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openYA SciFi novel series Literature
This was an anthology series of scifi novels. Each novel was a complete story, but they were rarely serialized. Two of the books were connected, about a boy and a girl helping a black MIB agent who liked butterscotch candies with alien stuff. I think they had comicbook style art on the covers, at least some of them. This would be 90's.
openWeird-ass German religious fiction novel I only remember the twist at the end of Literature
It was a story about an investigator of some sorts (police private, Suletta forgetta), IIRC, and the story ends with the following (a heavy spoiler, OFC) weird-ass twist: Some guys in a monastery hold Jesus Christ Himself prisoner to prevent Him from kicking off the apocalypse. The investigator (and maybe also some quest companions) free Jesus and goodbye world. IIRC the author is the same as that of my previous Find-a-Work query (this author has a knack for weird-ass twists).
Edited by arisbochopenGerman fantasy novel about tunnel constructors that come across a time/space anomaly Literature
Those are the story elements I remember (warning, spoilers, and some of it may be not quite correct, I read it years ago):
- A tunnel construction project comes upon a time and space anomaly
- The engineer that finds the anomaly with his laser, gets framed and then kicked out of the project. His wife divorces him, as well.
- The head of the project goes to the government and IIRC intergovernmental bodies (possibly the UN) with his discovery, and gets an insane amount of power by them.
- A journalist joins the engineer, and during his investigations, gets his dictaphone ripped out of his hands and destroyed by the goons of the project head. The journalist makes comments about them not being in the Wild West, to which the project head replies not to be so sure about that.
- The team (engineer, journalist, and a woman who is looking for someone, IIRC) come upon a shaman with real powers who is connected to the space-time anomaly in the mountain
- The space-time anomaly gets out of hand, starts sucking up the oxygen of Earth and fucking around with time (e.g. rapidly aging and de-aging people)
- The aforementioned shaman and a ton of others, who joined in earlier, pull something out of WH 40 K and sacrifice themselves to stave off the space-time anomaly
- The journalist gets killed in a helicopter crash
- The engineer, project head and the woman on a quest become the world's new shaman guardians, and reshape it into a form that is not revealed in the novel
openFairy Tale about a poor girl and rich kid in his bed Literature
I'm not sure where and when i heard about it, but i know the plot of it very clearly. A poor girl had to look in the window of kid's room, where he was lying in his bed and was fed by a maid, every day. She was envying his blessful life, where he didn't even have to get up from his bed. At one time, a fairy showed up, who let her make a wish. She wished to be in his place. Fairy warned the girl that after making a wish she won't be able to revert it, but she decided it's worth it. She wakes up in his bed, just like she wanted, and sees the maid and the plate with food nearby. She tries to leave one's bed to grab it, but suddenly she feels a big pain. Maid freaks out and asks why he decided to move by himself. Girl doesn't understand her concern, and maid reveals to her that kid is actually disabled and even getting up is impossible. Only after this girl understood that she made a big mistake by overestimating his happiness. She can't return to her body anymore, and it's highly likely that kid is enjoying his new freedom in healthy girl's body.
Edited by SpellbrandopenMiddle school book involving a couch Literature
I'm trying to find a book I read as a kid. I'm pretty sure it came out in the early 2000s due to the technology it referenced. As far as I remember, it was about three kids who get recruited by some guy in a big house (who's actually a non-human, something like an alien or celestial being) to help fight against his father. The title was kinda long (it was a full sentence) and I think it had the word "couch" in it.
