It's a book about a one armed cowboy taking a young boy under his wing and teaching him how to survive in the old West. The kid wins a horse by wrestling a chiefs son, at the very end of it the one armed guy fights two psycho killers to the death.

I remember it opened with a description of a war scene, and after the protagonist got shot in the leg it cut to him after the battle ended, abandoned by his comrades. I don't remember which war the book was about but I remember that it was multiple nights before the protagonist got saved

Is there a Robert Silverberg book about people climbing a mountain and intellectual man and the muscle man and a smart man eats like a unknown mushroom or plant and because they're starving on the mountain?

I picked up this book at a used bookstore recently and read the blurb, then ended up not buying it and I regret it! It seemed like a YA book. Here’s what I remember from the blurb. It was about a family with several children/ teens. I think they were orphans, or for some reason didn’t have parents in the picture. Then a stranger shows up who seems supernatural in some way—possibly an angel or an alien—and they cheer the kids up by doing hobby things with them. The title was something about light? It wasn’t “All The Light We Cannot See” but the title had that kind of vibe. Any ideas?

Hi guys, I'm looking for the title of a book my mum read ages ago, but can't find anymore.

It's a surreal story set in Vienna, based around the frustrating evening of a man who doesn't know anyone but they've all been waiting for him. He walks into a restaurant and everybody has been waiting for him with great excitement. People are constantly telling him he's late and he has to be somewhere, he's taken from one place to another but nobody assumes his identity. After searching we thought it may have been 'I was Jack Mortimer' by Alexander Lerner-Holenia, but this doesn't seem to be the case! Please help us we can't find it anywhere?! 🥰

The book was about a group of "boring people" for whom nothing ever happens. They are nondescript and live in some kind of valley. One day, one of the boring people decides to hang a square made of sticks from a tree, "to give the wind something to blow through." The other people are enamored with this idea and begin building around the square. Eventually a brick wall is erected around the box, and then a whole city that encases the boring people. By this point, the boring people have entirely forgotten about the original purpose of the hole, and have encased themselves in a labyrinth of their own making. Eventually, one of the people finds the hole and manages to escape.

The book was relatively short and mostly pictures. I read it in Kindergarten/1st grade, which would have been in 2004. It was at my elementary school and most likely intended for children.

I feel like I am going insane because I have a vivid memory of getting this book out from my school library as a kid and being terrified by it, but I can’t find any record of it having existed.

It was a choose your own adventure book that gave me nightmares for months. This would have been in the late 90s or early 00s.

The main thing I remember about it was that the cover had a picture of an old house in winter time (possibly at night) and a creepy little straw doll on the front. The straw doll had a piece of paper pinned to its front with the name “Jonathan” on it (note: theres a chance I am misremembering and “Jonathan” was the authors name on the cover!)

The plot followed a young boy who arrived at the house and found the doll, leading to creepy events. I remember I never got very far into the story because it was too scary, but all these years later, I still think about it because I never solved the mystery!

Does this ring any bells for anyone else?? Hoping it doesn’t mean I have gone entirely mad hahaha

The prince's kingdom is invaded and he goes on a quest with a group to save it. I believe that they are searching for something magical that can save the kingdom. The most memorable part that I remember is the end where he basically dies (I think the quest led him to walk in the desert until he died...could be wrong on that point) and in the afterlife is shown doors that he can go through, and one is where his love interest who died earlier is waiting for him on the beach. In others he sees members of the group fighting and dying in an unsuccessful attempt to save the kingdom. He is given the option to join his lost love or to be reborn as someone who can save the kingdom in the future. He chooses to be reborn and the book/series ends.

The prince is kind of a young, intellectual, non-warrior type person.

I read this book in the early 90's and my memory is that it's part of a series that I read in used paperback form from the library. So the books could actually be from the 80's. It was basic teen/young adult fantasy.

Thank you!

Hi, I'm trying to find a book I read about a woman who agrees to be a surrogate for her gay best friends (guys) but during this process reunites with an old flame. I think it takes place in Florida. I know the Mmc has some trauma around pregnancy and is freaked out for her. She also goes into labor later in the book while he's not there and almost dies. He shows up really pissed at the gay couple for letting her go through with the surrogacy. Definitely read this on KU. Thanks!

