Questions tagged [identification-request]
Questions asking for identification of a story, book, or author, based on descriptive details provided within the question. Please be thorough and provide ALL of the details that you can remember when using this tag. (For questions seeking the original source of a known quote, use the [quote-source] tag instead.)
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Seeking Title of WWII Movie Featuring a Resistance Group and a Unique Method to Expose an Informant [closed]
I'm trying to recall the name of an old black-and-white WWII movie centered around a resistance group (possibly French or Polish) opposing Nazi occupation. In a pivotal scene, the group intercepts a ...
- 155
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0
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Children's Book, Characters Made of Vegetables
My sister and I had a book when we were children (late 1980s, early 1990s at a push). The artwork was quite grown up and quite creepy for a children's book. The characters were made up of a variety of ...
- 9,553
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1
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36
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Goosebumps book about 2 kids in a haunted school
I remember reading a book, quite a long time ago, about a guy who is sent to a haunted school, where all the children are ghosts, except for a single girl, who is human like him, and she help in ...
- 1,004
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0
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37
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Children's book about a Pig that buys a duck from the market to eat, takes the Duck home and they eat peas together
This would have been in circulation in Australia in the 1980's, possibly a book club / scholastic book. A pig goes to the market to buy a duck to eat for dinner, takes the duck home and they both eat ...
- 9,553
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87
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Account of picking up a black hitchhiker who then wanted to be let out
I remember decades ago reading a book with the following vignette, set in the 60s. The white male narrator is driving through the countryside and picks up a hitchhiking young black man. The rider is ...
- 1,451
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1
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123
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Legend about the Invention of Steel
I am trying to track down a legend concerning the invention of steel (originally told to me by a group of touring historians visiting my Australian high school 40 years ago).
Under the legend, a ...
- 10.3k
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0
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92
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Identify a short story where a husband purposely drives his wife crazy
When I was in college I read a short story for a class and I'd like to find it again. I'm recalling this from my bad memory, so there could be many errors here..
The general plot was that a husband ...
- 111
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1
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73
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Book about some teenagers building a robot
I’m looking for a young adult book I read around the mid 2000s. I was living in Bahrain at the time, but the book was in English and I think it was bought in England (Manchester). I think the book had ...
- 4,546
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1
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277
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Identifying a story described within an Agatha Christie book
About 3/4 of the way through Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' (pub c.1940), is this paragraph, describing a book, or maybe a story in some other kind of format:
She broke off, went on: "...
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1
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Bizarre early 1970's children's picture book about life in prison
My friends look at me askance when I tell them about this surreal children's picture book I read in a US public library about 1975.
A man (who my brain insists on identifying with Ned Riddle's ...
- 9,553
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43
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Book about a boy that joins a traveling "snake-oil" show and eventually escapes, finds his father?
I used to have this book about 20-ish years ago.
Setting for the story is some time around the gold rush
Boy runs away from home (possibly an orphanage?), a man on a traveling wagon offers to hide ...
- 9,553
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1
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In which C.S. Lewis essay or book chapter did he talk about the habit of using the word "we" when preaching?
I remember C.S. Lewis writing somewhere about how some preachers like to use the word "we" when pointing out a problematic behavior. For example, consider the statement "We secretly ...
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63
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Looking for a children's book from the 1950s about an anthropomorphized animal who's abandoned by his family
I am looking for a children's picture book that I read in the late 1950s about an animal (don't remember what kind of animal, possibly a mouse or hamster) who was a member of a large family. He came ...
- 4,546
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0
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Story where a guy gets an email where if he agrees to go out and buy specific computers and store them in the attic then he'll get paid lots of money
I was talking with someone today and it reminded me of a story I read over 20 years ago. I can't remember if it was stand-alone or a short story. I know I read the book before the year 2000, so ...
- 1,759
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1
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Weird kids' keyhole popup book?
There was a book when I was a kid that I had. It must have been an early 2000s or a 90s book. It was about looking through this keyhole. I remember one page being peeking through the blinds to see ...
- 4,546
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1
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Identify short story about a despairing man who finds his lack of fear of death elates him in a rescue attempt on a snowy mountain
The protagonist despairs, perhaps after a war. He contemplates suicide when he is called to rescue a man stuck out on a snowy mountain. The phrase that occurs to me is "The Razor's Edge", ...
