r/whatsthatbook

About 10 years ago I read this book about a girl who is living at home with her parents and a gypsy stops by asking for money, and her parents won't let her give the gypsy any. Then the gypsy curses her or says that she'll have an unfortunate bloodline or something like that, and then something happens to her parents, and she ends up being adopted by a family on the prairie. And all the details about that are hazy, except for their their dog getting bit by a rattlesnake.

Children’s fiction book

Read it in 4th or 5th grade ) 1980s possibly very early 1990s)

Not sure if hard or soft cover

English

Can’t remember any pictures

Library book or a book my teacher already owned

I feel like it took place in a knights and dragons type of world, however, I originally thought it was Edith Nesbit's The Last of the Dragons, so I can't be certain.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The\_Last\_of\_the\_Dragons

The biggest clue is one joke that has stayed with me for decades.
A young woman says something like:
"Oh, this makes me nervous."
The narrator then makes a humorous aside along the lines of:
"People hadn't always been nervous. It was something that had recently come into fashion."

I also remember a joke mentioning that aspirin had only recently been invented, or something very close to that. I don't think the characters were making the joke—I think it was the author stepping outside the story to make a modern observation about the past.

I read this in the U.S. no later than the 1980s, but most likely in an anthology so could have been published any time earlier. It had an older feel to it, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were from the 60s or even earlier.

The story featured an interstellar war between the (very U.S.-like) humanity and aliens. I recall it feeling pretty dire and existential. The humans used single-crew fighter ships in their battles. Because of the incredible stresses and dangers of space combat, these ships surrounded the pilots with some kind of protection; maybe literal fluid, or just metaphoric, but in any case the ships were either called, or nicknamed, "eggs" because you were so comforted and protected. (Edited to add: or maybe "wombs" or something similar.)

In fact, the protection felt so complete and pleasurable that when the pilots returned to base (or carriers?) and they had to exit the craft, they suffered a kind of birth trauma and had to undergo a long period of recovery. Because of this, pilots could only fly a certain number of missions (maybe even only one or two?) before it was considered too dangerous to their mental and emotional health.

The ending features a more senior, retired pilot now in charge of the younger ones, praying that the aliens would do well enough and advance through human territory that it would be enough of an emergency that he'd be allowed to get back into an egg again.

A book I read in 2018 from a little free library involves a man characterized as disheveled and depressed. He smokes a lot and the book names the cigarette brand frequently (possibly Winston cigarettes).

The book involves teleportation as some sort of skill, it possibly involves mirrors. The man accidentally teleports into a room without doors and cannot escape. Another person finds him and teaches him how to teleport intentionally, allowing him to escape.

What is this book?

I'm looking for a hockey romance that I read a while ago, and I can't remember the title or any of the character names.

What I remember:

• The MMC is a professional hockey player and a single dad to a little girl who is around 5–6 years old.
• He has a reputation for being a player, but it's actually a misunderstanding because he always leaves after games to go home to his daughter.
• The daughter is biologically his and is either selectively mute or barely speaks. She also struggles with anxiety.
• The hero keeps his daughter out of the public eye because he's worried about media attention affecting her anxiety. Because of this, the daughter thinks he's ashamed of her.
• There's a scene where the daughter sees her father get hit during a game on TV and has a panic attack.
• At one point, the daughter gets a fever, and the stay-at-home nanny (I think she's a grad student) calls the FMC late at night because the little girl specifically asks for her.
• The MMC's father is a famous rockstar and visits them at some point, the grand daighter and he cook together for everyone.
• he also tells his teammates about his daughter at some time with the encouragement from the FMC
• The MMC and his daughter live in a two-story brownstone near a park, and I remember a scene where they go out for ice cream.

Does anyone recognise this book?

Hi folks, this is my first reddit post, so I hope I'm doing this right. I'm looking for a book for kids or young teens from around the 1990s, maybe 80s, that is about a family who live in the human world, but they only look like real people- they're made of straw or maybe fabric... not entirely sure. They try to live like normal humans while keeping up their secret. I believe one of the straw girls falls in love with a real human (unsure). One of the problems is that they cannot be outside when it rains, because that'll disintegrate them or something. If anyone has any idea, I'd be eternally grateful!

So I read a book back in like 2019-2020 ish area and I keep thinking about. I can't for the life of me remember the title.

The title was the same across the whole series. It's like a parenormal romance book about angels. The main character doesn't know she's an angel it might have been half angel but I don't remember fully. The love interests name is Lucas or something similar. In the series the couple do the angle equivalent to getting married which is cutting out your heart and hiding it somewhere. In the last book god like dies or like disappears or something and like the main character goes all crazy and what not and is like really powerful and evil? I know this information is very specific and random but I hope someone knows what it is.