Bear with me please, I am going to list everything I remember about the book as best as I can:

• I read this when I was in elementary/early middle school mid-2000's
• I have the vaguest memory of what the cover looks like here, the white boxes are about where I remember the title being - I may be completely wrong
• From what I recall about the plot: the story primarily focuses on a girl(?) who lives in this village/town that is an island I think; Life is relatively normal except for a tower in the middle or at the top of the island. No one will speak about the tower, almost like it's forbidden, but there are rumors that there's a prisoner(?) in the tower. I think the girl begins to secretly uncover more and more information about the tower until the authorities(?) find out what she's doing and they start chasing her. She runs to the only place she can, the tower and learns the truth. There is someone who is living in the tower, they are a prisoner/dissident and it's her grandfather(?) He confirms her findings & gives her all the information she's been looking for, learns she lives in a not-very-nice place and escapes on a boat(?)

Okay Reddit, I have a bet with a student that you can help him identify a book from his childhood.

Below is all the information I have:

• it begins with a boy watching a snowflake through a window
• the boy is viewing the snowflake in a mathematical way, involving fractals etc.
• at some point, green dogs/monsters appear
• the whole book is not about snowflakes
• definitely a children's book with pictures
• he remembers reading it as a child, around 30 years ago, but it may have belonged to an older brother (~1970s)

He has assured me this is a clear memory of an actual book and not a half-remembered fever dream.

Please do your thing!

I am looking for a fantasy series I read as a kid that was set in England. At least the first books must have been published before 2011. I remember the cover of one of the books was greenish/brownish with a cartoon boy in the middle (the drawing was realistic, but something felt a bit off). Some of it probably took place somewhere in Cornwall and I remember them going between rocks near the beach and sea. There was also a show off in the mountains. One of the girls may have been called Phoebe or Chloe (I am Dutch and the name was unfamiliar to me at the time). There may have been secret/mystery/riddle in the title. I do not remember creatures and I think the magic element may have been to do with time/dimension travel. There was also something with a shop.

Vague, I know, but I hope someone may be able to help! Thanks!

I'm looking for the name of a novel I read, and it seems a bit too obscure for chatgpt probable spoilers

this is my side of the chat, with clarifications I only thought of, once i realised how badly chatgpt has the wrong idea

I'm looking for a novel I once read called something like mother star earth. the plot involves a colony of humans living on a world with a ruling class, and a working class, and the main character who tries to rebel. they are rapidly captured, and shown the truth, that the world isn't free, but the ruling class is working hard to make it free. the world was too resource poor and toxic for humans to survive, so the starship crew took control of the rest of the population, taking food from farms, detoxifying it, and returning it to the people. the main character still refuses to submit to the ruling class, and is then made a part of the ruling class since only rebels can be trusted to care for the people.

people who fully submit to the government on learning the truth also join the government, but as middle management, not given real power

in the story i am looking for, the protagonist is just a farmer, with no special powers, and rebels are punished with imprisonment and public humiliation, not death

a pivotal plot point in the novel I'm looking for is that they worship the star mother earth because the sun has gone supernova, and the light from that supernova will reach the colonised planet in a few hundred years. the ruling class have given themselves until the light from the supernova shines in the sky to reinstate democracy to their colony

edit, I just remembered, i think all children were taken from their parents and either re-distributed, or run through an indoctrination creche. this is partly so the children of the ruling class can be sent away and brough up as workers, so there is no nepotism pulling non-rebels into the government.

I read this book in 2012 and cannot find it again! It ends on a little bit of a cliffhanger and I want to see if it became a series. The plot flashes back between modern day and puritan America when the main character is still human. She is being pursued by the man who turned her immortal.

Hello, there's a book that I'm completely blanking on the name and design of the cover and also like every characters name. The initial plot if my mind serves me correctly is about this boy that wants to be doing normal school but then his father send him to a magic school regardless and he's told by someone in that school that he has a lot of potential or something like that. He wakes up in the middle of the night to a wasteland if I remember correctly and he manages to make his way inside a theater with a massive aquarium in the middle with an upside down man who is a dying magician who acts as a mentor for a short period of time in this book I'm pretty sure. There are 2 other main characters a little bit later and they're doing these trials given to them by the magician in water and one of them is a Greek mythos figure or something along those lines. This is all I know. I need help so bad