- 4,546
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2
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A pair of children decide that their neighbor is a witch and convince her to try flying
I believe I checked this out from our library in Kentucky somewhere between 1986 and 1995. I remember it as a short book, less than a hundred pages, maybe less than thirty. A pair of children (at ...
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Manga about a character who gets lost in the woods, wanders around and finds this small shack with a young male hermit
I remember reading a few chapters of a Japanese manga about 3 years ago, but my memory of it is very hazy. The story was not current and had been in production for several years already. If I had to ...
- 1,759
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1
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Where's Waldo-style picture book about a field trip time traveling to Ancient Egypt
I read this book probably in the 1999-2001 range, as a library book. The text was in English; this was in the state of Ohio in the US. I don't recall the particular copy having notable wear or fading ...
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2
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80s? Infected Man trapped in an Office tower with people trying to kill him
This was a paperback, probably from the 80s. The cover may have had the exterior view of an office tower (~20 floors) with a man suspended on a rope swinging outside.
The protagonist goes to his ...
- 4,546
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0
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Book about a white mother who kills her black son (with her other white son)
I remember reading this perhaps during elementary school.
While this wasn't the entire plot of the book, one of its major points was a mother who slept with a black man and had a black son. She and ...
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1
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Seeking story about chess in Soviet Union, probably Playboy c.1980?
I actually read some girlie mags for the stories growing up...this was probably in Playboy, with a lower chance of it being from Penthouse. A Soviet apparatchik has commissioned a ceremonial chess set ...
- 2,917
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Children's song about the onomatopoeia of the wind
When I was a young child (probably somewhere between 1985 to 1995), I remember watching a cartoon involving anthropomorphic animals (I don't remember which animals other than that I think one was a ...
- 10.3k
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1
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104
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Dark story about two brothers surviving in the woods; they both die
I’m trying to find the title of a book I read as a kid, borrowed from a library in the late 1970s. It was a fairly dark story about two brothers left to fend for themselves after losing their ...
- 10.3k
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Afrikaans kids' book about an abducted girl
I'm looking for help on finding a book that I read in Afrikaans around, a short (20-30 pages) hardcover kids' book. I got it from my grandparents 2012-2013. It's about a girl, 6-10 years old, white ...
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1
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Christian children's book about journey through enchanted forest guided by king's music
I need help identifying a children's book I remember reading years ago.
Plot: the king announces a contest for his daughter's hand in marriage. The first person to pass through the enchanted forest ...
- 743
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1
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648
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Racist/anti-racist story about how bones are indistinguishable after death
I don't remember much about this story, but it's set a couple of hundred years ago. Several white men are attacked by several black natives. One of the natives kills one of the white men, but is ...
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What was the case where Sherlock answers Watson's private thoughts?
I recall a Sherlock Holmes mystery where the detective and his assistant are in their apartment and Watson is working over some decision that he has to make. Suddenly Holmes pipes in to give his ...
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In what novel does the surname Deifik appear?
Norbert Pearlroth is famous for being the head researcher for Ripley's Believe It or Not, but he also wrote a column on Jewish Surnames, and when he was asked about the surname "Deifik", he ...
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Crime novel with gay policeman as main character
Ages ago I read a detective novel which I remember very little about, and the few things I do remember are not very helpful for googling it. Maybe somebody here can help me with it.
One thing I ...
CommunityBot
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Boy keeps breaking pocket watch fighting, opts to pay watchmaker himself rather than ask mother
I read a short story in English circa 1980-85 (although it may have been published much earlier) about a boy who carries an expensive pocket watch (perhaps inherited) but keeps getting in schoolyard ...
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1990s end of the world book
I read this book in the 90s about the end of the world relating to a comet or asteroid hitting the earth. First chapter was in an observatory I think and next chapter in the desert? Not much to go on ...
- 9,553
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1
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YA novel set in London featuring a teenage Sherlock wannabe
I'm looking for a novel I owned and read in the 1980s. Here's the little I can remember about it:
The main character is a teenage boy who has studied the Sherlock Holmes books and tries to follow the ...
