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openNo Title Literature
This scene popped into my head the other day, and I can't for the life of me remember what book it's from. It's a pretty small snippet that's probably pretty forgettable even if you've read the book, but on the off chance someone recognizes it:
A girl makes a reference to Pygmalion (the Shaw play, I believe, not the myth); the person she's talking to expresses surprise that she's read it, since she's not usually much for literature. She admits that the only reason she did was that she misread the title and thought that it was about a pygmy lion. (She might have been fairly young at the time or English maybe wasn't her first language, because for some reason I don't get the feeling that this was meant to make her come off as a ditz.)
... And that's all I've got, beyond vague inklings that may be about a different book entirely.
openNo Title Literature
Medium: Mythology and Folklore
When I was a kid I remember reading something taken from mythology (Greek? Norse? Celtic? I don't know). It was the story of some kind of golem, which the book said anticipated the concept of robots.
A statue was built, and it was supposed to come to life. Someboy was ordered to watch it. The statue said something, but the watcher didn't think it was important enough to report. Then it said a second thing, and the watcher still didn't report it. Then it said a third thing and collapsed into rubble.
Does anybody know anything about this legend, where it originated, or where I can find out more about it?
openNo Title Literature
This was a series of books a used to read as a child, so I only remember fragments of it. They were fantasy books in which there were multiple universes, or realities, but they didn't really communicated with each other. Things were pretty much like our world, except that there were some people who had magical powers, in a Alternate History sorta way. In some universes, there were witch hunts, in some, it was standard that magic existed. I can't recall much of the actual plots, but I remember that in one book, there was a middle school where it was rumored that one kid was a witch, and in the end, most of the children turned out to be witches and wizards. In another book, there was a guy who could visit different universes in his dreams, and he had a sister who kept trying to make objects "apparate", I think. I've been trying to find this for a while, so I don't think it was ever a very popular series. If it helps, my edition of the books had a big hole in the center of the front cover, which allowed you to see an illustration in the second page.
Edited by 187.106.24.175openNo Title Literature
This one is really bugging me because theoretically, I could call home and ask my Mom to look at the bookshelf, but I don't remember exactly where the book is and I won't want to put her to any trouble. It was a trilogy of modern fantasy books. I want to say that the first one was <something>Smith. It followed a young man who, prior to the beginning of the story, was on his wya to becoming a professional diver when he had a sudden dizzy spell at the top of a high dive platform and screwed up his knee in the fall. He now walks with a crutch which he has covered with dozens of silver figurines that he makes in shop class. Somehow, he's called to the estate of his estranged family. It might have had to do with him visiting a site at the beginning where he meets a mad inventor/prophet who's camping out in a field (I have a very vivid memory of him running into some coin-operated "pleasure machines" for males or females. He puts a quarter into one out of curiosity and sees it shudder and shake before emitting some unknown fluid from the phallus shape). He slowly finds out that his family is part of a magic tradition. Two quirks of the magicians is that a) the magic comes upon them at puberty and any major injury will break up the paths, preventing the magic, so he's apparently exempt (there's a very disturbing bit where it's noted that the women of the family who got the magic got it too storng and would go crazy, so it was arranged for them to have their hymen broken (sufficient to prevent the magic) prior to puberty, forcibly and by family if necessary) and that the magic practitioners have a very specific condition required for them to be killed (I believe one character required a knife made from volcanic glass while another can only be killed by an inch-long silver sword). In the first book, he meets his pale-skinned cousin who turns out to be a good guy and feuds with a local bully who had what I thought in middle school to be a very funny name that looked like it should be pronounced "anus". Ultimately, he beats the main bad guy and finds that apparently his magic got to him prior to his injury, which had been caused by said bad guy.
Second book, I don't remember the plotline very well except that I think he picked up a girlfriend. It was either that or he gained her in the first book and lost her at the beginning of the second. I remember there was a segment where he arrived at his cousin's house (his cousin now being head of the family) and was given a staged entrance including his cousin playing "Welcome to my Nightmare" by A Lice Cooper in the background. Either way, he finds out that the girl in question never existed, that she was created by his cousin to keep him happy and had dissolved back into the magic. I think this is where the main character realizes his magic manifests in the ability to create magical technological constructions.
