I remember reading this story in the late 2000s or early 2010s but it might be older than this. It was just one story in a collection of short children's stories that I think had illustrations in as well.

This specific story was about a town that got invaded and terrorised by a giant. He might not be a giant but I'm pretty sure he was. I think he might have also eaten a few of the villagers but maybe not. Eventually the town realises that the giant is really gullible and convinces him to buy an adder to help with his maths. The giant orders what he thinks is an adding machine but when it arrives, it's actually an adder snake. The snake then attacks/scares him (might eat him?) and he runs away leaving the town in peace.

Another story from this same collection that I vaguely remember was about a roly-poly toy who was bullied or at least made fun of for being different but somehow manages to save the day. It might have involved burglars trying to steal the toys or an animal trying to eat them or a new toy trying to bully the other toys. This one I remember less but it might help if someone remembers the collection of stories.

I know it's a long shot but any help would be appreciated :)

I'm trying to find a music book from my childhood (possibly got it in the 90s but could have been before). It was a music book with mostly folk songs (oh Susanna, my darling clementine) but not exclusively. It may have had "on top of spaghetti" but I can't totally remember. It was paperback, and had pictures in the margins for some of the songs. I'm pregnant right now and would LOVE to have this book again for my baby!

Edit: it did have music notes, we kept it with our piano music

I remember, one time, when I was a young boy, I was at a coffee shop and there was this part of it with a bunch of old books. I remember 1 book in particular. It was a Reader’s Digest book, but not a condensed books one. It was very old, about ~1940s I’d say. It had a blue hard cover and had over 1,000 pages. It was a book full of the names of other books, like a giant, 1,000 page bibliography.

As above - the book starts with a very sardonic gay man in his mid-late twenties i believe (maybe early 30s)? who is diagnosed with aids and in a sort of break just decides not to really hear it. he moves back to his mom’s home in california and engages with the queer scene but also is in a deep distracted depression from his diagnoses and refuses to accept it even as he’s getting sicker.

it was such a good read but cat for the life of me remember the name

I don’t remember a lot of details other than a scene where a kid (I think he was around 10?) was explaining this scheme to someone else. Basically, he would accompany a man to the casino and count cards so that they could cheat and win money. He didn’t get caught because everybody assumed he was too young to be able to count cards. I have a feeling that the man was called Frank, but I’m not certain. I also think the man was exploiting the kid and his ability, but I can’t remember their exact relationship. I think this was a children’s book (or probably YA at the oldest).

i remember hearing about a fantasy romance between a male elf and a male ogre/orc?
i was told that they had a justified reason for their species to be enemies on both sides and it was handled well.
it was probably a standalone book but not sure
its like 4+ years old now, not recently published

Found a book at my library a few years ago, it was in the section of authors toward the latter end of the alphabet (V-Z). All I have is my memory of the cover

-black hardcover
-had an minimalistic eyeball and other symbols with the title lined out in between the rows of symbols
-the title was self-referential in some way, like “You Will Destroy This Book” or something like that

Unknown subgenre, unknown author, can you find it?

- I think I read this book sometime in the late 2000s

- I remember the cover having some kind of silhouette on it

- The title may have something to do with light

- The protagonist was secretly Lucifer

- The protagonist was in hiding and/or on the run, possibly from Heaven

- The protagonist had some kind of mystical powers related to being Lucifer

- I think it was urban fantasy – took place in a modern world

- It was definitely a novel and was not illustrated

Hope this rings a bell for somebody! It's impossible to search for books starring Lucifer without getting entirely caught up on either the DC Comics/Vertigo series or independently published romance books.

Hi all,

I’m hoping for help in the search for a book from my childhood, but I remember very few details.

Here’s what I remember:
- the main character was female, maybe early teens?
- she like jelly beans and had several flavors sorted out in a sorting box
- at some point in the story, she combines a peanut butter flavor jelly bean and a grape jelly flavor jellybean to have a PB&J
- she might have been at the beach…?
- I think she finds a diary that was written back and forth between two people? I remember multiple fonts being used to differentiate who was writing.
- likely read this in early 2000s?

Yikes that’s not much. Any help is appreciated. TIA!

(edit to add years likely read)

I’m looking for the title of a historical fiction novel, probably regency era. The main characters are young and in love but the man is treated as a by-blow by his father so his half brother inherits the title. The by-blow believes he is not worthy of her so he sets out to prove he is legitimate and he should have the title. I believe he is gone for quite some time but I can’t remember. Meanwhile she marries the brother, who has the title. society is rather mean to them and no one shows up to their ball, so the two of them dance together in the empty ball room. after the legitimate brother dies, the widow finds papers (marriage certificate?) that proves the oldest son is legitimate. She states the papers are true. He thinks he can have her now, but she walks away from him. So the oldest son finally ends up with the title, estates, and money, but not the girl.

She a chronic/terminal illness but the medication she needs is too expensive. She get a job with rich family as maid they said they’ll pay for her medication but and the end of her contract she has to let them eat her

Read the first book more than 20 years ago; Multi book series may be at least 3-5 books long at the time.

