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.)
867
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1
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Choose your own adventure, with car racing in the Alps and a kidnapping plot
I remember a "Choose Your Own Adventure"-style novel whose title I cannot remember. I read it sometime between 2010 and 2016 (throwing darts at a memory board). It is an English title, and I ...
- 229
2
votes
1
answer
124
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Science Fiction version of Queneau's "Exercices de Style"?
I somewhere read there is an "extended" version (I only know the "standard" one which has a German translation) of Queneau's "Exercices de Style". Including an SF version ...
- 279
10
votes
1
answer
2k
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A story about a girl and a mechanical girl with a tattoo travelling on a train
There is a story I recall many details from, but the title still escapes me. I read a physical school library copy between 2013-2018, in elementary/middle; I live in the USA.
The story starts with a ...
- 229
2
votes
0
answers
205
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Lesbian webcomic set in Spain about a rich girl and her family's servant
A long time ago I stumbled on this in a manga site. It was not a manga; this manga site posted comics sometimes. It was set in century Spain (I think?). The main girl is from a rich family who owns a ...
- 129
1
vote
1
answer
55
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I'm looking for a book about a boy in New York city who knows all about animals
I read a book in I think middle school (around the mid 2000s) about a boy who moves into a new apartment with his single mother and his pet mouse. I specifically remember his mother saying that the ...
- 13
6
votes
3
answers
470
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Looking for a SF/alternate history book about a 19th century style explorer who navigates lands with corrupted fauna and flora
Apologies in advance for the vagueness, as I have not read it but only remember fragments of the summary blurb on the back from glancing at it in a bookstore.
What I do remember:
It imitated the ...
- 171
0
votes
0
answers
43
views
Book about a rich orphan blackmailed by an ex
I am looking for a book about a rich girl being orphaned in high school. She is put into foster care with a woman that I believe lives by a lake, maybe a trailer park. She gets blackmailed by her ex ...
- 1
3
votes
0
answers
55
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Short story where a sideshow barker asks a child to debunk his paranormal exhibits, including ectoplasm
The question has most of the elements that I remember, but not the author or title of the short story, which I’ve forgotten.
The barker is setting up the exhibit and invites a child to critique it. As ...
John
2
votes
0
answers
117
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Illustrated child book with mushroom people
I'm trying to find a book I read when I was a child, here's what I can remember:
It was printed in the 2000s or before
I read the book in French, but I don't know whether I read it in the original or ...
2
votes
1
answer
128
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Trying to remember a novel about a young man in treatment
I read this novel c. 2010. The main character's name was Nathaniel. In the beginning of the book he was in a car accident, and I believe the driver (his grandfather?) was killed. Nathaniel ends up ...
- 440
0
votes
1
answer
95
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Looking for a manga: female lead in college who had an abusive father and meets a popular band member
I’m looking for this old manga I read, it’s more slice of life with a female lead in college. She has been living with her boyfriend who she met in high school. She had a abusive father and moved away ...
Sava
4
votes
1
answer
94
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Children's book involving a pet pig (probably named Percy) and moving a house
The story involves a young child (a girl, I think) who receives a baby pig as a pet. I'm pretty sure she named the pig "Percy" which is a problem, as there is a whole series of "Percy ...
- 143
6
votes
1
answer
716
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Children's book about a season clock and winter confining spring in his castle
I remember having a picture book as a child and I really would like to know its name and author. In it, the story goes as follows:
A watch maker and his apprentice take care of a season clock that ...
- 63
1
vote
0
answers
59
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Name of purple hardcover book covered in a soft fabric with fables, fairy tales, or similar stories
I remember being gifted as a child some kind of hardcover book that had a purple colored soft-touch cover; I think it was some kind of fabric. There was also a purple ribbon as bookmark.
I think it ...
- 119
7
votes
1
answer
179
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Looking for a novel featuring a scene with an illegal street race, knocking books off the bumper of a car
I read this book in the mid '90s, but it's likely older, from a couple of decades before that. It was in English, likely American English since as far as I can tell, the story is set in the USA.
What ...
- 553
2
votes
0
answers
27
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Children's book where forest animals help a baby deer find his medal
I am looking for a young children's book from the 1970s I won in a reading competition at Nursery, so for ages 3-4 years old. The little fawn loses his medal from around his neck and feels very sad. ...
