The community for senile readers...

 

Book 1: This is a book that I borrowed from a friend, probably sometime around 1999-2001, and I believe it was a new book. I remember that it was coffee table sized (oversized) and it may have been intended as a children’s book, but it had very illustrations. They looked like colored pencil illustrations. I think it was a book of Celtic Fairy Tales or Celtic Myths and Legends and I remember that it had a blue cover and it might have had a Pegasus on the cover. Unfortunately this was back before I started keeping the Hellacious Book List, so I don’t have the exact title or the author or anything (and it might not have been limited to Celtic Fairy tales). I remember one very striking illustration of a boy (I believe) with very blonde hair and teeth that were pointed (like maybe they’d been filed) the illustration went along with a story that was very similar to “The Snow Queen” but I know for sure that it wasn’t a Hans Christian Anderson story. I’d know the book if I saw it again, but I haven’t, unfortunately. (The illustrations were NOT by Dulac OR Rackham-I’d have recognized THOSE right away.)

 

Book 2: A friend of one of my cousins was telling me about this one, it's kind of an urban fantasy in which a scientist working somewhere very cold (the guy telling me about the book said someplace like Alaska or the Yukon Territory) discovers that there are really elves and fairies in the world. At first he wants to reveal them to the scientific community, but decides to protect them instead. He got the book at a public library in Denver, Colorado, but couldn't remember the name, title, or a whole lot of important plot stuff. I sincerely hope that this book is not a figment of his imagination, as I would VERY much like to get my hands on it because it sounded really interesting. It was actually an adult (as in people older than 13-17, not porn) novel, though it could possibly have been republished as YA, as so many other books have been lately (like Ecstasia....)
 

and finally
book 3: A friend of mine was telling me about this the other night. I have tried to find something, anything, to no luck. He thinks it was a children's/YA book and it was a group of dragons of different colors/ethnicities getting together and telling their stories (kind of like a convention). He remembers a red dragon, a green dragon, and he thinks a blue one (however, we were talking about cartoons prior to this and the Snorks, the Littles, and the Smurfs came up, so that might have influenced his color choices a bit-the guy does a mean imitation of the little green Snork that always just burbled (isn't burbled a GREAT word? I love it. I learned it from Neil Gaiman, he burbles happily about stuff a lot according to his blog) but never spoke)

 

We were talking about helping younger girls learn about anorexia at work today and I was reminded of a YA book I read sometime mid-80s-mid-90s.

It's from the point of view of a girl who IS anorexic, but doesn't understand that she is. It has how she sees everyone reacting to her being anorexic.

Things I remember:

She tries out for cheerleading and has cowboy boots on and does a disco routein. Then right after her a fat boy does a "chatanooga choo choo" cheer."

She starts growing extra hair because she's so skinny and thinks it's good because she interprets it as her body "taking care of itself."

Sorry that's all I remember!

I'm looking for a very large compilation of fairy tales, children's stories, limericks, and I think there were some poems, all by different authors. I had a copy as a child in the 1980's, but all I can remember about it is:

- it looked extremely big to my eyes (probably larger than a sheet of looseleaf notebook paper, and several hundred pages thick).
- it was teal-colored hardcover. I don't remember ever seeing a dust jacket; it likely had one that was removed by my parents or lost.
- the title was embossed in blue on the spine.
- poems and limericks were in the front of the book.
- it had "The Waterbabies" near the back of the book.
- it had a fairy tale called "The Bluebird" somewhere near the middle, a synopsis of which is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Bird_(fairy_tale).

It had few illustrations, in the Victorian style common to the Oz books and Alice in Wonderland if I recall correctly, and I don't remember if any of them were in color.

I'm fairly sure it's out of print by now and I'll have to look in used book stores, but a title would be a huge help anyway.

In the mid '80s, there was an author, identified only as "Anonymous" who wrote a series of erotic books entitled "They", "She", "He", "We", "Us", etc.

I know this is a long shot but do /any/ of you guys know where I might get my hands on these? Thanks!

(Hello! I'm new. *waves*) Okay, I read this book last year and now I can't remember the title at all. It was a historical fiction set during Napoleon's Russian Campaign and it was in the (first person?) point of view of a young soldier who was the assistant to a high military ranked officer (who was also pretty young himself). One scene I remember: they heading toward Moscow? St. Petersburg? to take over the city and they took a detour to a castle and had dinner there. The soldier had a flirty (I think) moment with this blonde girl and then the army moved on. There's this whole thing about the officer always getting drunk after sunset and um, um, oh! The city Napoleon sent them to take over was abandoned so the army starved, and it was freezing, and people started to die...and all that great stuff.
So...Thanks in advance!
What a great community for forgetful people like me...>.>

edit: Found! "An Innocent Soldier" by Joseph Holub.