I never had a chance to finish the book due to my dog destroying it, but I'll say what I can remember. The main character was a woman, and I believe the setting was somewhere in Japan or Eastern Asia. The main character had trained at a temple to guard something in it, but eventually ended up leaving the temple, I believe to go kill evil entities? I remember she snuck into a temple, and got into a fight with a spider/human hybrid thing, and I believe she had a sword. If it's worth anything, I'm also fairly certain the cover was red, and I believe it had a fox mask on it.

Sorry for not having more details, this is a book I read probably close to 5 years ago and never had the chance to read very much of it

I read a book forever ago and it was one of the few books I would reread

What I remember:

Characters were mice and maybe rats as the villain? Or bigger mice?

The entrance to their home was under a rose bush.

I think they're trying to relocate their home?

I read it in highschool I think so in terms of age range if that helps.

I believe it was a standalone but can't be certain.

TIA!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to track down a book I was recommended a while ago online and I’m completely stuck. I’ve tried searching but nothing seems to match, so I’m hoping someone might recognise it from the description.

It was adult fiction, but the main character was a teenage boy from memory. The story was set in a strange small town in the UK (or at least a very UK-like setting), and the atmosphere was very unsettling. The townspeople felt odd or “off,” and there was a strong sense that something wasn’t right beneath the surface of the town.

There was a constant humming (maybe grinding?) noise coming from underground, and it felt like it was implied that there was a huge buried machine or industrial system beneath the town or a factory. As the story progressed, people began disappearing, and it seemed connected to whatever was happening underground. From the synopsis I was told, the whole thing had a very weird fiction/uncanny tone rather than a typical YA dystopia.

The cover (as far as I remember) was mainly red and showed a house with a gear or cog underneath it, like there was something mechanical or industrial beneath the surface. I think the title may have included the word “Under,” but I’m not sure.

I was recommended it fairly recently, and think the book may also have been publised in the last few years.

If anyone recognises this, I’d really appreciate the help, it’s been driving me a bit mad trying to find it!

Thanks in advance!!

Ok, this is embarrassing because I remember SO LITTLE of this book, so this is a total shot in the dark but it's been bugging me for ages. When I was somewhere between 4th-6th grade (so '88-'91ish) a teacher was getting rid of a bunch of books at the end of the year. I ended up with one that was tan/beige-ish. Im fairly certain it has an illustration of the main character, potentially with some sort of beach/sandy area behind her.

No idea what any of the characters names were, or the plot.

There was a younger boy, maybe a neighbor, maybe the brother. The girl, who was 13-15, and I think an older date. He drove a car.

She would tan with baby oil. She had brown hair, whisper and wavy/curled. For her date she wore a white dress that showed off her tan.

Couldn't tell you anything else that happened. For some reason it's the tanning that I remember. She was beautiful and tan, and when I recall it, it feels like a hazy, hot summer memory.

I realize that's next to nothing to go on! It was probably published in the mid to late 70s or early 80s. It was old by the time I got it.

I remember loving this book that was in my elementary school library, so circa 2012. I remember it being pretty large (at least for a kindergartner). It had things that popped up and pulled out and had pockets with little papers inside them,- about fairy mythology. I think there might have been a 3D gem on the cover? There also might have been another similar book by the same author but about dragons.

Fiction.

Pretty sure not Young Adult but more middle school age.

I read it in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I was in maybe 5th or 6th grade when I read it.

It was pretty scary, but still might have been age appropriate.

Story set in the 1970s or 1980s.

No chapters. Slim book. Paperback.

Can’t remember the cover, but it didn’t spoil the ending.

It was a library book.

Written in English.

The main character is a girl around 12 years old. Fairly certain she wasn’t a teen yet.

She travels by train to stay with her aunt because her aunt asked her to come for a visit.

The girl is forbidden to go upstairs to either the third floor or the attic.

Her uncle was a scientist and he’s dead. I don’t think the girl ever met him before he died.

Eventually, the girl discovers her male cousin hidden in the attic. They are very similar in age.

The uncle had experimented on his own son, leaving the boy hairy and ape-like and either can’t speak at all or is only able to say a few words.

The experiment might have been because the son was dying.

The son accidentally killed the father.

The aunt eventually locks the girl in the same room with the boy because she wants her son to have a companion.

The room is still filled with the father’s scientific equipment. It’s his old lab.

The final scene is the aunt answering a phone call from the girl's mother.

