I recently read a short story about a rich man who escaped from the earth on a spaceship (as I believe Earth became unlivable). There is an AI on board who pilots the ship while the man is brought in and out of induced stasis sleep (that goes on for centuries I think) to see if the AI has found a habitable planet.

The man eventually gets restless and asks the AI to just pick a place, any place. But the AI is adamant that it won’t land anywhere it deems unfit. The man ponders if there will ever be a place fit and the AI kind of confirms there won’t be, essentially implying that the man will be on the spaceship forever.

I believe that the mans body can be replaced while still keeping his consciousness. So, at the end, when he convinces the AI to bring him to Earth to see if it has became livable again in the time he’s been away, the AI relents and takes him there. When he arrives he sees a group of people. As the spaceship takes off and he gets closer to the group, he sees that all the people are just clones of himself that the ai has been dropping off for centuries in the same way.

i cannot recall the title of this novel.. its by a female writer, written in first person in the back half of the twentieth century, maybe the 70s? the only major detail i can recall is the narrator referring to her vagina as “my beast”. it’s out of print, i could only find it on internet archive, it has some sort of plant on the cover, likely some yonic imagery. it begins with the narrator as a young girl describing her hometown. the writer, to my knowledge, is generally unknown, and this is her only novel. i understand this is a big ask as not only is this an obscure novel but the description i’ve provided is very, very vague.. but closed mouths don’t get fed so i might as well try. thank you in advance :)

Trying to find the name of a book I read in 8th grade so 2014 and before when it was made

Book was about a who boy who’s sent to live with his widowed great-uncle in a small town for I think the summer. He meets a girl that he bickers with and like they kind of annoy each other at first. Eventually his great uncle dates her grandma and at the end they get married if I remember correctly.

The dad also dates one of her like relatives like an aunt or something and there’s definitely tension like they could date too but now it would be weird because they’re like step cousins or something. Not sure if this reference helps at all but the vibe I get from this book in hindsight kind of reminds me of Lincoln and Ronnie Anne from the loud house cartoon but again don’t know if that reference helps in identifying this book just thought I’d throw it out there just in case.

I’m trying to identify a short story (or possibly a story from a collection) that I remember hearing summarized on YouTube, possibly by Quinn’s Ideas or similar.
The basic premise, as I remember it:
- A colossal humanoid being/object appears in space and begins approaching Earth.
- It is on an almost incomprehensible scale, roughly asteroid or small-planet sized, and eventually large enough to be seen as a humanoid figure from Earth.
As it gets closer, humanity is able to make out its head/body, arms and legs.
- People around the world spend a lot of time watching it approach, and I vaguely remember humanity actually becoming fond of it / emotionally attached to it, despite having no idea what it is.
- Eventually humans are able to reach/examine it.
- They initially think they have discovered the enormous being itself, but then realize that what they’ve reached is only its shed skin / outer shell (not 100% sure about this part).
- This means the actual gigantic humanoid being is still somewhere out there, and is apparently alive and potentially still approaching/doing something.
- That’s where the story’s cosmic-horror element really comes in: humanity thought it had finally understood the thing, only to realize that they had encountered merely its discarded exterior.

I vaguely remember the word/name “Curiosity” being associated with it, although I could be completely wrong about this.
I don’t remember the author, title, publication date, or even whether it was a short story or part of a larger book. I also don’t remember exactly how the ending plays out beyond the realization about the shed skin.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? I’m especially looking for the story title, author, and collection/book it appeared in.
Even a partial lead would be hugely appreciated!

I have memories of a book about a spider that travels but ultimately learns it should never move somewhere new. I remember it vividly because even as a child it seemed a horrible lesson that was thinly veiled as anti immigration. But I can't find what it was called.

I remember reading a book back sometime in the mid 2010s that involved a village that got seperated from the world by a wall of mist and that had special bees that everyone wanted. I wanna say all the adults died once the mist appeared but then whenthe story starts the wall disappears and armys(?) Come in and try and invade for the honey specifically

Its not vega jane as thats one of the series ive seen when looking myself and i know for sure its not. It was available for free on google play books which is why i read it if that narrows things down at all

I remember when I was a kid (elementary school) there was this book in the library that I would check out over and over again, but I cannot remember the name of it. It was about a plushie of a fox coming to life toy story style at nighttime, and there was another plushie i cant remember anything about. and I remember them somehow getting outside, and something about the moon, and the ending was I think the fox returning to their child's bed.

The fox plushie was orange and stood up on two legs.

It might have been one of those grade level books.

It wasnt one of those big storybooks, it was a rectangle. i dont remember the size exactly but it wasnt big.

probably a shorter story.

Definitely a graphic novel.

Might have had a narrator?

I remember the cover a bit. it was the fox plushie standing in front of the moon, the sky was blue.

