Author Archives: admin

300B: Not “Infidel” or “Stolen Lives”

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The book I’m looking for was published between 2000 and 2007, is nonfiction and was written by a woman ( a lawyer or a politician?) from the Middle East about her life, including her imprisonment for her ” radical” views.   The author was interviewed on NPR by Terry Gross ( looked there without success) and there was a short ( on the last page) interview with her in the NYTimes magazine section ( and I contacted the editor) around the same time.

The book is not “Infidel” or “Stolen Lives”.

I’m hoping you can help.  Thank you in advance.

299Z: Children’s bedtime anthology

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I’m looking for this book of illustrated stories I read during my school days (would have been ~15-20 years ago). It had a light blue hard cover and the title I believe was something along the lines of “365 Illustrated Bedtime Stories” or the like (I have tried searching various book websites with various combinations of this name but no luck).

It was a collection of 365 illustrated stories, each a few pages long. I remember details from a few –

1) There were a few stories about a young boy wizard who is getting trained. In one of the stories he had a long day and fell asleep (there was a specific illustration about this)

2) There were a few stories about a family on an alien planet in space (terraforming it?), assisted by a bunch of sentient construction robots. The family consisted of a mum, dad, son, daughter and pet dog. In one story, there is an infestation of mechanical crab like creatures – one of the children get carried off and is later rescued by the robots. In another, they accidentally puncture the crust of the planet which starts flooding the surface with the underground ocean that they were unaware existed. They are unwilling to leave the robots but have to evacuate the planet. Thankfully, the robots modify themselves into a spacecraft and manage to evacuate as well (I remember a few lines that were along the lines of – suddenly there was a bright flash of retro boosters from the surface… the robots has transformed [one of them] into a spacecraft etc etc)

I believe there was a companion book of “365 Illustrated Daytime Stories” with a light peach cover, and I believe a basket of curled up puppies / kittens or a large curled up squirrel with a bushy tail on its cover.

Sorry I know this might not be much to go on, but I really loved these books as a child and am very keen to get my hands on them if possible.

Any help would be very much appreciated!! Thanks in advance

299Y: Jewish family jewelry business

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I’m searching for the title/author/copies of a multi-volume series about a Jewish family in the jewelry business in Eastern Europe – though I vaguely recall that the series might have started with a middle eastern trader – maybe.  The series ended with WWII – I think. Maybe in Vienna? I feel like I read these in the 1980s – in paperback. So they were probably published earlier than that. I liked the series so much – but now I can’t remember anything more about them.

299X: Boy eats brownie, turns into a cat (Solved)

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I read this book probably in the early 1970s.  This is what I remember: a boy lives in an apartment building, something’s weird with one of the neighbors, there’s a brownie that he eats, just a few bites at a time, I think, he notices strange things happening to him, and ultimately, he eats enough brownie and turns into a cat and sneaks into the neighbor’s apartment through an open window ledge.

299W: 1960s book, cat with artificial leg (Solved)

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I am trying to locate a book from the 1960s or before about a cat with a wooden leg. It was very important to me because I grew up with a walking disability so the book meant great deal to me.

Someone threw it away, unfortunately,  after my husband just died suddenly!

Could you possibly help me locate a copy or at least the name?

I would be eternally grateful!

299V: Let’s get to work!

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Very bright coloured picture book.  Blocky figures of workers going to a job site and using every piece of heavy equipment imaginable. They carry lunch boxes, break for lunch and leave at the end of the day.  Plain language. My boys (b. 1986 and b. 1989) loved it!

299U: Slave uprising/revolt

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I read a book in the 90s….around 1990-1992 probably. It was checked out from the library so I don’t know how old it was. It was fiction.

The plot was of a wealthy white family, possibly English or British. They owned a number of slaves and the slaves revolted, killing everyone in the family except for a young girl 8-14 years old probably). I think they stabbed the family to death. The slaves took her to live with them and I remember her working outside to grow food and talking about how she would take off her shirt and let her skin get tan, which her mother would have hated. She loved the freedom of living with them. It seems like it was set in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

299S: Mystery du Lac (Solved!)

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For the life of me I cannot remember the title of the book or the author. It was from the late 80’s or early 90s and was a mystery with teenaged characters. There was a girl sent to spend the summer with her aunt and a selfish cousin. I think a few years pass after the cousin’s death and there is a reunion and all of these odd things start happening. It was on a lake and had a French name like Fond du Lac or Chance du Lac. It might have been on the Wisconsin/Canada border. There was a romance element to it and the heroine was meant to feel like she could trust no one.

299R: Witches and a Glass Mountain (Solved)

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I remember almost nothing about this book except the cover and the fact that I loved it. The cover was blue, with a picture of a glass mountain on it, and a couple of little witches on broomsticks flying around it. I read it in the early 1970’s when I took it out of the library and it was probably aimed at 10 – 12 year olds. I realize this is not a lot to go on! But thank you for any help anyone can offer.