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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Native American story about Night and Day?
Back in High School, we read this story in English Literature class that had a very similar vibe and story as Cain and Abel did. I believe these two siblings lived on a turtle and they fought each ...
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4
votes
2
answers
103
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Boy on a farm thinks he may be experiencing a ghost of a boy who used to live on that farm
This was read to me when I was in elementary school (in Ashland, KY if that's relevant) probably around 1987-1990 (it's possible it was a book used in education at the time, or was a Scholastic or ...
- 10.3k
0
votes
1
answer
116
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Short story about a soldier inside the Trojan Horse?
It describes a crowded space, the soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder and whatnot. It reads like soldiers on the shores of Normandy or something similar but, at the end, it is revealed that it was ...
- 111
3
votes
1
answer
123
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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 ...
- 31
17
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1
answer
3k
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Short Story About a Woman Saving up to Buy a Gift?
I think I read a short about a woman who is trying to save up for a gift, and realized that she doesn't have enough money to buy her husband anything significant. While she is looking at her saved ...
- 273
3
votes
1
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202
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Who wrote the eighteenth century song "The Topers"?
'The Topers' is a limerick-like "song" appearing on pages 236–237 of The British Minstrel, and National Melodist: A Collection of the Most Esteemed and Popular English, Scottish, and Irish ...
2
votes
1
answer
67
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90s YA mystery about a “pyramid scheme” involving a textile factory
When I was a child, and this must have been before 1999, I remember quite a lengthy novel about a teenage girl investigating the mystery surrounding a textile factory or sweatshop.
The book has a ...
- 121
6
votes
1
answer
418
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Vintage book on Hieronymus Bosch
I came across a BBC documentary from 1980 about Hieronymus Bosch. There is a scene where the narrator is in his study and we can see the books on his table, I would like to find what the biggest book ...
- 455
3
votes
1
answer
322
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Short story where foreign student doesn't know the word "Apologize"
I read this short story in 2006-2010. Would like to find it.
My memory is fuzzy but it was probably in my school library, and may have been a textbook, but not a class assignment for me; so middle-...
- 33
6
votes
1
answer
155
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Seeking novel about a woman who meets a young man who plays with toy soldiers
As best I can recall, I read this novel in the late 1980s, when I would collect lists of recommended novels for high school students planning to study the humanities; I may have read it a few years ...
- 113
4
votes
0
answers
61
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Searching for young adult "survival tale" involving plane crash, poison
In the 1990's - between 1990 and 1993 (I don't remember the exact year), we had an assigned reader for English literature at school. This was South Africa (Cape Town) and it was a private school. It ...
3
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0
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73
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Short story from the 1990s about a transgender Native American in the 1800s
I've been searching for a short story I read, I believe in the early 1990s, where the main character was a Native American (possibly female) with a transgender female friend from the same tribe, and ...
- 131
1
vote
1
answer
57
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Detective fiction involving a killer who faked his own death, and ends with the protagonists tracking him through secret government surveillence
Tip of my tongue, a book I think I read in the early 2000s in English, in the United States. The killer comes up as a suspect early in the investigation, but is discounted after the investigators ...
- 10.3k
4
votes
1
answer
211
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Novel set in medieval times: Sir John and two squires one of whom turns out to be a girl
I have very vague memories of a children's/YA book that I borrowed from a library in England some time in the early 2000s. It was written in English and I don't think it was translated. I'm not sure ...
- 71.1k
9
votes
1
answer
1k
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Looking for a sci-fi short about a super computer that deduced that humour was an alien experiment
I read it back in the early 90’s, it may have been in a collection of short stories. At the end the scientists tried to remember a joke but couldn’t and if they read a printed joke it wasn’t funny…
- 91
15
votes
1
answer
3k
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Limerick involves a pregnant Scottish woman and anagrams
Somewhere in the 1993-2000 time period, I had a hardback book of various linguistic oddities, I think with a red slip cover with white lettering. One of the items included was a limerick along the ...
- 10.3k
1
vote
0
answers
59
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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 ...
- 11
12
votes
1
answer
3k
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Detective novel: “1.5 gallons of blood doesn’t sound like a lot to most people. Pour 1.5 gallons of milk on your kitchen floor and get back to me.”
I'm looking for the detective novel matching this description:
I have nothing to add, except that one of my favorite lines from a detective novel (long since forgotten which one) was to the effect of ...
