair of workgloves (which he is actually thankful for as his hands are blistered messes). In the boy's bedroom, there is a creepy old wash basin, either the bowl or stand of which is decorated with horrific scenes from war, with horses dying and stuff (Napoleonic?). One day, he gets so freaked out by the washbasin that he turns it over, revealing a secret passageway beneath it. This is where my memories of the book get fuzzy. I swear, I swear, I SWEAR he travels deep under the mansion and discovers a nice old lady imprisoned in a log cabin there, who helps the siblings. Also he has to risk a snake pit at some point.

I read this in Fall 96 or Spring 97 in my 5th grade classroom; my teacher had random awesome books, mostly from the 80s and early-ish 90s there to sort of date the book. (Like, she also had Lone Wolf books, Wizard's Hall, that sort of stuff... so pretty mainstream kids/YA fantasy from that era)

I am desperate after about a decade of searching.

I don't have an answer for you right now, but I just wanted to let you know that you're not alone in your search. I know I've seen this book mentioned on another book-search site a couple years ago. I think it may have been solved. If I can work out the right keywords to find the thread at abebooks, I'll post whatever I can find.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 09:23

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

SimianNinja posted:

The other poster may have been me I know I posted it at Loganberry Books a while ago; they have a thingy called "Stump the Bookseller". Also, I have posted on BN's Book Clubs "Lost Books" and whatsthatbook.com...
But I would be grateful for any/all help! (I'm pretty sure I didn't hit up abebooks, iirc)

It's possible that I saw your post at Loganberry, I suppose. I checked abebooks and found the one I was thinking of, but I'm pretty sure it's not right.

It was A Really Weird Summer by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. It doesn't seem to have the wash basin, which is really the one thing that seems so nigglingly familiar to me.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2011 10:45

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Did you try looking under "hen" too? I had that thought but I don't want to duplicate your effort.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2011 09:45

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Icehawk_OS posted:

Young adult series written about boys in roughly the late 1800s or early 1900s. I remember in one book the main character ends up at a school and learns to play basketball (newly invented) and I think in that same one he makes a key using a bar of soap to make the blank mold. In another one of the books there is a tug of war across a river and maybe a cave?

Maybe the Great Brain books by John D Fitzgerald? They're about three brothers and their friends growing up in Utah in that time period. The soap-key thing sounds familiar, at any rate.

Edit: Specifically, The Great Brain at the Academy; Tom molds a key in a bar of soap and then carves a wooden copy of the key in order to sneak out of boarding school.

wheatpuppy fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Nov 10, 2011

# ¿ Nov 10, 2011 10:52

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Mammon Loves You posted:

Since you guys are so good at this I'll throw out some old books from my younger days.

Two young adult SciFi novels by the same author. The first starts with a worldwide meteor shower and afterwards mysterious abandoned babies are found everywhere. The main character is one who is adopted by a family in the US. The kid grows up and is pretty weird and ends up married and has kids that are equally weird. All the offspring of these meteor children get the urge to meet up and have a reunion of sorts and they end up getting launched into outer space somehow. Turns out they are aliens that travel by generationally planet hopping.

Dammit, I should know this one. I'm nearly certain I read it in 8th grade Lit. The title is something about a light in the forest? To verify if I'm thinking of the same book: The main character is found in the woods by a brother and sister whose family adopts him. At the start he is much younger than the girl but he ages more rapidly than his host family and he grows up to marry her?

Edit: Thank Christ I found it, I was starting to get a Google headache. There are a lot of books out there with "light" in the title. Book 1 is Born into Light by Paul Samuel Jacobs, which means book 2 must be Sleepers, Wake by the same author.

wheatpuppy fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Nov 11, 2011

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 10:20

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

cucka posted:

This isnt the exact thread for this, but I'm hoping someone here can start me on the right path.

Ask/Tell megathread led me here, and what I have in mind IS relative to identifying a book, but for a different purpose.

See, in 3 months and change, I'm gonna be a father. Little girl. I'm unemployed, strapped for cash, and going through my book collection. I worked at a place that came into contact with old books from time to time. The place typically just recycled the books, but I found a couple gems in my time there and saved them from destruction.