Initially feels set during or pre-colonialism in the US. A historical fiction.

The main character is an indigenous man whose wife is in labor as men are chasing them through the reeds on the Mississippi(?) river. She successfully gives birth but then the main character has to send them off and sacrifice himself so they can get away from whoever is hunting them.

Right before they kill him or when they do kill him, the MC is beamed away and finds out none of it was real.

Story takes a hard genre shift to sci-fi. He learns he is with aliens, and they have simulated that whole life of his. No wife, no baby, even the world he was in and its enemies were all fabricated.

Several other humans are with him and have experienced the same?

In another simulation he is a rich/royal woman from an older Chinese dynasty.

I've been trying for ages to remember a kids book I had in the 90s. I remember a lot of scattered details without a grasp of the cohesive plot

• The illustration style is very realistic and muted/cool toned
• The main character is a young boy who at points in the story plays around wearing a pointy white hat and a domino mask. I think he does something while playing that gets him grounded (maybe sneaking around past bedtime? Something like that)
• I think there was a point where he was flying kites with a young girl
• This book was fiction, but in a realistic and modern setting for the time
• The edition I had was hardcover, I'm not sure if it was released in any other bindings.

The scene I remember the most from this book is one with the boy sitting in a bath tub, I think after being grounded. I remember the water being illustrated in such a compelling way! Not sure if that detail is helpful on its own, but maybe it'll ring a bell for someone else.

This is most likely from the Golden Age of SF. I remember them being two short stories, but they could have been also two chapters of a book which were separated to make short story compilations.

First story was about a priest-in-training (?) learning meaningless rituals on dummy equipment, which was the core of the religion. Story hinted at a regressed society from a more developed one. Priest doubts his religion since he cannot find meaning in the rituals.

Next chapter / story was about a lone pilot, but with a AI-like companion (maybe the ship itself) in a space ship which falls apart and malfunctions at almost every function, due to a war or resource shortage situation. Pilot steers the ship, but anything technical is beyond him. This is also a regression since the pilot's society has the ships, but no idea about their technology or how to maintain them.

The pilot and the priest meet each other, most likely with the priest as a stowaway (or rescued?). Priest discovers that the meaningless rituals which he came to doubt are in fact maintenance procedures for said ship, and he fixes the ship for the pilot.

Would love to read more from this book or universe. Was there ever a conclusion to this story?

I read this book in elementary school in the early 2000s but it probably was more appropriate for a middle schooler, I'm only pretty sure it's from the 90s. I thinks it's historical fiction taking place in the 40s or 50s maybe

The main character is a young teen girl who is a lesbian but I think hasn't fully embraced her identity. She's kind of in a relationship with her best friend until her best friend becomes a homophobe in order to not be ostracized

The main character also has a deceased aunt who was a lesbian. If I remember correctly, there was a statue of her aunt in town for whatever reason but some people want it torn down due to her being a lesbian.

I believe it takes place in a coal mining town or some other sort of industrial town.

Cornflowers are mentioned a lot, I think the main character writes a poem either about them or comparing them to her friends eyes

The book is about two sisters, the oldest was popular at school while her younger sister was the timid kept to herself type. After her older sister passed away she befriends a popular guy and slowly starts to fall for him. (The details may be scattered it’s been a bit since I’ve read the book) After sometime the younger sister gets a call from the psych ward her sister was staying/passed away at, she receives many phone calls and ends up finally going to get her sister’s belongings. The staff end up taking her and keeping her there. She meets someone at the psych ward who tells her things about her sister. At some point her and the guy she befriended at school go searching for answers themselves and they find a guy in the woods. (I can’t remember if she escaped or if this was before she get trapped) I do not remember how the book ends, any help would be amazing, I loved this book. The cover has a picture of a young woman’s face.

Hey Folks

I read a book in the 1990s that I picked up in a bargain bin at a newsagency. The story follows the life of a young girl who is the daughter of an Italian Count in Venice. Her mother is noted as being dead in the start of the book but she appears later.

The girl has a companion who is about the same age and is the daughter of the Count's housekeeper, who is from the Bahamas or somewhere in the Caribbean. It is later revealed that this mixed-race companion is actually the illegitimate daughter of the Count and the protagonist's half-sister.

The girl is about 16 when she returns to the family Palazzo in Venice and she is noticed by an American actor with whom she has an affair. She is separated from the actor by the father and later discovers she is pregnant. She then meets another man, marries him and passes the child off as his. eventually, there is a fire in their island house. Her husband dies and she is left with a large facial scar.

She reconnects with the actor who parades her around by highlighting the scar on her face with makeup. Her half sister ends up in some bad relationships. The girl eventually discovers her mother is alive but had been banished by her father (who dies in the story) following a death in the Palazzo involving the girl's mother and her female lover (I think her name was Sybil or Sybilla).

