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resolved No Title Literature
Yo, another newb here. I remember the basic plot from a book I once read, but cannot remember the title. I think I managed to pull out every detail that I remember. Here it is:
It is a Science Fiction story. Man has colonized Luna (lunar colony is now seperate legal entity from Earth) religion of all sorts has gotten out of control on Earth, and now earth based science is stalling. Lunar science is still advancing at breakneck speed. That is just background. There is a small research expedition to mars. They have established a semi-permanent base/colony, but they still require regular resupply from Earth. Earth government is threatening to shut them down, when they discover remains of extinct Martian Civilization. Religious establishments and governments on Earth rail harder to get martian expedition shut down. Mars expedition leaders go to moon to ask for aid, lunar government says "yes, if you can proove that the ancient buildings are real and not natural formations". Foreward thinking religous leader has idea to go to mars, and declare that martians fit within canon. He dies, but just as he does, he finds what reveals the location of the martian graves. He dies before he can tell the others. Explorers get into fight, one falls down, and sees what religous leader saw, stops fight, and another discovery is made when an object impacts with martian surface, revealing microbial life under martian surface. The life dies quickly, due to exposure to environment to which it did not evolve. Explorers have idea to bomb surface of mars, putting dome over craters to let an atmosphere form and protect the microbes, letting them evolve and rebuild mars's environment. They call it the "Million Year Experiment". End
That's about all I remember. You guys got anything?
Edited by Bronze_MooseopenNo Title Literature
A friend of mine is looking for a short story about a dystopian future in which equality is prized so highly that everyone with advantages is given a handicap by the government—people who are very strong are weighed down with bags of sand, people who are very bright are forced to wear buzzing headphones to interrupt their ability to concentrate, etc. Anybody recognize this?
openNo Title Literature
I had this book that I read it in the early to mid 2000s about a girl named Naomi who moves from Saskatchewan to Japan. I remember really specific details about the book but I haven't had luck finding it online. I'm about 99% positive it's a Canadian book and it may have been printed by Kids Can Press. My grandfather used to give my sisters and I all kinds of books from that company since I'm fairly certain they were a client of the publishing company he worked for.
I remember that the first morning Naomi and her mother are in Japan, they are introduced to Natto by her mother's friend with whom they are staying. Naomi also discovers lavender ice cream and the obsession with Anne of Green Gables present in Japan (she's a redhead). I also remember Naomi becoming friends with a girl and they do a myriad of things together. Her friend's sibling is part of the Shichi-Go-San celebrations, they enter a haiku contest in the newspaper as well.
There's a part as well where Naomi and her mom take a trip to a water spring resort or bathhouse where they meet another family and the daughter's name is Nami, and they laugh at how close their names are.
I would absolutely love to be able to find this book again so if anyone has any clues, thank you.
openNo Title Literature
An Urban Fantasy novel I read a few years ago (the book is not less than 2 years old and not more than about 15). The protagonist is female, and I think casts spells or something. One of her allies, who she meets early on (and maybe ends up living with) is a drag queen who turns out to be a)straight and b) a military veteran of some type, possibly a Marine. He has no magic/supernatural stuff going on, he's just a Marine turned drag performer. I'm pretty sure the book is set on the West Coast of the U.S., possibly in Seattle.
openNo Title Literature
A short story set in imperial Russia. The narrator is a man who calls in a young woman who's a governess or something similar in his house to pay her what he owes, and he starts from the amount they'd agreed on and keeps subtracting small amounts for expenses he says she's cost and other excuses, until there's only one ruble left. She doesn't argue through the whole process and is going to accept the one ruble, and he reveals that he was playing a joke on her and means to pay the full amount and tells her she needs to stand up for herself more. She replies that she's had jobs where they never paid her at all. That's not quite the end, but I don't remember how he responds.