It was two weeks later. The mom took two weeks to call and check up on the girl. That seemed so weird.

The aunt tells the girl’s mother, “She never arrived."

I’ve been trying to remember a book series I read as a kid (probably late ‘90s or early 2000s), and it’s driving me crazy.

Here’s what I remember with fairly high confidence:

It was a YA (or possibly middle grade) series, probably 3–5 books. The early books are set in a walled city with a matriarchal society. Women hold power inside the city, while men live outside (or boys are forced to leave the city when they reach a certain age—I may be fuzzy on that detail). The protagonist is a boy who has connections to both societies. At first it reads like fantasy or post-apocalyptic fiction, but later it’s revealed to actually be science fiction. An ancient relic turns out to be a spaceship, and the characters discover a working computer/AI aboard. The computer explains humanity’s past and space travel. I vaguely remember a supporting character who was paralyzed and used magnetic implants or magnets in his body to help him move.

Things I’m less certain about:

I think the series makes a major jump in the later books, with humans traveling on the spaceship to another planet (or possibly returning to Earth after a very long time). I remember intelligent owl-like and mouse-like civilizations on that world. I also think the later books may follow descendants of the original characters after a time jump, but I could be misremembering.

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Even if one or two details seem off, I’d love to hear any ideas—it’s been over 20 years, so I’m sure some of my memories have blended together.

Okay, so I remember this one anthology horror book. I can't remember what it's called. But the first story (I THINK) followed this plot.

These two kids are going somewhere with their parents who look sad. They wake up after staying in a motel and their parents are gone. They go looking for them. The ending is basically "They failed the test and cant survive in the world." I dont remember if it was meant to be "It's a resource shortage and only the smart survive" kinda thing. But I've been looking for it for years. Does anyone know what it's called? I remember they open an area with a dog or something (I dont remember) and the guy is all "They failed." and the parents are there.

Around 2010, give or take a few years, my older friends were in a teen book club at our local library where they read YA ARCs and reviewed them. I suspect my mystery book was a recommendation from there, and I think I borrowed it from the library once it was published.

I'd call this YA litfic, I remember it being set in 21st century suburban America with no fantasy elements. An academically ambitious girl and two naive boys kidnap a baby and secretly take care of her in a basement. They were colorfully incompetent at infant care, feeding her chewable multivitamins and cleaning her with something totally inappropriate like bleach wipes. They may have had the intention to gain infamy and cash for returning the baby once the parents started searching for her. I think the girl was masterminding the whole thing and maybe in the end the boys got in trouble and she used the whole experience for a college application essay? It felt provocative and experimental at the time (when I was like 12 lol), I was disgusted by it and voraciously read the whole thing in a day and felt haunted afterwards. I would love to revisit it!

If it helps, I also remember it being a notably small (in all dimensions) hardcover book.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Searching for a book I read as a kid that my kiddo would love now. It was by a mainstream author who writes adult books, but this one was specifically aimed at kids. I can't remember if it was a mystery author or a sci Fi author.

It was set in the future where vr was a big thing and people played this fantasy world game. A crime was committed in game and they enlisted some kids who play in the game to help solve the crime.

Edit: book was published prior to 2003

Edit: found! Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: The Deadliest Game

I read this more than 20 years ago and I don’t know how old it was then.

There was a girl, either late teens or early twenties, who was narrating in first person. I remember she had a crush on a man and wet her dress to make it cling to her body so he’d notice her.

The only other thing I remember is that she ended up in an unusual place for her to be (I want to say something like a dockyard but I can’t be truly sure), was very sick, and her friend/maid went and got the man. Then the narrative switched to his point of view and he was surprised to find her with her dress wet because she wet it while the friend/maid was gone. I do remember her thinking she should have asked her friend/maid to wet her back before she left, so only the front was done.

I’m pretty sure she died but again my memory is fuzzy.

The setting, I think, was more horse and cart than modern. I also think there might have been a future character who found her diary and was reading it, but I could be mixing that part up with another book so take it with a grain of salt.

I've been trying to remember this books for a while. It's similar to Hatchet by Gary Paulsen imo. I remember three main things and one side thing about it.

The boy has to wait till the river thaws in spring to go back to civilization, there is a part where it talks about how clear cutting trees ruined the mountainside, and he meets a big man in a cabin who then dies and he has to bury him.

There was also a big barrel of "plugs" of jerky.

I feel like I read a book where the girl really wants kids and she’s dating someone who knows that, but he made an appointment to get a vasectomy because he doesn’t want kids?? I just remember she finds the appointment letter or something and he says that he didn’t get it done. Cannot remember ANYTHING ELSE!!!