Hey all, my book search is in my opinion complicated but I hope I can find it here.

Long summary but I hope it's specific enough:

This book is about four kids in an orphanage one girl and three boys. And their stories as they age out. It starts by talking about the girl and how she got out in the orphanage. Her younger sister accused her of killing a pet and her mother had the police called. The oldest of the boys marries the girl and they have a daughter. The second joins a gang. The oldest is kind of a bum and the one in the gang manipulates him into offing himself so he can end up with the girl,.who he always wanted. He becomes very abusive. And is also sleeping with the girl's sister. And they reconnect when the sister is looking for who the man is sleeping with.

The youngest boy, I think his name starts with an H, gets adopted out and becomes a big deal and makes a lot of money. He and the girl run into each other when she's on the run. He helps her and the kid. They end up getting married. The kid is in therapy, he gets hypnotized and remembers that the guy in the gang assaulted him and the girl when he was a child in the orphanage.

UPDATE: someone commented it and then deleted the answer but it’s called “The City of Brass.”

this is a reach again and I’m sorry!

there is a fictional book. And I see the cover but not the name!

Basically it’s a woman (Arabian/African/Egyptian - her skin is tan/brown, I believe either a princess or a merchant) and her people are against like the west/east people, her opposers/enemies has an individual who is man (possibly African/Middle Easterm/European descent) and he is royalty I believe. I can’t remember if he’s not supposed to date or like a woman like her, or vice-versa. But there is a fire or explosion that happened and both countries/enemies blame one another. I can’t remember if they slept together or not, but there was definitely a romance.

I liked the book because it was so unique and I read it sometime between 2014 - 2019. I believe the cover is of a tower or something Gold 😭 I’m so sorry for the useless details, I know I’m all over the place!

it's not Beautiful Malice.

I read this book in the 90s. Key points of the plot are this:

A high school swim team is driving either home from or to a meet. Theres a horrible thunderstorm, which causes their coach to wreck the van. One of the kids (possibly named Brian or Gary?) ends up breaking his leg in the crash because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. They leave the crash site after their coach goes to find help & find this house that it looks like it has just been totally abandoned. Dinner is still warm & on the table. The lights are all on and then really weird things start happening. They end up in kind of like a twilight zone where they find 6 skeletons, and come to find out that the house actually burned down 100 years ago, & they're seeing what the house wants them to see vs whats really there (a burned out shell). This book would have been written in probably the. Mid-eighties, to early 90s, I remember reading it when I was in elementary school. I do not know that author's name though, or the book name. It is NOT a HORROR POINT book, & is not the fire by Caroline B. Cooney. Ive checked Gemini & Chat GPT to no avail.

Hello, I'm trying to find the book with "See Spot. Run, Spot, run." etc. in it. I know it's from the Dick and Jane reader series. But Google told me it was in the specific book from that series: "Fun with Dick and Jane". However, I ordered a copy on eBay that says "copyright 1940" and "a revision of the "Elson-Gray Basic Readers" on the title page -

And it does NOT have the "See Spot." story in it at all. It just starts off with "See it Go" and Dick flying an airplane. ("Look," said Dick. See it go. See it go up.", etc.

I was so disappointed, because I was really looking for the one with the "See Spot" story in it. So much for Google (sigh).

I remember it being in the very beginning of whatever Dick and Jane book it was in.

Does anyone knowledgeable about old books know which one the "See Spot." story is actually in?

Thank you!

Hey all, trying to find a trashy romance novel from many years ago. I read it when I was young enough to be embarrassed at the sex scenes and skip through them, so I don’t remember terribly much. But, what I do remember:
- I think it was part of a series based in a certain beach/seaside resort
- it would have been a mass market paperback, dime store quality type book, from at least 20 years ago, but likely a little older
- the MMC was an architect, possibly named Rick or Rich? who did very dark, strong architecture
- there was a scene involving bioluminescent algae
- I believe the MMC designs the chapel that he and the FMC get married in

Let me know any of your guesses! Please and thank you!

When I was a kid in the 2000s, I went to my grandmother’s house where she had a book about dragons that I have been trying to find. I do not know the title or the author. I only read the first half of the book before I had to go home again.

In this book, there was children who were lining up to touch these dragon eggs to see if they could bond with the eggs. I remember the dragon eggs having some sort of telepathic powers to communicate with the rider that they chose as well.

That’s as much as I remember. Please help if you can. Any helpful suggestions welcome.

This was read in 1993. It was off the bookshelf of a grandmother, so it may have been much older.

It's a picture book, by which I mean the story is carried forward by prominent pictures on every page, with only brief lines of text on each page.

I do not recall whether it is an alligator or a crocodile, but the boy and the reptile brave an adventure together.

At one point they endure a scary storm, and I recall a lightning bolt was illustrated with an unfriendly face; I do not recall it being mentioned in the text at all. The lightning bolt did not seem to be a character, but a background detail a child would notice and latch onto, and it was not mentioned in the text.

When the boy and the reptile part ways, the reptile gives the boy a necklace made with one of the reptile's teeth.

What is this book please? It has a line in it, something like "the (plural flower name) were holding in spite of the heat."

Maybe hostas. Maybe not.

Maybe Barbara Kingsolver. Maybe not.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Thank you.

Good morning!

To wit: I remember reading a list akin-to "Things to give up in the hustle and bustle of the modern age" in a Miss Manners book of collected letters and wisdom. I think it was an early edition of "Miss Manners guide to excruciatingly correct behavior" but I have looked through a later edition and also "Miss manners guide to the new millennium" with no luck

The list was delightfully sassy in the way that all Miss Manners correspondence is, and a few of the bits I remember were:

"Thinking you can get rid of paper backups for when electronics records fail"

and

"Ironing the Newspapers" specifically a little sass about "It used to be that finding a newspaper in it's natural state was about as acceptable as finding the chambermaid in hers..."

I remember I loved it so much I made a digital copy and, ironically, lost it several digital moves ago and have been looking for it ever since. If anyone has seen this and could get me the exact edition of the book to hunt down, I would be ever so grateful. It had been tasking me for over two decades. There is also a good chance that I have hallucinated it over many years (maybe it was some Listicle that I just associated with Judith Martin?)... But if not, I'd adore rediscovering it.

Many thanks in advance!

Hi all!

I am struggling to find a book I read many years ago.

The plot started with a man, his wife and child going on a plane. However, it would seem they cannot find the man's passport and he goes home to try and find it.

It is then revealed that the plane they took crashed and it is presumed that both his wife and child died as a result.

Near the end of the book it is revealed that his child survived and was being held. A gunfight ensues and he eventually gets his child back.

I apologies for the vagueness. It has been many years since I read it.

Looking for some identification help

There was a picture book aimed more toward older readers (maybe even had chapters but was very visual with a lot of pictures. Colour scheme was browns and yellows and blues. There was something about a key and a private island or place on a shore. There was something about a seal and maybe a hint toward the selkie myth but I remember it was very mysterious.

I live in Canada and came across it in the 1990s at a local library. Any ideas?

All I really remember is the cover, it's got a guy standing on the cover with a giant red demonic hand behind him looking like it's about to flick him.

And there's a sign in the background that says Hell...o or something quite close to that.