Edited by FerdinandtheBullopenNo Title Literature
This was a kids' book or comic, color illustrations and all. I must have read in in the 00's, but for all I know it was from the 90's. It was about cavemen and one was an inventor who was ignored. I remember being surprised that the cavewomen was bare chested. There was also a line about the inventor talking about fruit juice and someone that I think was his dad saying that fruit was a type of lump and that juice was like water, so fruit juice was lumpy water. Everyone thought that the inventor was crazy and would end up like those weirdos that paint on walls and in the end he did.
openNo Title Literature
I'm wondering about a children's chapter book I probably read around 2002-2005, though it could have been older. It may have been published by Scholastic. The main character is a girl, probably in middle school (though she could have been a little younger) from a poor family: just her mom, her, and her little sister. I think the main character takes on a lot of responsibility for the family (maybe the mom was depressed or alcoholic?). The thing that really stands out in my mind though was that the younger sister had this weird ability where if she pictured a melting clock (like in that famous Dali painting) with a certain time on it while she was falling asleep, she'd wake up exactly at that time the next day. Every night, the younger sister would ask the main character what time to "set her head" for.
openNo Title Literature
My memory's a lot fuzzy on this one, because it was years and years ago when I was small, I heard it as an audiobook, slept through half of it, and I keep getting bits of it mixed in my mind with the Charlie Bone book I listened to on the same car trip, but here goes:
I'm not sure if this was in the book or if it was from yet another book, but I think there was a prologue where a man is wandering through the woods, lost, and he hears screaming from all around, eventually he finds a rock or tree with a bunch of names carved into it, and that's all I remember from that scene before it ended. it stuck out in my mind because I remember it being far too scary for a small child to listen to, but still excellent.
Two boys (good friends but not related), teenaged I think, are spending the summer(?) at one of the boys' uncle(?)'s house. I can't remember anything but vague generalities up to the climax. The two boys end up caught in a supernatural contest between good and evil. One boy is assigned as the champion for good, one for evil, but they're not told which, only that they must...get to a throne, I think? Wear a special crown? Something like that, and whoever got to the macguffin first won the battle of good and evil for his side.Some creepy evil dude harasses them as they try to reach the end of the game, hampering one and hindering the other. Naturally, they assume that the one being held back is the champion of good and the one being helped by the evil dude is the champion of evil.
However, at the climax, through some mechanism I can't recall, they figure out that the evil guy was manipulating them all along, tricking them into thinking they were on the sides opposite of the ones they were really on because they were too good to help the evil side. They realize this while in the room with the macguffin. The creepy guy is there too, I think, and he's trying to kill them both at this point with shurikens or razor frisbees or the like. I don't actually know if the razor frisbees are in the same scene as the climax, but they were definitely there. I don't remember how it ends.
Any ideas, tropers? The release date could be anywhere from late 90's to mid-2000's, or maybe even earlier.
openNo Title Literature
An illustrated children's book that was read to me when I was small some time during the 1970s in the UK.
The main character is an Austin Mini motor car that shares a garage with a vintage Bentley. The Bentley is boastful and constantly tells stories of his past as a racing car and his winning a major race (either heavily implied or outright stated to be Le Mans - Bentleys did indeed win Le Mans on numerous occasions throughout the 1920s).
During the story the Mini takes the family who own him on a day trip to the beach, where they are cut off by the tide. The Mini somehow manages to rescue them. When he returns to the garage he modestly doesn't tell the Bentley about rescuing the family.
I remember the cars being illustrated in a fairly realistic way (possibly with pupils in headlamps for eyes).
The Bentley may have been something along the lines of a 41/2 litre or Speed Six.
The Mini may have been one of the sporty Austin/Morris Cooper models.
As you can probably tell, I was car mad when I was a kid (and still am a little).
Edited by AspectiferopenNo Title Literature
A children's book about these children who have a pet dog named Rascal. All I can remember is that it took place in some wood or something.
Edited by mimitchi33openNo Title Literature
It was a purple book with a single arrowhead on the cover, in the Sci-Fi genre. It was about this tribe that lived near a swamp, and they were in conflict with nearby species. The main character stutters and his brother is the leader of the tribe. New species fall from the sky periodically; one day a lady (same species as main character) falls from the sky, speaking in tongues. Main character recovers the lady's translator and they go on a journey, abandoning the tribe, to get the lady back into the sky to her people. In the end, they discover another person from the sky, the main character is forced to kill them, and lady returns back to her people; it's revealed everything is all one big experiment.