- 990
2
votes
0
answers
50
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Primary School book about a blue virtual creature called something like "ZipBuzz" and a villain program who pretended to be the Help program
Hoping you can help me identify a book that I first read in primary/elementary school (early 2000s).
I believe it had two children as main characters, and they were sucked into a computer program ...
- 21
4
votes
1
answer
90
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A book about a young boy climbing a hill ("Up _ Hill")
In 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade, my language arts teacher assigned our class to read a book called "Up _ Hill" (so, I'm guessing the book is targeted towards younger/preteen audiences). All I can ...
3
votes
1
answer
70
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Identification of Theatrical Play about Vietnam War
(I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask about works of theater, so let me know if this question is better posed elsewhere.)
I'm interested in identifying a play about a man's experience as a ...
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3
votes
0
answers
60
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Trying to find a modern murder / suspense with reverse chronology
I read a book a few years ago that I can't remember the name of. From what I can remember of the plot, a man and a woman committed murder and then covered it up. It begins at the end (reverse ...
- 31
1
vote
0
answers
106
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What is this book illustrated by John Robbins?
Is anyone aware of a list of books illustrated by John Robbins on his PBS shows?
I remember an episode in which he illustrated a story where a rabbit sought to gain antlers like a deer ("How ...
- 41
3
votes
1
answer
154
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Mystery where a woman was taken in a wet sheet and left to freeze, demonstrated with a wet napkin and clothespin
I'm hoping to rediscover a mystery story I read when I was very young.
The body of a woman had been discovered miles from a remote lodge with no obvious means of death. A detective suggested that she ...
- 41
10
votes
1
answer
375
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Looking for a science fiction short story about aliens harvesting heat from a probe
Around 2005 I remember reading a short story about an Earth probe that landed on another planet with aliens on it. The alien race determined seniority by the amount of heat they accumulated, which ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
45
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Children's short story where prehistoric childen have to cross a predator's territory
This was a short story in a children's magazine in the English language in the USA about 1960. Possibly in Jack and Jill.
I am not certain whether this was before or after we moved in November 1961.
...
3
votes
1
answer
190
views
Audio versions of fairy tales, distinctive "Long ago and far away ..." intro
As a child, I had a collection of cassette tapes with audio versions of some retold fairy tales. I don't remember any of the particular stories, although I imagine they were classics like Snow White ...
- 71.1k
2
votes
0
answers
52
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Short story about two people writing back and forth and they can't stop because it's not polite to not respond
I can't remember where I read this. It's a short story about two people writing back and forth. They can't stop because it's not polite to not respond.
I think it ends with
- 21
8
votes
1
answer
461
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"The Interesting Vocation of . . . ?" — a mystery about a man with memory loss & an evil secret society that lives in mirrors
Science fiction short story or novelette, 1960 thru 1970s, a mystery about a man with memory loss & an evil secret society that lives in mirrors, the conclusion being that the man is an art critic ...
- 89
1
vote
1
answer
130
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A book about two pigs that get invited to a dinner by a wolf and then it tries to kill them, then the wolf gets cooked in a pie
The front cover has the two pigs, and a haunted looking house with the wolf in the window. It’s been years and I just remembered this children's book.
- 19
3
votes
0
answers
86
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Looking for a short story or essay - "At 80" written by a man at the end of his life about the experience of aging
It's by a man in his 80's and he reflects on the experience of aging. I am almost positive the title was "At 80" but might have been "At Eighty" and might have had a subtitle. I ...
- 131
0
votes
1
answer
114
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Novel where a woman goes back to her hometown, where her mother was stoned to death
Somewhere around 2010, I was riding an Amtrak train when we had to be diverted to a bus due to a train derailment ahead of us. Because of the extra delay, people started running low on reading ...
- 10.3k
5
votes
1
answer
601
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Children's book set mostly in Skegness with witches
Some time in the early 2000s, I borrowed a children's book from a UK library. It was written in English and set in the south of England, so probably by a British author. I don't know how recent it was,...
- 71.1k
4
votes
1
answer
163
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Book about Wife POV killing her husband and throwing his body down a well
I read a book a while back where a woman narrates the story of her marriage and how her husband ends up dead and she throws his body in a well (plot line not dissimilar to Stephen King's 1922), but I ...