Third book is also a it hazy, but he creates a Brazen Head
and meets with a man who might be a manifestation of chaos or might be John the Baptist. The only bits I remember clearly was that the man gave him a baptism where he was held under the water until he was "two breaths away from death" and that later the same guy is shown to be schtupping his girlfriend (I think right before the revelation, the guy is doing some woodwork and a chance missaw makes a plank look like a phallus, so he starts brandishing it at everyone. I want to say that there was also a scene where this guy throws another man off of the property, literally, hefting him by neck and groin and noting before he throws him that the man being thrown has only one testicle.
There was also something around the 2nd and 3rd book where the magicians listened to local radio stations to get prophetic foretellings from what played in the morning.
openNo Title Literature
This one opens with our heroine as a child finding out that she's adopted. She is not at all happy to hear this and smashes a number of objects (including a couple of potted plants? I want to say violets?).
The next chapter skips ahead several years. Now our heroine is age 13-going-on-14 and is out skiing with a friend. She accidentally collides with another skiier, a fellow teenage girl who turns out to be having a heart attack. Later the girl is reported dead on the news, so our heroine does some internet research and discovers that there's something of an epidemic going on — hundreds of teenagers around the world have been falling ill and dying from medical conditions that usually only affect elderly people — arthritis, hardening of the arteries, heart failure, etc.
While researching, our heroine stumbles across a photograph of one victim who looks exactly like her. Long story short, it turns out that our heroine is a clone, the latest in a series of five clones who were given names beginning with A, B, C, D, and E — with our heroine being "E" — each one born a year apart and each bearing a red arrow-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck. The clones were created by a doctor whose daughter had a gene for the mysterious only-supposed-to-affect-old-people illness, and in an effort to find a cure for her, he created these five clones, each of whom would have the same gene and would give him more chances to try out potential treatments.
The plot focuses on our heroine as she tracks down the other four girls, visiting their homes and talking to their family and friends, only to discover that each one died of the illness. She's also on a time limit, because the illness strikes at age 14, and our heroine only has a few more days before her birthday, so she's getting sicker and sicker as the plot progresses. Eventually she finds the doctor's old house, finds his stash of serums that he made in hopes of curing the girls, and manages to cure herself just in time.
Let's see, a few more details: In between each chapter, there's a black page with white typeface that shows a bunch of numerical data — the current death-toll of the mysterious illness and (I think) the statuses of clones A, B, C, D, and E. I seem to remember that the C clone's name was Caroline. The reading level for this book was probably early teens or possibly pre-teen.
Edited by thesunisupopenNo Title Literature
A novel set right around the JFK assassination, probably under YA. Our protagonist lives in what is viewed as a "bad" part of town by most people who don't live there. The part of town is named after a plant of some sort, perhaps it is called Hazel Street or Willow Street. Her mother might have run away for some part of the book, I'm unsure. Her best friend has no father, although her (the friend's) mom has frequent boyfriends. Two lesbians live on the street as well. There is also a family that is described as a bit "Bohemian", it is unclear whether this refers solely to their habits (the mom wears a bra-less peasant blouse sometimes, the children -of which there are many- do not always have their hair combed) or whether this has an ethnic connotation as well. At one point, a tree is graffiti'ed, as is the driveway of the lesbians. Money is stolen by a bad boyfriend. J Fk is shot. Much talking occurs on the bus to school.
openNo Title Literature
A poem. Oh dear, this is going to be incredibly vague.
So when I was in 7th or 8th grade (between 2004 and 2006), I took a standardized test that I assume was the PSSA (Pennsylvania's standardized test) or the PSAT or something of that ilk. In the reading comprehension section, there was this really beautiful poem. I don't usually like poems THAT much, but this one was so pretty I tried to memorize as much as I could so that I could look it up later. If I recall correctly, I did find it as soon as I got home, but now I don't remember what I found.
The poem (or at least what they showed) had two stanzas, each 10-15 lines. If I remember correctly, and I'm not mixing this up with some later English class/standardized test poem, it's about a woman conversing with/writing to/writing about her lover. Either they've recently been parted, or they're about to, or one of them just died, or something like that. I think there's something about how if her lover dies, then she'll have to die to be with him, or maybe it's about how them committing suicide together, and how one of them will have to die a split second before the other, which is incredibly cruel, but I think the suicide thing might be details bleeding over from a separate poem we studied in class, because that seems a little morbid for a poem I have happy thoughts of. It might have been something more like her talking about how happy her lover's letters make her feel, or just how happy her lover himself makes her feel. Maybe he had to go away and she wants him to come back?