No idea what this book's title is, please let me know if you have an idea!
openNo Title Literature
Alright here's one. A while back I was in a borders and saw this series where the title of each book spelled out CIRCLE but I can't find it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If it helps I think the first one was called chaos
openNo Title Literature
Hi everyone, I'm looking for a book on behalf of a friend of mine. Sadly, she can't remember very much about it.
Her description: "A girl named Katie (or similar) discovers a hidden world and the existence of fairies. She meets both evil and good creatures, a water spirit that teaches her about magic, among others."
openNo Title Literature
This one is bugging me horribly. There were at least two books in the series, involved a set of kids in modern times living in a medieval castle (I don't remember why, but I'm pretty sure that their parents were there and there was something involving restoration). I read it as a kid, so it was published by 1990 at least. Plotwise, I remember that there was something sinister going on with the workmen, possibly looking for a hidden treasure. To try to suss out what was going on, the kids make their own sort of boom mike with a fishing pole and a tape-recorder so that they can listen in. Eventually, the kids find the hidden chamber, which required access via a secret door lever. I remember that it was semi-educational with a lot of information about the construction of real castles. I want to say that they made mention of how historical castles had spiral staircases that ascended clockwise because it meant that the defenders had their right hand free while attackers would be forced to use their left hand or have their attacks blocked by the central column.
openNo Title Literature
A science fiction story about a colony of humans on another planet. Earth was on the verge of Mutually Assured Destruction, and a group of (scientists?) sent a whole bunch of fetuses on a ship to said planet, to be Raised by Robots. The conflict begins when it turns out that Earth's humans didn't kill themselves off, and they want their colony back...
Found it: Voyage From Yesteryear by James P. Hogan
Edited by IMpishopenNo Title Literature
Another thing! Not quite literature, but there is no category for plays/theater, so this was the best option.
I'm looking for a particular stage adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" that my elementary/middle school performed sometime around 2003-2005. It was obviously written for children/youth to perform. I definitely played a character called nothing but "The Old Blind Woman," and her recurring line was "Spare a franc for the old blind woman!" She was called on to give some kind of testimony at the end of the play. There was also a character called "Blade" or something along those lines who was supposed to perform a dance with a scarf. One character (D'artagnan's sister?) had a line that read, "He's *my* little brother, so if you want to chop his head off, go ahead!" Also at some point there was a really lame "back of my hand" joke. (Character A: "I know this forest like the back of my hand!" *Turns hand around* "What's that?!" Character B: "The back of your hand!")
These details are pretty specific, but my Google powers have failed me so far in my attempts to track this play down. I would guess that it was distributed by a pretty small-scale publisher and might never have made it to the Internet. Can anyone help me find it?
openNo Title Literature
Are there any novels in the now defunct Star Wars expanded universe, written before revenge of the sith, that state or strongly imply that Darth Vader killed Padme? The reason I ask this is that I distinctly remember around the time attack of the clones was released that kids on my bus would talk about star wars. And they'd say that Darth Vader killed his wife. When I asked how they knew that they'd say "read the books". Now my memory could be wrong, but I don't think it is.
Edited by jjjjopenNo Title Literature
EDIT: Actually, disregard. A minor detail (a charcater name) just confirmed that the work I'm thinking of is indeed the one I thought it was.
Edited by SolipSchismopenNo Title Literature
I'm trying to remember the title of a picture book. I don't know when it was published, but it was around at least 15 years ago, maybe 20.
The two elements I remember are 1) a stuffed animal — possibly a rabbit — and 2) a small house-like structure in a garden (possibly a shed or a small greenhouse). The kid who owned the stuffed animal liked to play in the little house, and I think he/she left the animal in the house at one point and forgot where it was. I think it was raining at one part of the story. And maybe the sun came out at around the same time the kid found the stuffed animal again, I don't know.
I saw a kids' book a long time ago at my library. It was about a girl who took her cat to an obedience school. In the end, she decided she liked her cat better as a bad cat. Oh, also, one of the methods to make the cats more obedient was hypnotizing them with a pocket watch and saying "Repeat after me: 'I am a good cat...'" The "instructor" also happened to be a cat, if I'm not mistaken.