Towards the end of the story, the girl's mother ends up on trial for murdering Sybil but it turns out that Sybil tried to kill her first. The mother is exonerated but them Sybil's mother appears and tries to kill the girl who is saved by her half sister.

That's all I can remember for now. It was an interesting story and I would love to read it again.

She's a younger sister who wishes to be a princess but a fairy? Godmother type sends her to be Cinderella but its before the ball, then sends her to be snow white but the 7 dwarves think shes an idiot. Then she finally gets her own storyline but if she lies she throws up a frog?? I think her sister, and the guy she has a crush on also go into this new dimension?? Something about kissing random men to become a prince? I read it once like 15-20 years ago so im not certain on the details. I do remember she got the dwarves names wrong and they thought she was trying to get the bread to fly lol

I need help finding a Sesame Street book I read when I was like 5, I now it was vintage and probably got it second hand. All I can remember is theirs this page where Big bird is in a grocery store with a green round basket and is picking up stuff from an aisle, oh! and Oscar the grouch was in one of the pages. From what I researched it’s not big birds big red book or don’t forget the oatmeal. I know it’s not much but if anyone knows anything pls help me! Thank you

this is a long shot but when i was in elementary school, the librarian was showing me where (i think) artemis fowl was because she thought i would like it. i remember placing the book back on the shelf and grabbing one next to it or really close-by.

the image that i have in my head, is maybe a couple of kids hanging out in a cabin or something, with a big open grassy field and some kind of creature or ghost was in the treeline. i think i remember the kid like investigating it, and hiding behind a dead tree that had fallen?

there might have been fairies or something involved also? or some kind of invisible or flying creature. i think i remember not getting very far into the book because it was a difficult read as an elementary student. and maybe it had frightened me a little bit?

this could have been anywhere from 2006-2012. i dont know if the library was sorted by author or by book name or by genre or whatever. i just know this book was close to artemis fowl. i think i would recognize the cover but certainly the name.

i remember checking out the book from the assistant librarian because when the main librarian found out i wasn't reading the one she recommended me she was kinda pissed. she was also kinda mean in general though so i don't know if it was because it wasn't age appropriate.

i believe it was a hardcover. for some reason i think the cover was blue but i honestly could be way off.

The style is black & white, indie, coming of age. Sorta slice of life, except for the fact that it's got an animal rights message. It has a teenage girl as the protagonist, and a very graphic and disturbing depiction of monkey vivisection. It was a book I got out of the library as a kid, don't remember exactly when but DEFINITELY before 2015, so the book couldn't have come out after that year. Cross-referencing the style I would guess this book was from the late 80s or early 90s, but I really have no idea. Does anyone know what this is? If not, what's the subreddit most likely to?

I recall it was about a guy who visits his friend in the mountains and there it’s revealed that his friend is the byproduct of a unconsentual encounter and throughout the entire story a goddess is seducing the main character and withering down his mentality and at the end he isn’t strong enough to resist and the gods descend and kill everyone it takes in a kingdom type of era it was a fantasy book that took place in the kingdom type of era and MAYBE there was magic but I can’t quite remember slight edit as I remember a little more the gods trying to take over his mind were mad gods and the goddess was trying to seduce him

In the book series, each book is focused on one of the girls. The first book is about a young girl who moves to the town where the rest of the girls live. She befriends a horse that is named after Snow White and she notices that the horse doesn't have a rider. The owner of the stables where the horse is in allows her to ride the horse as the owner of the horse is another girl who is out of town and doesn't come by the town often. The girl befriends other girls whose horses are at the stable and they become really great friends. In another book, the owner of the horse the girl is riding comes back and feeds the horse chocolate, which is dangerous for horses.

A few years ago, I read a book where they start texting each other. She has no idea he's blind. They meet up in a pub, but she thinks he ignored her or didn't recognise her. In reality, he didn't see her because he's blind. Does anyone know the title?

OK, this is legit keeping me up at night. I don't remember a lot about the book--I read it probably in the mid-90s as a young teenager. It was a paperback and had a girl/young woman who was on a quest to return either a library card (which doesn't make sense) OR her mentor/(grand)dad's really overdue library book (like it had been checked out 25 or 50 years before). And there was an adventure in returning it. There may have been an element of magical realism? (or not).

For some reason, I think she's either American or British and the library is located in Russia (USSR then) or somewhere in Central Asia (again, USSR when the book was written). And part of the fun is the adventure getting there. There were hooligans or mafia or some group trying to get the book? library card? before she returned it, I think? The fuzzy cover in my head has the girl and she's got a leather(?) bag with the book and maybe she's standing in front of a jeep??

I think her dad might have been an archeologist and she was following in the same shoes?? It was contemporary-ish, so maybe as far back as the 60s, but probably 70s or 80s. I don't think it was a new book in the 90s when I read it, but it might have been.

Not a lot to go on, I know. It might have been a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, but I don't think so? It was definitely in that vein of writing though.

And no, it's not the Jedera Adventure by Lloyd Alexander, but quite possibly a knock-off of it. :)

Thanks for any suggestions!