The books in question are a non-English (Swedish I think? It has Stockholm listed as a origin, but I don't speak the language so I have no idea) bible printed in 1906 and an encyclopedia from the 1870's, American in origin if memory serves.

I've tried a few times to ascertain what they could potentially be worth, but have never known an appropriate channel to find that out. If this is not in the spirit of this thread, can someone PLEASE point me the right way? I feel these books are very rare and probably valuable to the right person, but I have no idea where to even begin looking as to who could evaluate such a piece.

Help?

P.S. I realize this might be totally the wrong thread, but I'd appreciate, if nothing else, a helpful nudge in the right direction. I can probably gin up some pictures of the bible at least if it'd help. Other book is buried in storage atm, but wouldn't be too hard to get out. Also have some other strange stuff if someone can point me to a general appraisal list or something that can help me resell some of the more obscure stuff.

E: maybe an old book thread is needed? I can't be the only one with century old books. God I hope one of those bastards is worth something.

I would recommend abebooks.com. They have a pretty active forum including international posters. If nothing else, you can search to see if there are any copies of your books for sale there and try to contact the sellers directly.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2011 08:11

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Rollersnake posted:

This book was assigned reading in I think 5th grade (1995-96 for me).

Main characters were a boy and his brother (maybe multiple brothers) who were always trying one-up each other. There was a part where the main character deliberately exposed himself to mumps so he'd be the first kid in his family to get it (I forget why). His brother found out and got his revenge by eating the crusts off the loaf of bread their mom just baked (they were the main character's favorite).

Also they were the first family in their neighborhood to get an indoor toilet, and the brother would bring neighborhood kids around to show them the amazing indoor toilet, maybe charging for admission�this scene might have been what was depicted on the cover. They either ordered the toilet from the Sears catalog, or the Sears catalog had some other prominent role in the story. There was also something about pineapple ice cream, like the boys thought their mom made the best pineapple ice cream in the world.

That's the Great Brain series by JD Fitzgerald.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2012 23:59

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

kitty-go-meow posted:

I've been trying to find a book that I read in elementary school in the nineties. It was a science fiction book that involved colonizing on a planet. The only details that I remember are that there was an extremely still lake and there were trees that were similar to graphite or somesuch. They found a way to make cabins from the trees and the fires inside made fuzzy silhouettes of the occupants on the outer walls.

Seconding The Green Book, the plants are all silica-based so the log cabins are basically made of glass.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2012 07:15

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

This sounds like The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2012 11:18

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Nubcakes posted:

Next was a book about some kid's family on a cruiser that sinks in tropical waters. While the ship is sinking I believe everyone makes it into those life boat thingies but some poo poo happens and the kid wakes up blind on an island alone with some old guy. The old guy is smart and knows how to survive and tries to teach the kid how to work, even while blind, but the kid is being a brat.

The two eventually begin to get along but then a hurricane comes. The old guy and kid cling together on a tree to try and avoid being carried off. They hold on through the storm but the old guy dies for some reason. Then the kid buries the body, and then starts crab fishing with pointed sticks...

... Yea sorry this explanation is so vague. I first read the book back in 2nd grade and haven't read/seen it since.

This is The Cay by Theodore Taylor.

Edit: And the first one might possibly be Monkey Island by Paula Fox.
2nd edit: Definitely Monkey Island, it's got the bit with the lady and the (stolen) pie.

wheatpuppy fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jul 7, 2012

# ¿ Jul 7, 2012 19:44

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Zeth posted:

Sounds vaguely like something we had back home when I was a kid- this look like it? The Lancelot Closes at Five. The description doesnt mention anyone else taking the credit for it, though, and I don't think I was ever interested enough to read the whole thing so I can't be sure.