- 41
5
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1
answer
336
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Poem about a gross but beautiful urban garden, possibly by Millay
I have a dim but vivid memory of a poem, 95% sure it was by Edna St. Vincent Millay, about an urban garden alive with beauty despite everything that’s gross about it. Toads, fungus, etc. are the vibe. ...
- 53
2
votes
1
answer
89
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Book about an old man named Seigel or Siegel, young maid with abusive boyfriend may have killed old man
I can't remember the name of a book I read in a freshman lit class. Some vague details:
Its about a man whose last name is, I think, Siegel. He is perhaps 45-60 and has injuries that make him walk ...
10
votes
1
answer
174
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What is the name of a poem about relativity?
I am looking for a specific poem I read years ago. It was a poem on relativity and theories on the universe. I do not remember the author but I know she was female and either Spanish or Portuguese. ...
user156909
3
votes
1
answer
71
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Book about a girl named Abygail who can travel in time
Does anyone know of a book that satisfies the following properties:
The book is about a girl named Abygail/Abigail (or possibly another variation of this name).
The book says that the name "...
- 33
1
vote
0
answers
25
views
Childhood book about adventuring during dreams, young adult, young boy recruited to help a mission
I read this book about 15 years ago. It was hardback - a big red book with gems in it. The book was about a boy who had powers when he dreamed - he could jump between worlds and was searching for ...
- 11
4
votes
1
answer
242
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What play are these lines a reference to?
I am reading about an upcoming play that reimagines a meeting between Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter on the cricket field. The play has references to their works. For instance, they both wait for a ...
- 143
5
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0
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44
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Short Story Identification with a dragon at a well and a princess raised as a boy
Trying to find a short story I remember reading in elementary school, so it was written early 2000s the latest. It was part of an anthology, but I can't remember any of the other stories in it, though ...
- 51
3
votes
1
answer
266
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Trying to remember Chaucer-like story’s name
There were two main characters and they sought lodging. A farmer and his wife took them in, they had a baby and a daughter. The two men wanted to sleep with the daughter. So they devised a plan that ...
- 33
2
votes
1
answer
172
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What is the name of the short story about the woman whose new husband steals her money by climbing onto the roof of a bus?
I am trying to find a short story whose title and author I forget.
The story is written in English and it is about a newly-wed (or soon-to-be-wed) man who scams his wife/fiancée out of her money (or ...
- 23
4
votes
1
answer
74
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Middle school book where girl discusses Arabian Nights on a sleepover/camping trip
I unfortunately don't have much info on these books other than my sister and I read them in our middle school library. I can remember that the main character (a young girl) either had a sleepover/...
- 41
5
votes
1
answer
139
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Classic book about a rich, spoiled teenager who accidentally finds himself on a working fishing boat for a season
I read this book in the 1960
-1970 time period, but the story would have taken place in the 1930s or 1940s. I remember that the rich, spoiled teenager was drinking in a lounge aboard an ocean liner. ...
- 51
7
votes
1
answer
1k
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Sci-Fi story where someone rubs their hand over a space stone and falls into a trance
I read this story decades ago, and suddenly recalled, looking at my kid scrolling on his phone.
Somebody visits a guy who returned from a space exploration. "What did you bring?" - "...
- 267
2
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0
answers
54
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Looking for an anecdote / a story about two men enjoying to read sillently reading in the library while their spouses are chatting
I am looking for a written version of an anecdote I heard as a child. Two married couples meet regularly. The women spend the evenings chatting; their husbands withdraw to the library, sipping a ...
- 21
3
votes
0
answers
118
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Red Riding Hood Unabridged?
Below are my painstaking research and failed purchases, though somewhat long-winded, my aim is simple: to find a version of Little Red Riding Hood that meets the following criteria:
original (200+ ...
- 455
4
votes
1
answer
90
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Nativity poem from the Innkeeper's perspective where he laments over not having known whom he pushed off
In my latter High School days, as part of an oral communications course, I was required to memorize and deliver a poem before the class. I found one in the school library and met the requirement with ...
- 143
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Children's book with "a ring, a stone, a finger bone"
I'm trying to find a fantasy book from my childhood library, about 45 years ago. I distinctly remember a quote from it,
a ring, a stone, a finger bone
describing three talismanic objects. There was ...
- 151