Looking for a book I read as a child, keeping in mine I read some weird stuff that I probably shouldn't have read as a child..

I am unsure if it was a 'classic' or modern, but I specifically remember there being a writer as a main character. (S)he was a romance writer, but for reasons forgotten, decided to write a novel on sheep buggery in the end.

That's a pretty strange description, so I am really hoping it is a book (I'm pretty sure it is well known) and I didn't somehow dream this.

Thank you!

I know nothing about the book I'm looking for - beyond the assumption that it is a book - beyond the one phrase I'm sure I remember from somewhere, a character describing her young self as a "feckless young aristocrat".

The book would have been one available at least five years ago in the UK, probably Young Adult and almost certainly either historical or fantasy-based. I did wonder if it was The Seer and the Sword; I can't fine the line in the paperback version, though I think there were some edits made from the original hardback.

Although I have nothing really to go on but the phrase itself, without context, my gut feeling suggests that it was a line spoken by an older woman remembering a particular decision her younger self made with scorn, something like 'I was just a feckless young aristocrat then, so arrogant and convinced (our love would conquer all/we could solve all the world's problems/or something)'.  Possibly she was/is a warrior, or else she fell in love with someone unsuitable, or got involved in politics? I really don't know, though I've been wondering for years - all I'm fairly sure of is that the character is a woman who feels she railroaded  over other people's rational objections.

However, the only concrete detail I have is the phrase itself, "feckless young aristocrat".

I realise this is an unusual request; I can't even say 'and it had a blue cover and there were dragons at the end' or anything. But does this sound familiar to anyone?

Hello, I just joined LJ after finding this group, I think it's a great idea, and I wonder whether you might be able to help me? :)
 

First book found: (by justwolf, within half an hour of me posting! Thank you)

The first book I read when I was about 11 (98/9), but I don't know when it was published. I got it from my school library in the UK, but I think it was set in the US or Canada, possible Australia. The main character was a teenage girl (I think she may have had ginger hair, not sure whether I'm getting that from the cover or the writing though, might just be something I made up!) She lived with her mother and they kept having to move house, often with no warning. At some point in the book, it's discovered that it's not her real mum; she kidnapped the girl as a baby and that's why they've been on the run. Towards the end of the book the girl goes to live with her biological family, but she's not exactly happy, they're basically strangers to her.

I was sure the title had the word 'suitcase' in it ( as in 'living out of a suitcase' or something) but I've searched through every book on Amazon containing that word and haven't found it! I also have the feeling the title was fairly long. I'd really like to find this book again.
 

The second book is even vaguer to me, sorry, I just remember the feeling of it if that makes sense. I probably read it around the same time, but I'm not sure whether it was a ya or adult book. Basically I think it was about a boy/man whose sister had died and she was kind of haunting him - I don't remember whether he actually saw her or just heard her voice, could even have been that he hallucinated it. The only scene I remember is in a theatre I think, and there may have been a fire or something and everyone is getting evacuated and maybe someone falls of a balcony?  I think it might have been a memory of his of how his sister died, and I think he felt guilty about it. It wasn't like a horror story though, or really a ghost story, it was more that the sister is quite bossy and controlling of the main character, and he is trapped by the guilt he feels since she died, so as I remember it was more about him getting free and being able to get on with his life. It may have been set or written in the past.

Reading that back I remember even less than I realised, but for some reason it has been bugging me for years and I'd love to read it again.

Sorry if this is too long, I don't know how you do the cuts. I'll be amazed if anyone can think of anything from these useless descriptions!

Hello. I'm 18 and I've been on estrogen blockers for about a year now. Here some photos. The sepia ones were taken by Zirque Bonner in the ceramics studio of my school.


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Edit: Found!
Black and Blue Magic, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I'm looking for a book I read back in the mid 80's, but the book may be slightly older.

The book starts with a boy finding a silver phial filled with some kind of liquid (I believe it was described as pearly in colour).  When he rubs a drop on each of his shoulders, he grows feathery wings that allow him to fly, which then vanish with the sunrise.  He has many adventures, but eventually runs out of the liquid and one evening can only produce a single feather, where upon he puts the feather and phial into a box in his room, and the story ends.

I know that's not much to go on, but I hope someone recognizes it.

Thanks!