Help! Need the title! Listened to it on audible cpl years ago- it's about highschool (maybe childhood) sweethearts something happens either his or her family moves away, years go by and while fmc working at art gallery he unexpectaey comes in with fiancé whom is a model. Mmc finds where she lives to confront her about breaking his heart only to find out she thought he broke hers. By end of book it's revealed his mother kept them apart on purpose even though she loved her. The model fiancé says she's pregenant but it's revelaved she either lied or it was another man's (don't remember) by end of book mmc and fmc end up together HEA. Please help me it's driving me INSANE I can't remember book! I think mmc may have been famous, a rockstar or actor or billionaire

I'll throw down everything I remember because I feel like I'm on the cusp here:

• Read most of it around middle school, and it was a "class read" so gut suggests YA fiction

• Girl runs away from home, and this seems to become an item of focus or interest in terms of "Why would she run away? Doesn't she know how hard it'll be out there, didn't she have a good life at home?" -- Rhetoric IIRC espoused by those she encounters who end up helping her on the street -- Like a group of experienced, I think mostly slightly older? Homeless folks who are trying to show her how hard it is out there but they'll try and teach her how to survive if she she is really set on not returning home

• I think she had run away for almost, a year or something and that this wasn't fresh but I THINK her family still worry about her/wants her to come back home

• Setting felt as though it took place in a big city like Toronto -- or Chicago -- but I really thought this was a book written by a Canadian author and Toronto was an intentional

setting choice

• The girl may have been only in middle school her self, age wise, or high school aged at most

• Significant plot point is that at some point she goes to a... Community centre? Or I think some warm/welcoming place where she could access some external supports. It's after doing this that she takes up some pottery and seems to find enjoyment or peace in it even. Someone (either another visitor but more likely a social worker) while MC is working with clay, notices scars from self harm on MC's body. Here I think the sentiment/focus was "We're finally learning what really happened/why she ran away :0" so to the best of my memory recall, this happened towards the end of the book -- Their dialogue involves the social worker asking about the scars and we're told something about how the place where the scars are (in her experience maybe?) can sometimes indicate the cause. And at least some of MC's scars are on her legs or thighs I think? Revealing that her reason for running away has to do with someone in her family (brother? step father? father? uncle? ... mother?? not sure but think it's a male) abusing her, and the places of the scars are around where she was abused. Their dialogue involves discussing how MC has a younger sister though, and leaving her at home with the abuser still there is really worrisome and I think the social worker tries to convince her of returning to at least talk to her sister? save her? something... And also that I think MC had already been considering all of this but wasn't sure what to do and maybe even that her sister is nearing an age close to when MC's abuse began, so she is especially worried. This is where I run out of plot detail sadly

• I vaguely remember that this story may have been spread across multiple books like a series or just two parts and that we don't learn the full outcome of the situation until another book but I'm not certain about this

• Not sure about this fact but at least one (central) character's name starts with an R-- Rain? Rachel? Rory?

Your help's appreciated!

I started this book several years ago and never finished it, I feel like I remember it having a green cover, the main character had a younger sister and there was an odd mentor character? The boy gets like kidnapped and his head was shaved I think and there was like a V tattooed on the back of his head? And then I remember there being a scene where he's trying to escape whatever island via boat but there's a storm, I think it was fantasy leading up to something but I never got far enough, it was more recent, if anyone knows which book I would be eternally grateful

This is my first time posting on Reddit, I’m a long time lurker. I apologize in advance for any grammatical mistakes as I am typing this out on mobile.

Twice now I have read this book series and twice now I have completely forgotten to add it to my list of loves. I’m hoping someone out there can help me with what I can remember as it has been years since I’ve read it last.

The book series is a dystopian/post world war series. The first book starts off following a young woman living in what I believe is a government bunker for New America( or something similar). Her father is a diplomat and leadership above him decide to marry off the girl to an opposing country’s leader in order to save themselves. The leader of this country uses nanotechnology(or something of the like) to keep himself alive forever. I’m unsure of all the middle bits but they eventually fall in love but she gets hurt during a coup and so he puts her into a cryochamber for 100-500 years. The chamber is described to be made of glass and she is likened to a modern day sleeping beauty. A crew of journalists/revolutionists hear rumor of this chamber and break into it and steal/rescue her and when she wakes up it’s been so long their country has turned her into a myth/legend. They want to use her to start a revolution against the leader but she basically says bump that causes an accident in the van and when the leaders army find her she’s bloody and angry.