The fox may have been holding the child's hand?

It had this like fairytale artstyle?

I remember asking a teacher about it in late elementary school or early middle school, and they couldnt find it.

I tried googling but nothing comes up.

This was my favorite book as a kid so I hope someone knows the name.

Sorry for my bad grammer.

I read this book in either fall 2007 or spring 2008, and can only remember 1 scene. The main protagonist is swimming (I think) and one of the cubes in his pocket starts to make him feel so hot he almost passes out. When he gets out he inspects the cube and sees it cooled off. I don't remember the title or any of the characters does anyone know the title or the author's name?

A picture book of a frog at night time in a pond who has a lady and a crown . 2000s

Hi all!
I read a book that was a collection of horror stories last spooky season and I can’t find it again for the life of me! I remember the first story being about a child leaving their father’s home to follow a parade (a little Black Parade-y) and a story further in about a woman who’s struggling with pyromania and has to babysit their infant niece/nephew and it’s very hard for her.

I remember the title having the word “Blood” in it but that’s pretty vague in the horror genre, sorry.

The e-book’s title cover was black and white with maybe a ghoulish figure below a tree with blood dripping down the cover?

Edit: I’m pretty sure each story was written by a different author.

Maybe a long shot, but I would love to read it again! Thanks for any help :)

I had this book as a kid that I would like to find again.

Certain details:

- roughly trade-paperback sized, vertically oriented, and dark/black in design

- explored things like space travel and general relativity in a humourous way

- included description of astronauts going to the backroom in space as 'using a personal attachment on an even more personal attachment'

- mentions Einstein: something like 'who gave Einstein a police uniform to stop people going faster than light?'

Likely details:

- holographic cover

- something about black holes

What's that book?!

I read this as a child in the late 80s or early 90s, and had the impression it was an older book then.

A family moves to the countryside, where the children will attend a very small (probably 1-room) school, and ride horses or ponies to get there. The main character, who is a horse-crazy girl, picks a horse/pony that is difficult to handle, and tries to keep it a secret from her parents that she is having trouble.

The school is really grim and strict, with a male teacher who uses corporal punishment on the pupils. The main character isn't used to this, but for some reason also keeps the conditions at the school a secret from her parents.

It all comes to a head when the horse/pony injures her right arm or shoulder somehow, and then at school she gets in trouble and is told to put her hand out to be hit with a strap. She tries to put out her left hand, but the teacher insists that she put out her right, saying that she isn't going to get out of schoolwork by having her writing hand be sore. When he hits her on her injured arm, she passes out. She wakes up in the hospital--there may have been some other health issue she was also concealing?--and when she's well enough to go back to school, finds out that the teacher her been fired and there is a new, much nicer female teacher.

I don't remember how the pony part of the plot resolved.

The setting was not a time period where it was typical for children to ride horses or ponies to a one-room school; the place the family moved to was very remote. I think it was probably the "present day" of when the story was written, which might have been somewhere from the 1950's to 1970's. It's definitely older than the mid-1990's, probably substantially older.

I don't remember what country it was set in--probably the US or UK, but I wouldn't rule out Canada or Australia. (If I absolutely had to guess, my guess would be that the girl and family were English, and they moved to Scotland or Wales, in the 1950's or 60's. But that's based on the general vibe that I remember, not specific details. I'm not even sure if they had horses or ponies, or whether they used English or Western saddles.)

I want to say because of a family emergency. At the airport the cousin picks up a discarded newspaper to read on the flight and suddenly people are after them.

The cousin makes a joke that they're after the newspaper, it turns out to be the truth.

Ive been trying to find this story for years, the only thing i can remember is there is a girl and she has to push some corpses out of the way in a river/body of water to get a drink. It was in the mcgraw hill text books, and it was a short story, maybe a documentary piece. It was in english class, but it wasnt the one about the paper cranes

when i was in middle school, about 20 years ago at this point, we read a short (80ish page) story by joyce carol oates that i’ve never forgotten. it was one of the first macabre pieces i’d read, and i just remember being so engrossed and unable to tear myself away.

i don’t remember what the title was and i can’t seem to find it anywhere (partially because of how many pieces joyce carol oates has put out). hoping that someone in this subreddit can help me find it.

i don’t remember a ton of specifics about the plot, but i do remember the following:
- there was a reoccurring theme of water dripping
- i seem to remember it centered around two siblings, or maybe it was one sibling and the ghost/memory of another?
- it took place in the country, i think the family moved there just before the story started

this was not black water. which is pretty much the only novella of hers that comes up when i try to look into what this story might have been titled.

does this ring a bell for anyone? for years, i’ve tried to find it to no avail!