I haven't posted since I started T! I don't think you can really see the changes in pictures, but the facial hair is in abundance and my voice is (slowly) dropping. :D

But today was a bad day, hopefully some vanity will help.

I sort of came out at work....which may have been a bad idea, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Stats:
Mathew
18.5 years of age
3 months on testosterone



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Found! The Secret Life of Dilly McBean by Dorothy Haas

My boyfriend read this children's sci-fi book sometime around 1990. The main character is a boy with magnetic superpowers, which he can control at will. His parents are scientists. The boy is kidnapped by people who want to use his power for evil purposes. He uses his power to erase their computer data and to get away from them.

My boyfriend insists that this book/character is NOT related to Magneto/X-Men in any way.

Any ideas? Thank you!!

Can anyone help on this? It's a book from the 1980s--- history of science. Done by a woman (Israeli?) who was at (I think) Columbia. She looks at the way late-19th and early-20th century scientific narratives of evolution were shaped by literary tropes ands forms. Does anyone remember this at all?

I don't remember very many details about this one, but hopefully someone can help me out. It was a children's or young adult book about a teenager who was trying to follow some secret regimen that he found in a book. I seem to remember him staying up in his room most of the time, and his dad came in to talk to him at one point and he was really evasive about everything. The biggest detail that I can remember is that on the regimen, he wasn't allowed to eat anything and he could only drink weak tea.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Found by um_brellas. The First Six Killers by Markus Zusak.

There is a good chance that this story was part of a horror anthology. There is also a good chance that this story is of the YA variety.

It involved a boy who worked in a graveyard. I'm almost positive he was the gravedigger. As he is working his shift one day he meets a girl--I don't remember if she was there for a funeral or if she was visiting a grave. He found her interesting and as the story progressed he developed a crush on the girl. At one point she takes him back to her house and he looks through her bookshelf and notices that she writes the typos and mistakes she finds in the text in the back of the book.

This is all I can remember. Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? Please and thank you.

A post last night reminded me of this book. I believe it was the first in a trilogy. A friend recommended them many years ago because the warrior-type guy was one of her favorite characters in all fiction.

I only read the first one and cannot recall a lot. It was a big, thick, swords-and-sorcery adult hardback.

The girl (who was at least in her late teens) was a "Speaker" or a "Sayer" and had some sort of ability where she could speak things into reality. Anything and everything she said automatically BECAME the truth.

FOUND! First book in the Rhapsody trilogy by Elizabeth Haydon

I think she was some sort of con-artist at the beginning and she literally ran into the warrior-type guy while trying to avoid some people who were after her. She called him "brother" or something and/or said he would defend her and because of her gift it actually became true. Except, he wasn't too happy about it.

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Edit: Found: appears to be Fools Run by Patricia McKillip Thanks! (and by the sound of the reviews I may regret having tracked it down to finally re-read :-)

This was a sf novel I read in the late 80s, of around the same era as Greg Bear's Eon. Key characters included the Thief of Hearts and someone called the Magician or Musician or something very similar. The action moved between Earth and someplace habitable built in near space - the moon, or a satellite, not sure which. There was also a space prison, which the Musician had been the one to create the lock for, and during the course of the story he unlocked the prison by playing a Beethoven symphony with a precise variation of timing during certain phrases. Thoughts welcomed :-)

So I was thinking about "The Tell-Tale Heart" and suddenly this imagine popped into my head of a book I read as a child. It was really horrifying to me when I was young (I read this in the 90s, probably in early elementary school, but I think it was definitely an older story) and I barely recall any details. It was illustrated, at least the copy I had, and I think it had to do with a boy orphan and maybe his sister living in with a (possibly rich) man who may have been his/their uncle? I have a distinct memory of a picture of a butler, or maybe the man, at the door asking him questions. Anyway, I'm not sure if it was meant to be a children's story, but my mother seemed to think so because I read it a lot as a kid.

The only other thing I really remember was a basement or wine cellar or something, and not being allowed down there, and possibly ghosts being there or something?

I don't really recall anything else. I'm not sure if it was alone in a book or if it was part of some sort of anthology. I'm not sure if it's similar to Tell-Tale, but something about that triggered it for me, so maybe?