The most notable elements I can think of are 1) the cover showed three kids sitting on a couch, 2) the protagonist is a boy with bright red hair, 3) the protagonist ends up sacrificing himself at the end and meets his dead parents, only to be resurrected in the body of a clone, and 4) the clone body didn't have a belly button, which wasn't a big deal for him.
openFantasy novel. Bad guy looks for opponent. Literature
I’m looking for a fantasy novel where the bad guy is looking for his old opponent. I think his opponent did something like cut off the old magic they both used, or imprisoned the bad guy. No matter what little magic the bad guy uses he can’t locate his nemesis. He is contacted by his opponent once or twice but doesn’t know where he is hiding otherwise. Eventually he discovers his opponent sacrificed himself to cut off the old magic and when he was contacted by him he had travelled through time to deliver messages before he sacrificed himself. Despondent that he won’t see his old opponent anymore the bad guy gives up and sacrifices himself as well. I think it might be a David Gemmell book.
openBook taking place in a bookstore/library that's more than it seems Literature
From what I can recall, the primary setting of the book was in a small bookstore. The protagonist goes into the bookstore and meets an old man who's the owner. After searching around the bookstore, the protagonist finds out that it's much bigger than it seems and that the back of the bookstore leads into another world. It starts out with "Mr" and it has "library" within the title. I only read an excerpt for it for class, but I thought the subject matter was really cool and I wanted to check it out one day.
openSci-fi novel about interstellar colony before the background of a three-way alt!Cold War Literature
That's what I remember about it:
- In this world, the planet is divided into three power blocs: One (with the US and possibly Russia/USSR) that produces food, one that produces oil and gas (the UK is a member of it) and one that exports cheap workers (among others China)
- Interstellar space travel is obscenely expensive
- Weed is apparently legal in the US
- The colonists came across quite a few alien species, some of which are sentient/sapient to some degree
- One of them are living airships and spray a substance that has a very aphrodisiac and disinhibiting effect on humans. Two of the human colonists (a scientist and the leader of the American expedition) found that out the hard (lol) way on accident, the second time, he did it on purpose, which made the expedition leader think about whether she should do nothing or have the scientist executed (?) for rape
SPOILERS FOLLOW HERE
- The Cold War gets hot
- There are other colonies
- The American colony conquers the two others
- The descendants of the expedition leader become a ruling dynasty
- At least some of the space colonies are better off than the post-war Earth
open(Potentially) a Sci-Fi Book Literature
This one might be tough since I only read the first few pages of this book several years ago.
One scene involved the protagonist and several others in some sort of testing facility. One test involved going alone into a room, where a naked individual of the opposite sex asked the protagonist about his childhood.
Later, the protagonist talks with the other group members about the whole experience over lunch. The men say that they talked with a naked woman, while the women talked with a naked man. However, one guy in the group mentions he talked with a naked man instead. Everyone looks at him, and he says something along the lines of, "What? I'm gay."
Edited by shooterbossopenPicture book about (not so) miracles on a street Literature
A picture book about a street where there are series of termed miracles or something helping people like person having financial problems getting money on their drop stop
The twist is that in the background of the illustrations the strong hints that the the postman is reading the mail of the street residents and helping solve their problems in their letters - like some envelopes hanging over a kettle in his window to presumably steam them open
The book never out right says the postman reading the mail but the last "miracle" is the street residents coming with food and the like to the postman who is in jail
Edited by jormis29openLilliputian-sized people fight horde of goblin-type creatures Literature
Children's chapter book that was read in 90s but possibly older
- The main characters are lilliputian-sized people who live in fortress/castles in (I think) rubbish tip
- They live in a fortress because they come under regular attack from hordes of goblin creatures with green skin and red or orange hair
- There are multiple fortresses and they have an alliance to send aid to each other during the attacks by the goblin creatures
- At the start of the book, the horde attacking is bigger then usual and a group of the main characters are sent to the allied fortress to get help
- The group gets to the allied fortress but finds that the fortress has already been destroyed by the horde
- The group encounter two surviving knights of the fortress. The two knights ride cats - as in domestic cats. The others are shocked at this cause cats are generally seen as a danger to them but the knights raised them from kittens.
- The knights offer to come with the group back to their fortress, saying the cats are worth an army by themselves and the only reason they couldn't save their own fortress was because they were out on patrol at the time.