Okay, this was a kid's book, and it's about I think three kids... All I remember about it is that there was a moose-like character who said he had a sweet tooth, and showed one of the kids and she said "That really is a sweet tooth!" because it had a little flower painted on it.

Also, near the beginning of the book they are talking to a man who says people don't look up enough any more, they only look at the ground. Then he walked into the street and nearly got run over and one of the other kids said "I bet he was looking up."

The kids also had to cross a long rickety bridge at some point... and that's all I remember.

I'm not sure if that'll ring any bells, but it's been irritating me for months!

A friend of mine told me about this book being her favorite when she was little (she's in her late 20s now), but she can't remember what it was.

She remembers it being a big orange book, if that helps, about a boy who had a dinosaur as a pet. The dinosaur had to sleep outside because it wouldn't fit in the house, and she remembers him seeing the giant eye through his window. Not much to go on, but that's it for what she rememebers.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

When I was a little girl, my grandparents went to New Zealand and brought me back a book about a kiwi who wandered all night through forests of candy. I remember the poor bird's name was Kiwi (someone was lacking in imagination there), but not the title, and Amazon doesn't seem to have it. Anyone remember this one?

Hello! I'm looking for a children's book. I know it's a picture book, and it's about a neighborhood where all of the houses look the same until one guy starts doing crazy things to his, painting it different colors, adding different things, etc. Then one by one all of the other residents paint and do crazy things to their houses.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this sounds familiar to someone. Thanks so much in advance.

ok ok. i admittedly have the worst memory of anyone i kno.  all i remember is that it was a children's book series that sort of had morals (kind of like the bearenstien bears books).
i just barely rememer one part of one of the books, i read it in about 1995 maybe and i was like 5 or so, i am picturing some sort of furry creature in a tree looking down at a pond and snatching a ball or something from the other furry creature.  this specific one is about the gimme monster or the equivalent of a gimme monster.... i just want to remember the series bc i used to LOVE these books and i want to find them again. i know this is very vague, but if anyone can help please try.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

Okay - today's book hunt is for a book that I'm very vauge about.

I think there's a family in it and it's like they're experiencing (or being haunted by) the irish potato famine.

I think at some point one of them tries to eat dog food. (I could be wrong.)

All I really remember is a vivid discription of the rotten potatoes.

This would have been published before 1985. I read it as a young adult, but it might not be a young-adult book.

Thank you in Advance!

BOOK FOUND! Earthfasts by William Mayne
Thank you to scarlettraces!

Today's book:

Again, it's something my father read to me when I was little. It would have been published before 1975 and I think he inherited it from his mother so it may be pre-1940.

I have only the vaguest of memories that there was a tunnel in the earth that went backwards and forwards in time. At one point the main characters (which I think are a boy and girl) are going forward in time in the tunnel and it seems to almost hurry them along and they find a man (soldier? messenger?) heading the other way and he is having to struggle and seems almost frozen.

Maybe there were woods and/or a farm in the book and MAYBE there was a drummer boy. That's seriously all I can dredge out of my memory.

BOOK(S) Found!!! It WAS two stories I merged in my head. Johnny Tremain and Otto of the Silver Hand. Thanks tamarinne!


This may be one book OR it may be TWO books with similar themes.

Young Adult Fiction, published BEFORE 1975.

Set before 1800 EITHER in UK or Colonial America.


A young boy looses his hand in a fire. At one point he's told to address something and the person can read it and the boy says something like "Lord help me - it's the best I can do." Later on he's embaressed by how bad his writing was at first.


Later still I think he's given (or makes) himself a hand out of silver.

Like I said - I could be combining two books about boys with missing hands.

thanks for helping!

I'm looking for a "historical fiction" book that my dad read to me when I was young. I'm thinking it's at least a young adult book and possibly just for adults. I could be wrong.

It took place in Europe (possibly Roman Empire) and all I remember is that the main character fell in love with a girl named Regan. (Reegan? Ragenne?)

I also think there were battles and/or fighting in it.

Maybe the main character was a (Roman) soldier?

At one point a tribeman comes up to the main character and says "Regan wants you" and holds out a lock of her hair.

Sorry I don't remember more!!!

