Author Archives: admin

328D: Woman Offended By Man’s Offer To Take Care Of Her Needs

I’m looking for a contemporary romance novel that I read sometime between Sept. 1983 and Sept. 1984. A woman overhears a man (just married husband maybe) tell someone he can take care of her or her needs. She becomes offended and flies to Paris or London to learn culinary skills. She returns to the US and becomes an inn keeper. Meanwhile, he’s looking for her. When he finally finds her, there is a snowstorm at the inn. One of the guests is a young girl who locks her in a little room, I believe in between two fireplaces. He helps out around the inn. When he once again says he can take care of her and or her needs, she gets offended again.
There is nothing exceptional about this book. The misunderstanding is really contrived, but for some reason it’s driving me crazy.

328C: Where Did My Disappearing Woman Go?

I have been searching several years for a book whose title and author I cannot remember. My recollection of the plot is sketchy, but I do remember the basic concept.

  • Probably read it in the 80s. Maybe early 90s
  • Female author.
  • Likely bought the book because I recognized author’s name, so probably not a rookie.
  • She was a story teller who used humor sometimes.
  • The basic theme was about a woman (age uncertain) who felt as though she was disappearing, bit by bit. Disappearing as in not being noticed/relevant/whatever.
  • My fuzzy recollection is that others couldn’t see that this was happening to her.
  • Vague recollection of book cover art: a woman was portrayed mostly as a real person. But some of her picture was composed of dotted lines indicating graphically that part of her had disappeared/was disappearing.
  • I’ve Googled my brains out. Lists of female authors writing in the 1970-1990 era. Also lists of best sellers. Maybe my book was a flop.
  • I’ve consulted librarians.
  • I’ve posted this weird quest on Facebook, since I have many friends there who are voracious readers.

How vague is that?!
Can you help me find this?

328B: Learning How Different Animals Sleep

I’m hoping for some help finding a book I remember from my childhood that I can’t seem to find anywhere online.
It’s a book about a little boy who teaches the reader how different animals sleep.
I believe that the cover has a blue frame and a picture of the boy sleeping, possibly with one of the animals, like a giraffe or a bear.
In one part of the story, he sleeps with the giraffes or the horses standing up.
I was born in the late 80s, so I imagine it was a book from around the late 80s or early 90s.
That’s really all I remember.
Thank you for your help!

328A: The Little Girl Who Wouldn’t Go To Bed

I’m looking for a book that I loved when I was little. I was born in 1981 and had the book when I was around 3 or 4 years old. It was called “The Little Girl Who Wouldn’t Go To Bed” or “The Little Girl That Didn’t Want To Go To Bed” maybe? Not sure on the title. But I remember a lot about the book …

Every page was illustrated. In the beginning of the book the little girl doesn’t want to go to bed and her mother says something like, “Very well then, but father and I are going to sleep so you’ll be all alone.”
The whole rest of the book has the little girl going to all these different spots in the house to play – on one page her doll is asleep, on another all her stuffed animals are asleep, she goes from room to room of the house but all of her toys are asleep. She goes to her dollhouse and the dolls in there are asleep too. After going from room to room to find all of her toys sleeping she gives up and goes to bed too. Hope you can help me to find this book.

327Y: Giant Cat Saves The Day (Solved!)

It's a collection of children's stories. Possibly bedtime stories? The only one I can remember is about a baker's cat. The town find him annoying. One day he drinks yeasty water that the Baker left out then sleeps in the sun and grows huge. The town has a dike and it springs a leak but the giant cat lays down in front of it until they can fix it so he's a hero?? They bring him food and scratch under his chin with pitchforks to keep him in place.

327W: House Built With Haunted Objects

Looking for a book with the following plot. Husband and wife purchase a home. It’s haunted (obviously). The hauntings replay themselves. There is a 1920s or 30s woman who haunts the room under the stairs. 1920ish music every night. A haunted study and the attic. It turns out the home was built with haunted objects. I remember the attic using a beam from a barn where a tragic murder took place. The lady under the stairs was murdered in the type of bed or something similar. I can’t remember who haunts the study. They are also fixing up the home during this process I think. I read the book on the oyster app years ago.

The book also mentioned a door opening and footsteps every night at midnight.

327V: Restaurant Owner Takes Away Medical Student Employee’s Pride

My computer crashed and I lost all the books on my e reader-so i have several I am looking for…here is the first one.

It is a gay m/m romance. a man owns a bunch of restaurants and he is talking to a friend, and he decides to open a private club/restaurant/hotel for gay men-a membership, so they can be themselves, not be harassed, and enjoy themselves.  He hires a man to manage it who used to be his companion, but they separated after the companion was attacked and he has a scar on his face.  The manager hires this guy who helped him with his physical therapy-he works part time in a coffee shop but he isn’t making enough money.  He was in med school, but he dropped out to move back and help his dad out after he got cancer.  The dad dies, and now he is responsible for his younger brothers-I think there are 3.
So he goes, reluctantly to work at this club-because he can earn enough to support his family.
The owner sees him, and wants him, he sits in the waiters section, and orders all night, at the end of the night he propositions the waiter-going as high as $2000…and the waiter turns him down. the boss is stunned-the bartender and the manager are laughing-they love seeing the boss get shot down-he thinks everyone is for sale…he tries another time, and nothing….
He finally gets the waiter to go out with him-by not bringing up money, and they have a great time…but after they spend a night together, the waiter wakes up in bed alone, with a wad of money on the dresser.  He is very hurt and leaves.  The boss finds out where he lives, and goes there. it is a poor neighborhood, and the boss gives the envelope with the money to one of his brothers calling it a ‘bonus’.  The older brother freaks out, yelling at him, about how didn’t he realize if he wanted to do that kind of thing-he could have-years ago, but he went to med school, he wanted more for his family, and in one move, he took away all his pride, and what gave him that right to think everyone was for sale?  The boss realizes how bad he screwed up, and he tries to win the waiter back….but the waiter wants nothing to do with him.  He goes online through the college they went to, and talks to him.  Meanwhile, the mother they thought dead shows up when she learned the father was dead-she is a drug addict, active, and wants custody of the boys, but for the death benefits money.
Another fact-the company owner is trying to develop a line of flavored vinegars, and designer cooking oils to sell on the Home Shopping Network.
Anything you can do to help me is great….I really appreciate it….

327U: Unplugged to Kidnapped

A while back I read a book about a group of kids that were sent to a tech addiction camp for rich kids. The book takes a turn though, the counselors are actually con-men who set up the camp to abduct rich kids and demand a ransom. The kids are taken to an island and eventually outsmart their captors and kill them. The rest of the book is about the kids surviving on the island and using the skills they got online to survive.