Found: sort of! It's Lost Hearts by M R James, but the version I am thinking of was shortened for children and had horrifying illustrations. If anyone knows where I could find this copy, or one similar to what I'm talking about, do share, please!

okay so it's been on the edges of my mind for days now. it was a book (or series) i used to read, probably when i was a lot younger so it must be some sort of young adult book and i can barely remember anything about it.

there was a girl (possibly called Alice or some sort of cute-sy equivalent) who was 'beautiful' and at one point in the book, the Gang's desires are magically increased due to some evil woman's magic. Her skin becomes so beautiful and glowing that she becomes translucent.

There is a character that always carries around a BIC lighter. There's a character who always wore a lot of watches. (called Watch?)

At one point in the book/series, they're tied to a gravestone i think? and there's something about going back in time...

pissing me off royally. any ideas?

eta: and during one scene there's a killer tree that they have to climb into for some reason. i think. ugh.

I'll start saving them up again :) Of course, it's easier to tell when nobody knows a book if it's the only one and no replies.

1. My Sister, The Vampire A teen or pre-teen boy, his slightly older sister, and their much younger (seven or eight?) sibling are out in their family's cabin for vacation. Their parents get called away, but say they'll send over the great-aunt to watch after them so it'll only be for a day or so that they're alone. For whatever reason, the great-aunt doesn't show up on time, but as she's a big pain in the butt the kids are THRILLED and are doing a great job of taking care of themselves. (For kids who've never so much as made pasta before, that is.) They're making friends with the family down the way, which has two siblings that share a room (maybe twins?)

There's vampires. They're vaguely creepy and are determinedly interested in the various kids because (we find out later) they want a family of their own. So when they're not being creepy they're trying to win these kids over with, like, sports pep talks and all. The kids get vaguely weaker and have "weird dreams" which end up with the windows open, but they wise up and start putting up crosses and garlic and so far so good... when the sensible pain-in-the-butt great-aunt shows up! And takes it all down! And goes into their rooms at night opening windows for their "health"! And the younger sister is wasting away and positively has to be bullied to wear garlic *already*...

The vampires end up staked to the ground as the sun comes up, resigned to their fate, and the kids feel vaguely bad about it all. (But triumphant.)

It's a late-kids or early-YA book, I read it probably in the early 90s. Cover had a picture of the family on it with the teenaged girl dressed in a "goth" style, but not really.

2. I remembered this one today. A bunch of kids is out camping as a school group or something during Christmas break. They're from London, and camping in England. On the trip back at the end, they do notice that either there's no traffic or that all the traffic is coming away from the city but not toward, but they don't think too much of it. Either there's no radio, or there is radio but it's all canned broadcasts, and they think this is a little odd, but again, they're not too worried.

They get to the city and it's all barricaded. At this point, for some reason, some or all of the kids (teens) get separated from the grown-ups. One of the kids tries to get into the city through a barricaded house, a pair of kids is there and one of the kids says he went in through the broken window, his sister freaks out. Their mother appears and, thinking the teen came out from the city, declares that if she had a gun, she'd shoot her. The teen is freaked out and disappears into the city.

At this point the book diverges and we get some chapters from her(?) viewpoint and some from the viewpoint of a (Muslim?) boy who was in the city while our intrepid heroes were out camping. (They eventually meet up.) From his perspective we hear that there was a bad plague... maybe vaguely ebola-like (which would put this YA book firmly in the mid-late 90s), and the city was quarantined. He may have a younger sister who may or may not have succumbed. His mother is definitely dead, and he's using his stash of condoms (that he never used for the intended purpose, I believe) as a way to touch things that might be infected so he doesn't get sick. The public service announcements, when he gets radio, are on a loop - things like "don't use public transport". He thinks this is a laugh, because the only "transport" left is your own two feet. All service to the city has stopped.

At some point after the kids meet up, they realize that there have already been people in and out of the city, and there may have been a few news reports of the disease spreading (the kids hypothesize, I think, that it may have been biological warfare or "friendly fire" from their own government developing a supergerm but letting it get loose accidentally), so - since there's pretty much no food and very little left in London - they might as well sneak out and leave anyway. And they do... and I think it may be worser deserted out there than it was in the beginning of the book. Dismal book, really, I don't know why I want to find it again.

Edit: Probably Plague, by Jean Ure.