-1
votes
1
answer
73
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I'm looking for manga or manhwa about girl that suffer dwarfism that make look like child and guy who is grown man but mind of a child [closed]
I don't remember the manga well but is about a girl who suffered dwarfism and and guy whose full grown adult but mind of a child and it about their relationship and that all i remember
- 129
9
votes
1
answer
537
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Identification of play about fictionalizing an in-universe murder
During the 2010s I saw a 2-act play in Birmingham's Alexandra, with a three-character plot along these lines:
Two people in a house try to kill a third, and think they've succeeded. They wrap him up ...
- 223
1
vote
0
answers
55
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Naval fiction novel about two officers arguing over who has rank after the senior crew are killed by enemy fire
I'm trying to recall the name of a (1950s?) WW2 naval fiction novel that I read, possibly Herman Wouk or similar.
A small military ship, probably in the Corvette class suffers a catastrophic attack ...
- 4,713
4
votes
0
answers
48
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French children's book with a cat turned into a deer
I'm trying to remember the title of a children's book that I read when I was a kid in the late 90s, in French.
The year must have been about 97 or 98, not later than 99-2000.
The only thing I can ...
- 41
4
votes
0
answers
63
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Short story about a man who steals another man's boat but can't find drinkable water
I'm trying to find a story that I heard about 20 years ago. It involves a man who is at sea and crosses paths with a well-stocked boat, so he kills the captain and claims it for himself. Although ...
- 141
3
votes
1
answer
64
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Children's story about two families with a bridge between their homes
I am trying to identify several books (I believe it was a series) about the day-to-day lives of two families. I read these books as an elementary school student in the early 2000s.
As I recall, the ...
- 133
11
votes
1
answer
4k
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A scientist tries to make a man more intelligent
I'm looking for a short story written in the first person where a scientist takes an unintelligent man and gives him a wonder drug. The man steadily gets more intelligent throughout the story, but ...
- 127
1
vote
0
answers
97
views
Story about a nomad cursed to roam forever?
There was a story that we read in my high school literature class Freshman year that I've been trying to find again, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it.
The story was about a nomad ...
- 11
2
votes
0
answers
46
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Searching for a book written for medical school freshmen
I'm trying to find a certain book I first ran into many years ago but unfortunately forgot the name of.
As far as I recall, the book targeted medical school freshmen. No, it's not How to Be Pre-Med: A ...
- 21
3
votes
0
answers
89
views
Children's book about a girl who lived behind a wall
I'm looking for a children's book my girlfriend read when she was a kid. The book is about a girl who lived behind a tall wall. She could see behind the wall using her swing. There was a forest on the ...
- 31
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
A play in which the characters murder the author
The following sentence appears on p.26, Chapter 2 of Walter Frisch's Music in the Nineteenth Century:
In one play by Ludwig Tieck, the characters gang up at the end and
murder the author.
However, ...
- 183
1
vote
1
answer
67
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Seeking title of an Avatar like book from the 1980s
The books I am looking for is probably from the 1980s. I read it in about 1989. It is not LeGuin's Word for the World is Forest, which was published in 1972. This one is much longer.
In this book, ...
- 111
2
votes
0
answers
94
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Short story about African missionary couple losing his mind, making mud statue
My mom remembers reading a short story published in a college anthology at least before 1980, she thinks it was her father's so maybe published 30's or 40's. It was about a missionary couple to Africa ...
- 21
3
votes
1
answer
104
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Short story about a slow-moving stalker robot
When I was in high school (c. 1996), my English teacher assigned the class a short story to read. I remember it being a good story, but I can't remember the title.
From what I recall, it was a science ...
- 31
6
votes
1
answer
531
views
SF story, telepathic boy hunted as vampire (pre-1980)
I'm looking for a story I read a long time ago, probably a short story in an anthology sometime before 1980.
In it, a boy (or young man?) with telepathic powers is in a village where he is hunted by ...
- 265
4
votes
1
answer
88
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Source of three Icelandic kennings quoted (in Russian) in poem of Martynov?
The Russian poem Songs of the skalds (Песни скальдов), by Leonid Martynov, 1967, plays on the kennings used in Icelandic skaldic poetry, and quotes three rather complex kennings — translated into ...
2
votes
0
answers
86
views
Book where a man shoots a guy working at a computer
Looking for one book. I only remember the beginning of the piece. Some guy found a derelict computer, sat down at it and started doing something, and then he saw a man with a gun walk up to the desk, ...
2
votes
1
answer
74
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Looking for a short story/graphic novel with ghosts and machines
I read this graphic novel about four to five years ago.