I’m so sorry for the lack of detail, while I love reading my memory is poo and I’m awful at remembering to add things to lists. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Im trying to find a book for a freind but I don't know anything about the book other than the fact that a girls dad gets murdered and she falls in love with the suspect and that the title begins with love

Book: paper back, chapter book

Cover: book contained purple trim, cover was a monochrome face of what appears to look like the face of a girl at the front.

Title: idr the title, but it had “: A Memoir” or “A Memoir:” following the actual title or before it

Genre: non-fiction

Plot:

• female author

• I don’t remember the year it took place but it was practically based about the childhood / school years of the author

• author was once known as a studious, high-achieving girl in school

• until one day, her ability to learn gradually grew weaker and she started to struggle in math a lot

• I remember one scene, the teacher handed out “minute multiplication” sheets, where everyone in the class had to multiply as much problems as they could within a minute and when they finished, they handed it in in exchange for ice cream in a paper bowl. The author panicked and strugged and barely finished because she got a lot of them wrong and was always sent back / or I think she put in fake answers just to get ice cream

• the author was then later diagnosed with a learning disability in life

It’s not any books with “dyslexia”, “read”, “learn” in the title that AI keeps suggesting. IIRC, the title doesn’t even suggest the book could be about a girl who started to struggle with learning in school, unless you read the summary. I read this when I was 15.

This is a series I read in the early 2000's possibly around 2010. It had very cute, drawn covers that centered around a well dressed woman. I can't remember any of the titles but I do remember one of the books has a plot line having to do with a polo event taking place. The main character is usually either around when the murder takes place or knows the victim. I remember her doing things like breaking into peoples apartments to find evidence etc.

She fell in love with her highschool sweetheart, married, lost everything and had a fatal accident from a jealous woman. Woke up back in high school and decided not to pursue the ML, but all his behavior is different because he is also living his second chance life. She decides to become a scientist researcher to cure her brother's illness. The couple eventually get together and marry and have twins. The story follows as the twins grow up and eventually find their own loves. They use knowledge of the past to thwart conspiracies against them.

I believe I read this book in about 2010. It was a hardcover book with I believe a blue butterfly.

Unfortunately I can't remember the whole plot but, i know it was a scifi about teens in a space ship that were supposed to be helping eachother but they ended up fighting. I belive the protagonist was a male and had a love interest with a a female. The only other thing I remember was at the end they came back to earth and I think the antagonist was killed by the protagonist but the end was a twist and really the other teens were really just figments of the protagonists mind.

Any help would be great I've been looking for this book for a long time!

I read this book a really long time ago maybe around 2015? I don't remember many details but from what I do remember it was about a girl that got kidnapped. She eventually escaped I believe and returned to her family but she was kidnapped with another girl. When she returned the other girls family questioned her heavily on where the girl was but for some reason she just wouldn't say. There was also a boy that she had some romantic scenes with but I can't remember whether they ended up together. The ending involved them finding the other girls baby but I don't think they found the other girl. Not sure if she died or what.

Hi everyone, l've been beating myself up trying to remember a particular book I read in middle school from the school library (2013-2015). I hate to say that I don't really remember much, what comes to mind the clearest are two particular scenes. First, a big subplot of the book revolved around a circus or carnival of some kind where one of the "acts" was kept imprisoned. At one point they manage to escape and hide either under a train cart or something like that. The other part of the book that I think I remember is of the main characters running into an older guy who had all of his material possession in a wagon with him, there might have even been a little dog included but on that I'm not 100% sure. I know it isn't much but l've lost pretty much all hope on finding this book, at this point I think I must have made it up or something lol. If anything of what I said sounds even remotely familiar please don't hesitate to leave a comment responding to this post.

Trying to figure out the name of a book I read in probably 2010 or 2011 though I suspect the book is older than that, probably 80s or 90s? It was a paper back and I think the cover was drawn art of the main character, I think with a sword. I’m almost positive the title of the book was just the main characters name, I know her name started with an A, in my memory the name is something like Azriel or Asarial?

I read it when I was probably 13 or 14, I think it was pretty age appropriate although I don’t think it was really YA, probably just a regular fantasy novel.

