Category: Name That Book Request

So this book I barley remember but here’s some of what I do remember -I’m pretty sure it’s in the Bay Area like San Francisco or Oakland -the main character is a woman (can’t remember her age but is maybe a teenager or a young adult) -she has powers and goes to this house because this man says he can help her use them and figure them out -there are other people in the house in the same situation as her -I’m pretty sure they’re there willing and not kidnapped but if they try to leave then the man gets mad -I know that all of them leave the house because the man has a plan to use their powers for something bad -they run off and are at a train station in Oakland at night I was reminded of it when I watched the OA on Netflix and I’d feel dumb if it was a book that the OA was based off of but it’s very similar to that.

I read it in my late teens, so mid 2010’s. I lost my book collection a few years back and it’s driving me crazy trying to find this book!!!!! I believe it had a black cover with a girl, or just eyes, on it. The story follows a young girl whose dad is a sailor or fisher I believe, and she is picked on, maybe described as chubby, and her dad eventually leaves her mom. Her mom blames the young girl, and I remember a fight scene between them where there are ornaments or snow globes or some trinket from the dad to the mom, they end up smashed or broken, and the mom blames the young girl for the dad leaving but in reality it wasn’t the girls fault. The young girl begins to swim with her school team.  Cut to her adult life, she is a stunningly, drop-dead gorgeous, beautiful woman (and knows it), and I don’t believe she has a relationship with her mom. All I can remember is she meets a man who lives on a boat with his dog and she falls in love with him, but he has a girlfriend when they meet (or fiance/wife i can’t remember). I think she manipulates them into breaking up. I also remember one scene where she randomly meets someone she went to school with who bullied her and the woman has a young kid, I think they meet in a cafe? And this woman was a model when she was younger and they were in school together, but is now a mom and I think described as ugly or gross? I can’t remember the climax of the book…

The book had a house with a circular tower room. The house was out in the woods away from people. The main character (a girl) would go there as a refuge…that’s all I remember. I think it was a mystery.

I have one for ya. There is a book I read as a kid, maybe between 3rd and 5th grade, that took place in Mississippi. It was about a little girl from what I remember, and the only plot point I can really recall is that she was trying to hatch some eggs and at some point they got smashed. She might have lived with/had a close relationship with her grandmother or an elderly woman in the book.  We read it in school, so I don’t think it would be super niche but no matter what I search, I haven’t been able to find the book. It gave off a vibe sort of like Because of Winn-Dixie. Hopeful but also melancholy. I hope this is enough information

I just found your website and related instantly to the feeling of not being able to remember a book from childhood. I know you may have a lot of requests right now – I found your website through a viral tweet. I feel like this may bother me forever, so I would love you help. Below I will explain what I remember about the book.  I was born in 1996 and read the book in 8th grade / at age 13. It seemed at the time to be a contemporary young adult book, published probably in the 2000’s or 2010’s. I was living in Canada at the time. I’m not sure if that may effect anything.   The book was about a young girl who was separated from her psychotic mother. It had a present / past jumping back and forth storyline. She ends up going on a road trip to learn more about or maybe find her mother and discovers through revealed memories the mom had drowned three of her siblings in the bathtub. They all had weird names that were short and maybe one syllable.  It was an insane book and I enjoyed it very much. I would looooooooove to find and reread it as an adult. 

There’s a book I read around 5 or 6 years ago. I forgot its name but I recall it being my main fav book, like some peoples’ HP or Percy Jackson. Main character was male teenager, his name was in the title of the book but I forgot what it was. (Jeremy?). Plot involved being plunged into a strange new world and heralded as a chosen one because he was an outsider. He is searching for his father. I recall there being a scene where he is in a boat with sentient rats whom he empathizes with. I remember the author was very popular. That’s all I can remember.

Kia ora (hello) from Aotearoa (New Zealand) I’m 43 and grew up in America. I remember reading a book that I thought for years was Asimov but can’t find it. It’s about a group of teens (I think) who are put in this white room with stairs & platforms and a toilet that continuously flushes. I think they drink from that source?? they figure out they need to dance to get food pellets. I think flashing colored lights were used at some stage to signal them to dance?? there’s a bizarre ending and I think one or two of them are suddenly back in the real world thinking it was all a dream but then they see traffic lights.  I’m pretty sure the last line is “without hesitation, they began to dance.”

I’ve been trying to find this book (potentially a trilogy?) for a solid 10 years. We read it in grade school- so very early 2000s, but knowing my school it was from at least the 80s. The story is set around the life of a young girl in America during the 1800s. All I can remember is vignettes of the story, which are as follows: 1) at one point, she is with another young girl and the two are dying of hunger. The girl attempts to eat plain, raw flour and becomes extremely ill 2) she is ”kidnapped” by an indigenous tribe and married to one of the boys in the tribe. They grow rather fond of eachother and one night on a hunting trip temperatures drop below freezing so they wrap themselves in a fresh pelt. The pelt freezes them inside, and her husbands feet are exposed. Wolves descend upon him and EAT HIS FEET. i do not remember how she gets out of it but he dies. 3) potentially the same book? But i think there was a scene where she and another kid are sledding and end up falling through the snow/are trapped under an avalanche.

I’m looking for three books I read in middle school. I’ve scoured every thrift store and book shop in search of these 😭😭😭😭

1. The cover featured some kind of alley, it may have been garden or Victorian themed, and a gate that implied it went to another world. The authors last name likely started with A – K, probably no further than K. I don’t remember the plot, other than it had to do with the dimension shifting gate! 😭

2. I never saw the cover to this one, it was gone! The plot had to do with a boy who didn’t know how to swim, and a sweet old man taught him how to swim. Their beach side town gets hit by a Storm or tsunami in the climax of the book.

3. A slice of life story, I think the cover featured a bicycle and nothing else. I think the plot involved someone stealing the bike. It was a very simple straight forward story. 

1. What I assume is a children’s horror book or story. Ends with the character seeing scratches on the inside of a coffin and realizing they’d been trapped in there for a long time. They fought something supernatural.

2. A girl who is obsessed with a writer… Either of novels or poetry. A writer who wrote about the arctic. The book cover is white with bits of prose or words from the works of the writer the girl is obsessed with. Can’t remember plot. It was just beautifully written. Writers name in the book might have been Jack. Or been a famous writer from Amherst college. But I could be mixing up books.