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Book about 13 year old befriending computer hacker
I am trying to find the title of a novel I read in grade school back in either 2001 or 2002. The book is about a 13 year old boy who befriends an older man that happens to be a computer hacker. Here ...
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BL manga about a boy exiled from his family, who goes to school in the hopes of getting back in
I was trying to find a yaoi manga that I know is on mangago but I didn't save the name. All I remember is that it had less than 10 chapters. Summary is that a boy got exiled from his family by his ...
- 1,759
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Seeking circular novel, begins & ends with man waking from a dream
I just heard this mentioned on a podcast, but then couldn't remember which one, and can't remember the title either! But I think it was a 3-4 word title with relatively simple, common, monosyllabic ...
- 9,553
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Looking for book written by imprisoned Chinese author, first page setting is on a train
I am looking for the book title of a recently translated book by a Chinese author, who wrote the notes for the book while she was imprisoned in China.
The contents seemed to be a light novel, and the ...
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1
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990
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Fantasy children's story where they suspect someone is a vampire
I'm 38 and read this probably between 1993-1997.... when I was between 8-12 years old. I don't think it was a new book at that time.
It was about a young boy and girl who auditioned for a local play ...
- 4,713
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2k
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Book of short stories I read as a kid; one story about a starving girl, one about a boy who stays forever young
I can remember two short stories, and while I am not entirely sure if they're from the same book, I would hugely appreciate finding either.
The first story I remember reading about was about a girl ...
- 8,861
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1
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Poet who asserted that poets lack personality and collect objects to give them one
In about the mid-90s I read part of a book of literary criticism by a poet (so focused mainly on poetry and poetic theory) where he said that poets lack a personality and often collect trinkets to ...
- 539
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School story involving a new computer, novel educational practices, and a secret society
This is a children's chapter book or possibly YA novel that I read in English in the USA around 1990. I read a few books of this general style, so I'm hoping that I am not conflating multiple books.
...
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Book about a girl who finds out she's adopted
I'm looking for a book about a girl who plays the drums and finds out she's adopted. She sets out to find her birth mom and realizes her dad is also a musician and that she was conceived during a ...
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471
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Identify a cookbook with a Deputy preparing a whole camel
I recently came across this photo of an interesting recipe in preparing "Stuffed Camel"...
Stuffed Camel
1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chickens, medium size
...
- 1,002
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1
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62
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Retrieving Beckman (1982) rendering of the Zoroastrian Avesta
I'm currently reading Drakon by Ogden which is a monograph on serpent cults and mythological accounts of serpent-related happenings in ancient Greece. In the introduction, Ogden briefly overviews ...
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1
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Book involving the president-elect dying in a horse accident and electoral college shenanigans
I think I read this one in early 2000. It was a novel length hardback, I think with a white cover. The President-Elect has won the election and is riding a horse in some parade when it gets spooked. ...
- 10.3k
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1
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A Regency era novel on Wattpad about a purple-eyed girl (dressed up as a boy) working as a personal valet for a lord (male lead)
It starts with the girl working in a fake antiquity-making factory where she drops a large and heavy vase, shattering it. She had a heavy labour kind of work. It was a very dreary setting. Workers ...
- 71.1k
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0
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Webcomic that has a probably minor character girl that writes fanfiction just about minor characters
I read some fiction on the internet that had a minor character girl who talked aloud to someone about how they flesh out the backstories of really minor characters, like the ones that say Welcome To ...
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Book about a runaway kid who lives in a hollow tree
I found a survival-story chapter book in the library. I read the book, and loved it. Now I've moved, and the library is hours away and I can't remember the name of the book. I remember the following ...
- 10.3k
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1
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60
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Book where the brutal slaying of an old woman turns out to be the result of a counterfeit quilt scheme
I have vague memories of reading this book while on the train in New Jersey, which would put my reading of it around 2007-2010. The book started with someone breaking into the house of an old woman, ...
- 10.3k
4
votes
1
answer
64
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Dinosaur story for children
I'm hoping to identify a short dinosaur picturebook for children that would have been available by around 1994 (but was probably written earlier than that). The audiotape read-along version included ...
- 71.1k