The poet was a woman, I think from the mid 19th, maybe 18th century, probably with an Italian sounding name. She might have been Christina Rossetti or her sister Maria, but I'm not sure of that. I vaguely remember her having a famous brother, but I might be mixing that up with later readings of Christina Rosetti's wikipedia page. I just know that she was someone that I hadn't heard of before, but was kind of famous.
Again, I'm sorry my description is so vague, and I know that it's highly unlikely anyone will have any idea what the hell I'm talking about, but the only solid facts I know for sure are that it was on the standardized test, what the stanzas looked like, that the poet was a woman from at least 100 years ago, and that it was a beautiful love poem. I know that probably fits thousands of poems, but it's all I've got to go on.
openNo Title Literature
3 Things:
1) A picture book about a little dog who has to get his eyes bandaged, so he can't see. The book is about all the sounds he hears on his way home, like taxi cabs. Maybe called the Sound Book?
2) A picture book about a pioneer girl who lives in a canyon/valley and befriends a local Native American girl. She teaches the indian girl to read with a chalkboard slate, the indian girl gives her mocassins, there are sunflowers and plum trees involved somehow, but eventually the Native American tribe is forced to leave and move somewhere else (maybe because of the government). Years later, the girl receives a letter from her friend that includes a photograph.
3) A YA novel (IIRC) about a boy whose society lives in these underground caves. He lives in this little flotilla village society that constantly floats on an underground river, living entirely off of fish. There are also giant rats that live on the sides of the cave. The boy thinks that the village is floating in circles, and somehow he finds a way to the surface, where flowers and trees and the night sky and fresh air are too much for him to take and he passes out.
openNo Title Literature
I get the feeling this one might have been Australian, so I'm not sure how many would know of it. Definitely set in a country town in the desert. So it starts with a girl who's going to visit her father (the manager/owner/something of a bank). She's just outside when three or four robbers run out of the building and because she's a witness, they kidnap her. She gets shoved onto the passenger side floor where she can't be seen. The first chapter ends by mentioning that a tiny triangle of her (yellow?) dress could be seen poking out under the door. The rest of the story covers her escape and the aftermath (I think it's split into those two sections). Major spoilers here on out; I can only remember overarching plot. The robbers tie her up and dump her in a tin shed in the desert, where she engineers her escape by befriending the youngest of them, who's a few years older than her. She knocks him out and runs whilst he's distracted doing a charcoal painting she encouraged him to do. In the aftermath there's a trial and you find out that the boy's back with his grandmother and has rediscovered god (though I don't think you hear him speak at all in the second part, I got the impression he was pretty much a walking coma patient).
Edited by Aruelle2openNo Title Literature
Two series of children's books:
The first was a series aimed at young girls, which, if my very fuzzy memory serves me correctly, was about a group of girls and some kind of magic closet (or something - the logo for the series involved either a key or a keyhole). Each book centered around one of the girls entering the closet and winding up in another time and place in history. I remember it particularly because it was a tie-in with a line of 11" dolls, which, although I really wanted one, I never ended up getting.
The second was a series about a group of kids who routinely run into supernatural beings in disguise, usually at school. Said creatures ranged from typical supernatural fare (vampires, werewolves, etc.) to more unusual ones (I remember a Valentine's entry in the series centering around a Cupid being the new lunchlady). The titles of each entry in the series went along the lines of "[Monster of the Week]s Don't [Mundane Action]!"
Edited by TheToonGeeketteopenNo Title Literature
It's an older fantasy book that focuses on a girl who attends a school for the magically gifted (I'm about 99% sure that it was written before the Harry Potter books). The school appears differently based on your skill level - beginners see it as a rundown building and more experienced students see a fancier structure. I think the same goes for the food.
The story ends with each witch in her graduating class receiving some sort of gift. It turns out that the main character doesn't get one, she cries, and one of her teachers tells her that one of her tears is actually universe/galaxy and that she's so powerful that she has actually reached god status.
I really enjoyed reading this as a teenager and I've been trying to figure out the title of this book for a very long time with no success. I'd very much like to be able to find it and read it again, so if the description sounds familiar to anyone I'd really appreciate a response!
openNo Title Literature
A book about these legendary anti-cat vigilante mouse siblings. Mainly what I remember is the insane worldbuilding that went into the Mouse World - there are four or five mouse castes based on what floor of the house they live in. (The only specific I remember is that the lowest caste lives in the cellar and thus has access to all of the booze. Also, there's a subplot where a female mouse from one of the two highest castes falls in love with someone from the lowest caste. His name might be Coal or Scuttle or something.) There are two indoor cats, who are the main villains. One of them is deaf, I think. There are also four outdoor cats who I don't think figure into the plot much.