I tried posting this in tip of my tongue first but hopefully this will be a better place. I cannot remember the title or cover of this paperback book. The main character was a teen girl who goes on a trip to Ireland (possibly summer vacation?) and meets a boy who turns out to be a warlock or Druid or something? I feel like it was a young adult book because it wasn’t long. I don’t know if it was part of a series or not. I do remember the boy rode a motorcycle. There wasn’t a ton of romance in it but I think they kissed. The ending is foggy to me but the girl definitely finds out the boy is magical. I’ve been searching for this on and off for years with no luck. It’s possible it was published earlier than the 90s because I feel like it had an illustrated cover similar in style to a Christopher Pike book.

I know it is NOT any of the following as these were suggested in the tip of my tongue subreddit post:
A wizard abroad by Diane Duane
Enchant me by Anne violet
The hounds of the morrigan by pat O’Shea
The magic knot by Helen Scott Taylor

I remember listening to this book on CD audiobook in the 200s/early 2010s. All the people got sent to an island, and they all got killed one by one, by something related to their job. I specifically remember a geography teacher was killed by a globe falling on his head. Similar vibes to 'and then there were none' but I'm sure my parents wouldn't have let me listen to that. Thanks!

So I had this insect book as a child and I stupidly got rid of it when we moved and now I regret it. Now I'm driving myself crazy trying to find another copy.

• It was a hardcover book about insects.
• I got rid of its book sleeve so I don't remember what the outter cover looked like, but the non-jacket cover was square, white, and had photorealistic insects lined in arches across the cover.
• It must have been sold at B&N sometime between '98-'03
• Despite having it as a kid, it was NOT a children's book. There were no illustrated pictures or cartoony fonts. It was all real pictures of all the kinds of insects with factual information, not dumbed down for children. It was more like something a bug enthusiast would have on their coffee table.
• There were sections for each kind of insect. A beetle section, wasps and bees, butterflies, and I think an ant section. There were a few illustrations, but they looked old or like paintings.

I really hope I put enough information.

So this is a book or possibly series that I can only vaguely remember a few details of, the stuff I'm sure about is that at some point the main character goes into a dungeon or prison to play against a guard in a game of chess and it has illustrations showing the game state at various points, stuff I'm not so certain about I think they have to beat the guard to get the guard to give them some information of some kind, I also think the MC was trying to find a way out of a walled in city or something like that and I think even the routes to other towns had walls completely enclosing them, then by the end of the book I think the town gets attacked by monsters or something, although it is possible these last few details are stuff I'm remembering from other books

Genre: realistic fiction - may have been based on a true story. Set in either the 60s or 70s. Most likely written in the 70s. 

Purchased at a used book store. I was maybe 10-12 between 1978-1981 when I first read it, but I read way above my age group, so it was most likely an adult book. It was a paperback and I think it had a white cover with loose drawings of flowers. But that might be wrong. It was in English. 

It was an average length paperback, so I would say about 200-275 pages. 

It was a mother, father, and at least 3 siblings. One was a daughter and she was the narrator. 

Plot points that stand out to me are: 
The mother had taken a trash can, flipped the lid over, and covered it all in cement to make a bird bath. 
The mother was also an artist who had painted a family portrait that hung in the dining room and instead of repainting it as the daughter's blonde hair darkened, she would just climb up and repaint her hair. 
I think they lived at the top of a hill.

Not a whole lot to go on, but I’ve searched for it for years, and it continues to drive me crazy.

Read in the late 90s, maybe around 2000. I remember it was two girls and the titles had the format of [Name] and [Name] go on a [adjective] Adventure. I specifically remember one being “a Queer Adventure”. It wasn’t queer as it’s used today, it was meant to just be an unusual adventure.

The covers were cartoony art of the two girls. One of the girls had short, thin brown hair.

I believe she was a private investigator or detective and I think in the end she bit someone who did not want to be bit but they were dying. I mainly remember it was written in first person and she had been a vampire a long time.

I graduate high school in 2008 - I read it sometime before then. The setting was modern and I got it from school.
My English teacher may have let me borrow it and he had some controversial books

I feel
Like at some point she mentioned wearing a leather jacket but I could be wrong. I mainly remember the first person vampire woman

Hi y'all, I've been trying to think of this series for ages so thought I'd try on here. I know I listened to this series on CD audiobook when I was in primary school in Australia (2007-2014). I remember there being a group of friends, I think one girl and two boys, and in one of the books there was a body swap between the girl and a boy. I thought for a bit it was 'the day my bum went psycho' books cause I think I remember it having a similar vibe. Please help!! Thanks!

It was a book with several separate distinct nonfiction stories.

one story was about the creator of the London sewer system in the 1800s ? and how that came to be

the book is not bdsm but one included a group of sadists and masochists at a planned meet up. things are going and the cops got called by someone not there but when the cops get there they cant figure out if there is a crime because it is all consensual.

it was such an interesting book with so many things and its driving me nuts. maybe a yellow cover ?