It has traveling between worlds, I think. Maybe the ghost and the human world? But I don't know - I do know that the character met his ...
- 305
1
vote
1
answer
107
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Paine essay on how Englishmen lived with many monopoly products
It was about how Englishmen lived under monopoly slate rooves, wore monopoly linens, used firegrates of monopoly iron etc.
I didn't see it the Internet Archive's copy of his complete works. So a ...
- 161
2
votes
0
answers
137
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Satirical book where deformed sociologist advises slacking employees to continue behavior
I am looking for a satirical book that was published in the UK before 1983 and written by a British writer.
The book was about people working in small city that had one big employer or factory. Many ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
237
views
Looking for a novel: an aircraft carrier goes to the scrapyard, and a reunion of the crew is organized
I cannot remember the author. I thought the title was We Few, We Happy Few, but I have found nothing close to that.
I believe the book was written between 1965-1975. A moth-balled American aircraft ...
- 666
3
votes
1
answer
61
views
Book about an adventurer
Several years back I read a book about some kind of adventurer. Not the typical one, since he did not really plan to have all those experiences. The stages I present below are in some random-ish order,...
- 518
3
votes
0
answers
102
views
Book about girl who moved away from home with family to US frontier
Around 2005~2008 I read a book about a young girl who left her home when her parents moved to another house. If I'm not mistaken, they moved to Western US during Manifest Destiny-California Gold Rush. ...
- 31
8
votes
1
answer
122
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Children's book about a disturbed adopted sister from Vietnam
It was written sometime in the 80s. It was a large but slim hardcover book. It was about a girl whose parents adopted a girl from an orphanage in Vietnam a few years after the war ended.
The adoptee ...
SpikeBuffyLuv
1
vote
0
answers
40
views
Theatre practitioners book
I'm looking for a book that I used to own and can not find. I think it was American, I had a hardback copy, it was blue and I think it had a black and white photo of actors/directors on the cover. It ...
- 53
5
votes
1
answer
122
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Elementary school prankster on a "looping" curriculum who "marries" his crush
Looking for a kid's story I read sometime between 2004 and 2007. It was a book intended for readers around my age at the time, between the ages of 7-10 or so. I unfortunately can't remember if it was ...
- 93
11
votes
1
answer
123
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Looking for a short story about eating, being "sent back in time", and samurai?
I read a short story several years back. I remember most of the plot, but I can't figure out the title. Anyways, this is what I remember from the story, can someone help me find the title?
There are ...
- 305
2
votes
0
answers
39
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Largely cartoon story about a girl daydreaming about creating a robotic duplicate, realizing that means she will need to study science
I read this in a grade school reader in Ashland, KY, somewhere between 1986 and 1990, I'm fairly certain. It was in my older brother's book. I remember that the artwork was somewhat sketchily drawn, ...
- 10.3k
4
votes
1
answer
708
views
Novel set in London where a "May" sets up a cleaning company
I'm looking for a novel I read when I was in my teens. All I can remember about it was that part (if not most) of it was set in London. I think the lead character was called May. She runs out of ...
- 53
4
votes
1
answer
224
views
Name of poem: dangers of nuclear war/energy, referencing music of philharmonic orchestra/trio/cricket
In the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, I read a poem warning of the dangers nuclear war or perhaps the dangers of nuclear energy. I’m trying to find/remember that poem.
It had lines something like …
...
- 223
2
votes
0
answers
62
views
Name of a German Novel about a Girl Stalking a Man
I'm looking for a German novel which centers around a girl stalking a man. The man ends up fighting in World War I and even then the girl follows him into the trenches. I think her motive was ...
6
votes
1
answer
496
views
Name of a play about the morality of prostitution (kind of)
I saw a play a few years ago told from the perspective of a woman maybe about 30, who was having her mother and some of her mother's friends over for a time. She didn't much get along with them, ...
- 163
0
votes
0
answers
53
views
Searching for the title of a book (/series) about a teenager and spiders
I am searching the title of a book (and if possible, its series). I have read the books approximately 5 or 6 years ago, so I don't remember the title. The book was written for YA, and the genres were ...
4
votes
1
answer
74
views
Looking for a (Canadian) Collection of Stories for Kids
I was gifted a book by my dad when I was young but lost it a few years ago and he also does not remember the name. The book was a green hardcover, apparently Canadian and I distinctly remember it ...
- 43