- They return to the fortress and defeat the horde.
resolved Young adult novel "Who Killed [name]?" [SOLVED] Literature
There was a book on my Freshman year (2011) recommended reading list titled Who Killed [some name]? The story was that a nerdy boy asked out the title character, who was the most popular girl at their high school. She rejected him and then he read a note she wrote to her friend mocking him, prompting him to kill himself. The boy's brother comes into town for the funeral and buries her alive, leaving an air hole so he can talk to her.
Edited by rjd1922openSci-Fi short story Literature
Many years ago when I was an avid but chaotic reader of science fiction, I read a story about a sort of 'human evolution' that I don't recall in any other story/novel. I think it kicks off with a meteorite landing on earth. But that's the part I am not clear on. Anyway, a couple of men are exposed to something or other, I think from the meteorite, and they go through a transformation process. One well before the other, possibly due to the different times of exposure.
The first guy goes catatonic and becomes completely enclosed in a sort of crust/cocoon, and the doctors are taking samples from him and seeing all sorts of complex biochemistry going on. They start theorizing about what it means, but eventually (a few days I think) he just wakes up and seemingly returns to normal. The other guy is relieved as he is starting the same process.
The end of the story is what I really remember. The first guy says he can't remember anything of his time in the chrysalis/cocoon and he just wants a smoke. He takes his cigarette and goes for a walk. And once he's out in the open well away from everyone else he drops his cigarette and just 'rises into the sky', leaving earth.
That's what I remember, and now I have absolutely no clue who the author was or what the title was.
openVampire short story Literature
I read this during the early 90s. It was part of a collection of short stories. Written in the first person. Narrator was a kid in Catholic school and was asked about considering the priesthood and declined because "sex" essentially. Later in life, the same priest approaches him again and I remember the priest emphasizing the bit about "You can have eternal life." And the narrator asking about if it was all priests or just the Jesuits. Story ended with narrator presiding over communion.
openMute Character Screams? Literature
The character stops talking when they're a young kid. Later in the book, they or someone else is in danger and they have to scream, using their vocal chords for the first time in years. It was most likely a middle grade book.
openCan't remember Literature
I can't remember the title of a short science fiction story, probably from the 1970s' or earlier.
A text containing modern science and theories is translated into ancient Greek and sent back in time by a rogue scientist seeking to make the future better.
There is an organization whose investigators are given the job of investigating the misuse of the time machine.
The linguist who did the translation for the rogue scientist tells them that the scientist actually disclosed what he planned to do. Since the scientist knew nothing about Ancient Greek, the linguist only included the parts of the text where the material could already be found in ancient writings.
The linguist tells the investigators he went ahead and did the work instead of reporting the scientist because "Gentlemen, this is the world where the text was sent back."
It's mentioned by the first-person narrator that the case is marked "?" in the files of the investigating organization. Not solved, not open, just "?".
Edited by CandiopenKids book Literature
I remember a moment when the (teen?) protagonist says that her little sister has been gossiping about her baby brother and the moment involves the baby holding a waffle try ing to give it to her. I know it's a teen book but I don't remember the name.
openBook with child on road trip Literature
A boy is forced on a road trip with his family—two parents, brother, and sister—and he has various awkward experiences like trying Chinese food for the first time, assuming bird's nest soup is just a name but learning it's actually made with a bird's nest, and taking part in a Native American dance where they trick him and his brother into dying their skin to look Native and then it doesn't come off, and a long search for fireworks when the sale of them is highly restricted, ending with a whole bunch of them accidentally being set off at once.
I had this book as a kid but gave it to Goodwill and feel nostalgic for it but have no idea how to find it. I think the name sounded similar to the Bruce Coville book Jennifer Murdley's Toad? Jonathan Something's Bike, maybe? Jonathan Something's Fireworks? Maybe I've just got my wires crossed.

I remember a book from elementary school. All I remember is that it’s about a girl who lives in a rough neighborhood. The other thing I remember is that one of the chapters is called “Under Punishment.” She gets in trouble for going to the library. Sorry it’s so vague. Edit: I found it. Its "The Gift Giver" by Joyce Hansen.
Edited by Gamergirl101