Edited by DomaDomaopenNo Title Literature
We, the collective duo known as Anne Geddes, have three books we're wondering about. They're probably all young adult novels if that helps. The first two for sure are.
1. A girl in India can communicate with snakes. She can talk to other animals too, but the snakes were a big deal. Because she has powers, she's sent to a dance school because dancing is magic or something. She becomes famous (?) and goes to a new town where she meets the prince. His power is that he can walk around town without being noticed. Not everyone has powers.
2. This girl's family used to be rich but her dad lost his job and the girl loses her rich friends. She falls for this guy at her school and finds out he's some sort of cursed ghost that's part of a building foundation or something weird like that.
3. The third one's like The Village but the people outside the village know it exists and it's like a museum for them. Just like The Village, a girl has to escape to get medicine.
openNo Title Literature
I'm looking a series of YA novels and a show that came out in the 90's. The first book starts with an earthquake. The heroine is a young teenager who can see the future and she has prepared for the earthquake beforehand. I think she saves a young child or baby who also has psychic powers and they go on a quest? adventure? to find a group of young people who have powers like them. I found these books in the library about 15 years ago so I'm pretty sure they came out in either the 90's or earlier. They might have the word "children" in the title. The show is a cartoon that featured a man or superhero trying to save "his jungle queen". All I can remember is one episode in which the characters where tiny? shrunken? and speaking in only rhyme. The cartoon was not designed for children.
openNo Title Literature
I'm looking for a Harry Potter fanfic; I can't remember much about it except that (somehow) Harry is gifted with more maturity (maybe?) (and the fic is not a Peggy Sue); unfortunately the only events from the fic I can remember are that Harry goes (muggle) clothes shopping, and goes on a not-date with a girl who works at the clothes shop; the only other feature of the fic I can remember are a few Americanisms (the girl asks Harry if he has a car when Harry (probably) wouldn't be old enough to hold a driving license in England, Harry refers to a building being a few blocks away, ...)
Not much to go on but I'd be grateful for any suggestions!
(Oh, and the fic isn't Forced Maturity.)
openNo Title Literature
1. A book where the Earth is about to be hit with an asteroid. Told from the POV of a teenage boy. There's a spaceship that can save a certain number of people. The boy and his parents have tickets. After the rocket takes off, the asteroid hits the Earth and Earth breaks apart. The captain shoots himself in the head. The boy is watching the news from the ship where he can see a girl he likes in California filming as the asteroid hits. There was a sequel to the book.
2. A short story where the King has put clues up in the town as some sort of contest. The clues are words hidden in various public places, one of which is a playground. A little girl finds all of the clues after an eccentric inventor tells her to read between the lines.
Edited by NoctePluviaopenNo Title Literature
I remember this one book I read when I was a kid that had a girl get sucked inside a cardboard turkey and live through this surreal experience resembling the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Also, I remember that the girl had a younger brother named Booker who she called Booger, and there was this weird mysterious guy who I think was called Ralph who showed up throughout the book. I think it was part of a series of books, but that's the only one I really remember.
openNo Title Literature
A samurai visits a village where something is stalking people, killing them with a torn-out throat from a distance while emitting a cat-like yowl. The twist of the story was that the killer turns out to be the samurai's long-lost brother (or maybe friend) who'd had his throat mostly torn out by a grappling hook during the war and is now killing people with the same. I remember that the book ended with the samurai performing as second to the killer, who chose to commit seppaku.
I found this one once before, but I have since forgotten what it was named.
Edited by FuzzyBootsopenNo Title Literature
This is going to be pretty vague, but here goes. This was a children's book, a version of the three little pigs I think, but i remember it had a little comic strip thing running across the bottom of the pages. Any ideas?

This is a book I remember picking up and reading the back of several years ago at Barnes and Noble. It was in the fantasy and sci-fi section. Basically, it is set in a world like ours except everyone is a werewolf. It is the norm for people to turn into wolves or wolf like creatures every full moon. Unless, your one of the unlucky few who don't. If you are one of those who don't turn into a wolf then you have to hide in a safe house or risk getting eaten. I have been trying to find this book for years!