I think there was a magic system of some kind, though I think magic was considered dangerous. Other details I remember is that that I think fmc’s father was an important figure in society/maybe politically? The main plot of the book follows the titular character on a magical journey to take care of some kind of magical threat, she’s accompanied by a man who I think she has a slightly contentious relationship with at first? I feel like they may have gone through some kind of barrier at the start, and my main memory is that around the climax of the book the main character has to kiss the man and bites his lip so hard it bleeds while trying to prevent him from succumbing to some kind of magic or to make him come back to himself from some kind of magical effect. I also think they may have been standing in a river during that scene? The book wasn’t primarily romance though, as far as I remember that’s the closest it came to romance.

Thank you!

When I was little and I stayed at my grandmother's house, she had a collection of audiobooks on cassette tape that she would let me / my sister put in at night for a bedtime story.

I've been trying to find several of them over the years, and to some degree I've been successful. One that I have been looking for for years though is a short story collection.

The stories were based on Asian lore (my Japenese teacher vaguely recognized two of the fables, but not the exact telling that I recall, so idk if they were specifically based on Japense lore or not). I think there was an illustration that included an orange tiger on the cover (small, it did not take up the whole cover). These are details I can remember from the various stories:

1. There is a story about a Tiger who is especially clever. He kills a man and wears his skin and pretends to be the man - the Tiger fools almost everyone, except the man's daughter. She is suspicious and scared that he will eat them at night, so she does various things to keep the Tiger away, including grinding up dried hot peppers, adding them to water and tossing the mixture into the Tiger's eyes (she was sleeping in the attic amongst hanging dried peppers, but I can't remember if doing so gave her the idea or if she did this after successfully tossing pepper-water in the Tiger's face). The people in her family or town don't believe her when she tries to convince them of the truth (I think one of her points of proof is that he was chewing up the bones of his dinner rather than eating around them, but no one else clocks this as a red flag), so she's pretty much on her own for three nights. She eventually shows the townspeople the truth, and the Tiger is killed.

2. A woman's lover (I think?) dies, and she sails between the land of the living and the land of the dead. I think it was a little bit like Eurydice and Orpheus? Idk, I was usually pretty close to sleep by this one lol. I think at the end she's told not to turn and look at her lover as they return to the land of the living or he will die die, and she accidentally does and sees her lover's skeleton (I could be fully misremembering this one tho).

3. The Juniper Tree (perhaps by a different name, but it was this fable). The boy's/bird's song in this collection was: "My mother, she murdered me. My father, he ate me. But my loving sister, Marjorie, put all my bones beneath a tree. And how I love to sing on high, oh what a pretty bird am I. How I love to sing on how, what a pretty bird am I..." He sings this in exchange for boots to gift the father, something for the sister (I can't remember her gift), and a giant grinding wheel used for wheat. He picked it up and wore it like a necklace (the grinding stone was a short cylinder shape and had a hole in the center, like a super giant donut), then dropped it on step mother's head.

4. I think one of the stories described the forming of a mountain / volcano / island? I think there were two personified representations of the land that were in contention with one another, and their fight maybe led to the formation of the place? Something like that - this was another story I rarely was awake long enough to hear, and what I do remember of this one is very vague and probably at least mildly inaccurate.

5. This one is a long shot - it wasn't my favorite, and I was usually asleep before it anyway, so I'm actually hesitant to mention what I think I remember as it's so likely I'm wrong. BUT I'm pretty sure there was a story about some sort of spectral warrier? I more remember the vibes of rain, people running down thin hallways, perhaps someone eavesdropping outside a room??, and conflict outside - the actual plot of this one is a bit rough for me to remember.

There were more stories (well, at least one more anyway), but I can't remember it/them at the moment. Any help at all would be appreciated.

looking for a short story collection. i believe it was translated into english. possibly a new translation in the early to mid-1970’s. i remember it having a dark cover.

i abbreviated for the post title, but it may be considered surrealist, magical realism, or some other similar genre - see next paragraph for examples of the work.

in the early to mid 1970’s i worked in a library shelving books. i found and checked out a collection of stories that included one that took place in a single moment in time in which a man was attacked by a tiger. the story had no linear chronology as it was in a moment in time, exploring in detail the aspects of the moment. another story in the same collection was about a man stuck in a traffic jam ruminating, starting with imagining that there was a pistol in the glove box, and progressing to imagining a riot taking place in the traffic jam

any ideas/thoughts? and thank you in advance for any help.

It was a book about death and different aspects of it, from medical and other points of view, it had many illustrations and was hardcover with the cover in black with red and a skull, please help I don't remember the name