Ok, I read this book perhaps 10 years ago (but I'm bad with time).  It was set in a small town, perhaps in Pennsylvania, or upstate New York, that sort of landscape.  The main character was a young woman, probably in her 20s.  She was working with her Mom, and they were staying at a B&B or country inn.  The mother & father & daughter were all gifted with some sort of second sight, and they were trying to deal with a ghost, I think, that was locked in a room upstairs.  Or something to that effect.  There was a possible love interest for the daughter, a young man who was very grounded.  I specifically remember both the mother & the daughter looking involuntarily at his feet when they met him, expecting to see roots going down into the ground.  I have no inkling as to the name of the book (obviously) or the author, but I had the sense that they were part of a series.
Ring any bells?

I just discovered this comm today after, of course, trying whatwasthatbook.

I'm looking for a series of YA books that I read when I was 12 or 13. They were in the school library. There was a group of teenagers in this seaside town and they solved mysteries. I believe they were set in the 50s 0r 60s. I think, but am not sure, that the word Bay or Cove was in the name of the series *or* part of the town's name. The books were 5x7, with either a dark purple and white, or black and white type cover.

Anyone know this? I've tried all kinds of searches, but haven't managed to find them.

Found! The Haunting with Louisa Trilogy by Emily Cates

I am looking for a trilogy that I read several years in a row - every summer I would visit my grandparents in Duluth and the first stack of books I'd check out of the library had to have those three in it. Here's the thing - I remember the stories vividly, but I cannot remember the name of the books and cannot find them anywhere online.

Type: Paperback, set of three

Years: Early 90s.

Cover(s): All varients of blue or green, depending on what book it was. The third book's picture was a vivid image of the ghost girl, long hair streaming out, pulling a lifeless girl in modern clothing out of the churning sea along the beach at night. I swear, I could draw it for you.

Plot: A girl moves with her father? to a small island resort and in her new room she meets a ghost of a girl about her age from the turn of the 20th century. In each book, the ghost and the girl solve a mystery, even though their only original intention is to find out who the ghost girl is, because she cannot remember anything about herself. It was like she was asleep until the new people moved into her house and disturbed her existence. Anyways, the series ends with the ghost remembering who she is - her last name is Lockhart - and discovering that the protagonist who has been helping her piece together the clues about her life is actually connected to her in some way (I won't reveal how!). Lockhart is able to reunite with the rest of her family ... who have obviously died by now. There are a lot of other details I remember, as I am very good at remembering the plots of books ... I just suck at remembering the titles.

Thanks in advance!

x-posted to whatwasthatbook

I have asked on Bookcrossing but didn't get an answer, so thought I'd try this. Tried posting in whatwasthatbook but moderation queue was full.

This book was probably a YA book. I read it in the early to mid 80s. There was a young boy, about 12 or so, who lived with his aunts and his grandfather. He had been told that his mother had died when he was a baby. His grandfather is very stern and cold but his aunts are pretty nice, I think. I don't think he was allowed to talk about his mother around his grandfather, there was some bad feeling there I seem to recall. His name may have been Patrick. One of the aunts was Beryl, I definitely remember that. I believe his dead mother's name may have been Celina or Celinda, or that may have been the other aunt? At one point, he somehow gets the idea that one of the aunts is actually his mother. He decides to dig up his mother's grave (it's on the property) to see if there's actually anyone buried there. He digs all night but I can't remember what he found.

The copy I had was a small hardback with no dust jacket. It was yellow but I don't remember any illustrations or anything like that.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I remember reading this short story in highschool when I was a freshman (7 years ago) in one of those big literature collections that English classes tend to use. The title of the short story had something to do with some sort of red bird I think. The story itself was disturbing. I can't quite remember anything too specific but two children were playing together in the summer time and they're running around and the heart of one of the two kids' explodes. Some time before or after the exploding heart, the red bird is sighted. I keep thinking that surely it's not an exploding heart but merely a heart attack, but I could be wrong. It would be so wonderful if someone could help me out. Thanks!

Two books from my adolescence elude me.


The first is a collection of short horror stories, probably YA level. I remember one story was about a teenage graffitti artist who goes by the tag name "Phantom" or maybe "Phantasm". He sneaks into a natural history museum after hours to do some tagging. The night watchman stalks him through the museum, eventually turning into Anubis and mummifying the kid.
Another story from this collection involved a teenage gang of vampires, but that's all I can remember about it.

Second book is an Alfred Hitchcock mystery collection for kids or young adults. One story I believe was written by an author with "Frank" as either his first or last name, and the story was set in the past, maybe 1940s, and involved a kid who played with marbles and traded things with other kids, and he winds up going to an abandoned house that happens to be being robbed at the same time. I think he somehow foils the robber's plot. Vague memories.


I was probably reading these from the library in the early to mid 90s.


Thank you!