One of the reviews I found has the following: "Abby's move from Brooklyn to a development called Camelot, where her new friend Hutch's wildest idea of adventure is an overnight stay in the "Lancelot" model home. What's more, the whole school and town are buzzing for days over the candy wrappers, mussed bedspread and used tooth brushes that the two girls leave behind[...]when Hutch tries to take credit for the now famous exploit, she's lost in a flurry of competing claims"

# ¿ Nov 22, 2012 10:12

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Wolfechu posted:

Here's one a customer asked in the bookstore I work in yesterday, and it sounds familiar enough that it's annoying the hell out of me.

When she was in around 8th grade in the 1980s, she remembers the teacher reading them a story or book based on the Arthurian legends, but in the future. She remembers Arthur had some kind of robot sidekick/friend, and time travel may possibly have been involved.

Does this sound sort of familiar to anyone else?

If it was actually in the early 90s this might be Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones. It features (apparent) time travel, Arthurian references, and a futuristic galactic government/corporation. It's... odd.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2012 07:32

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Googling found another person looking for it, but I can't log in to see if there were any answers: http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-sci-fi-short-story-in-which-it-rains-diamonds-on-the-moon#.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2012 05:15

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

I'm trying to track down the source of a random little scene that popped into my head recently. I think it may have been from Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. I'm hoping someone here who's read that recently can confirm/deny.

It's set in 19th-century America, and features a holier-than-thou old maid who spends all her time embroidering Bible scenes. She's obsessed with sin so all her little decorative pillows feature "Delilah tempting Sampson" and "Rahab seducing the soldiers" and "Salome's dance of the veils" and basically her whole house is filled with images of scantily-clad women. Another character, probably the villain, notices this and realizes she must be very passionate underneath her repression so he seduces her then abandons her. I'm not sure if he was trying to get something from her like money or information or if he was just a dick.

So, does this ring a bell for anyone?

# ¿ Jan 8, 2013 11:28

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

mirthdefect posted:

When I was in primary school about twenty years ago, on of my teachers told us a story about two girls evacuated from London in the Blitz. They swapped places because one wanted to go to a particular area and long story short the protagonist was delayed several years getting home. When she arrived her friend (whose own parents died in the course of the war) had single white female'd her and the parents or the differences down to a traumatic time in the country.

Depending on how long ago you read y yours and how well you remember it, it could be the same thing. No idea of author/title though.

In case anyone is curious, I think this book is Searching for Shona by Margaret Anderson.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 01:39

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

The first is All Summer in a Day which IIRC is Bradbury

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 23:39

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Noctis Horrendae posted:

It's definitely Keys to the Kingdom! Thanks so much.

The other one isn't the droid I'm looking for, though.

e: One more for you guys. Generic fantasy novel. Boy has been holed up in a tower for most of his life, suddenly gets the opportunity to leave and eagerly takes it. Goes on some sort of vaguely Herculean journey to save the kingdom, with quicksand (?) being one of the obstacles he has to face. REALLY popular YA series. Spawned a huge loving hardcover TOME (orange cover?) with all 6 or 7 books, as well as a short-lived cartoon adaptation on one of the more popular children's networks.

The Black Cauldron?

# ¿ Sep 7, 2015 22:26

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Peztopiary posted:

I think that one also had a story of a kid finding a spooky house with a Frankenstein monster in it that ends with the kid bursting out the door into the sunlight, the monster following him out, dragging him back in, and the line "now it could get out."

Ooh I know this one! Haunted Planet by DJ Arneson.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2016 04:21

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

It seriously traumatised me as a kid; it was the first scary story collection I read that didn't have happy endings. It was so good-creepy that I had to re-read it frequently and then sleep with a light on.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2016 18:51

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 07:18

wheatpuppy: Apr 25, 2008; YOU HAVE MY POST!

Jcam posted:

I'm trying to remember the name of a sci-fi novel I read in the late 90's, about a girl who somehow time travels to the end of time. She then witnesses the universe collapse on itself, be reborn with a Big Bang, and watches everything repeat at an obviously fast-forwarded speed, to when she sees Earth again, humanity again, and eventually her own life again (or something like that). Then she watches the cycle again I think? I can't remember if she is dying or something. Sorry for the vagueness.

This could be The Starlight Crystal by Christoper Pike.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2016 06:03

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The identify that story/book thread: Home of the gas pump boy

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