Category Archives: 1980s

376W: Vampire Tosca

1 Reply

I’m looking for a vampire novel published between 1970-1989.
The plot revolves around a vampire who runs some kind of sleep disorder/research clinic on a college campus and uses that to cover for feeding (not enough to damage the subject). There is a detective, I think named Tosca, after the opera, who figures it out and confronts the vampire, who is a good guy. They maybe join forces to combat another vampire?  There is a sequel, where the main character has moved to the southwest. Help, please!

376V: Book full of music

Leave a reply

I have neither the title nor publisher, but expect the copyright was 83 or 84.
The book had titles, lists of composers and performers, lyrics, melodies, bass lines, accompaniment voices, and chord specifications (such as chords suspended with their fourth, dominant seventh chords, and polychords such as F/C).
The table of contents included the following:Elton John: Empty Garden/Hey Hey Johnny, I Guess That I Why They Call Itthe Blues,  Sad Songs Say So MuchHall and Oats: Man EaterDuran Duran: The Reflex, maybe New Moon on MondayCyndie Lauper: Time After TimeThe Police: Every Breath You TakeUnknown: You Don’t Bring Me FlowersSondheim?: Send in the Clowns
There were on the order of 25 songs in the book.
Note that this book came out and was bought along with Rush Complete which has a 1983 copyright probably by my Mother, Marjorie Belle Miller-Harris, in 1983 or 1984 from Jack’s House of Music in Sacramento, Ca, a business which has since gone out of business.https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/rush-complete-volume-1/9642330/vintage/?vid=728149246&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_everything_else_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=593719077582&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsoe5BhDiARIsAOXVoUsx7_YXGNRFwPgXfS9MSFJODtq7VudDQyXeuSa4GHAt9WRrfWYeq5waAhF5EALw_wcB

376Q: In Search of the Amulet (Solved!)

3 Replies

I’m hoping you can find my book….I really don’t want you to be stumped 🙂
(I think) the title is ‘In search of the amulet’
(I think) the author’s first name is Susan, and that she is English.
The book is likely to have been written in the ’70s or’80s, but I’m not certain.
Its a non-fiction story of her solo travels across Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (and other places) in an attempt to find the origins and meaning of the common fringed triangle symbol (amulet).

376P: Potion makes you beautiful outside, ugly inside

Leave a reply

I would like to find a children’s picture book checked out from library in the early 90’s (most likely published then but possibly in 80’s), about a woman who was ugly/plain and wanted to be beautiful so the prince would marry her.  A little old man with a raisin looking face peddled her a potion but told her only to take it sparingly and it would make her pretty.  She did and then got vain and took it all, and became beautiful but ugly on the inside.  She was mean to the raisin face man and I think he turned out to be the prince under a curse and she didn’t end up with him after all.   Was a colorful picture book. 
Not the book titled Sleeping Ugly.  

376N: Magical Silversmith (Solved!)

3 Replies

Looking for 1950’s or 60’s fantasy young adult books about a magical silver smith in Massachusetts who can time travel and shape shift and enables a young boy to share his adventures.  Author might be Lawson or Dawson.  I have tried the Library of Congress listings of books without success.  The books were available in the San Marino, CA public library into the 1970s or 1980s.

Additional story elements:

The silversmith was an adult during the American revolution. Story elements involve turning into various animals and birds, pirates and participation in the revolution

376M: New Girl Teen Love Triangle (Solved!)

2 Replies

The book revolved around three high school kids in a small town, two boys and a girl. I think the girl had recently moved to town, possibly from down south somewhere, and had befriended the two boys. One of the boys I remember being more awkward and emotional than the other. They have a spot in the woods that they meet up. Both boys fall for the girl, and eventually the girl falls for the not-awkward boy. Awkward boy catches other boy and girl either dancing or kissing in the school gym, and reacts badly. Girl goes to the special spot in the woods and finds that awkward-boy has hung himself. Possibly an 80’s Avon Camelot book.

376L: Spooky 90s picture book w/ Ichabod Crane vibes

1 Reply

My younger brother and I used to regularly borrow this spooky picture book in early-mid 90s (could also be from the 80s). I remember rich illustrations and a main character with an Ichabod Crane nervousness about him. Can’t remember any of the plot except that at the climax of the book he is in a dark church and he believes there are ghosts all around. My brother’s memory is that the main character was an organist/pianist and that another character dresses up as a ghost and chases him off. I don’t *think* this is a version of Sleepy Hollow. But given how vague my memory is, anything is possible. Even if it is, I would love to figure out which version it is specifically. My brother and I have been trying to figure this out for years.

376F: A Brother and Sister and their Cat

Leave a reply

Three short stories about two children and their cat. They are a brother and sister. In one story, the cat eats all their aunt’s goldfish, one at a time on successive visits to her house, and they manage to gradually replace them one at a time so that she never realizes. In another story, burglars break into the children’s house when they’re home alone and the cat scares them away. My grandmother bought this book for me in the mid-80s. I believe the format is somewhat taller and narrower than a standard book. It has illustrations throughout, they are sketchy black and white, possibly with touches of red, blue and yellow. Not sure whether it would be classified as a picture book or an early reader.

376E: A talking horse and an aloe plant

2 Replies

Looking for a slim paperback from the 80s. It might have been from either Starbooks or Scholastic Book Club. Written at the early reader level, a little less than a full chapter book. Set in the American West. A boy goes to a livestock auction and encounters a horse who can talk. He’s a recently captured mustang who wants to rejoin his herd. He persuades the boy to buy him and they become friends but the horse always wants to return to the wild. Somehow the boy smashes his mom’s potted aloe plant, which she needs to treat a burned hand. The horse offers a deal where he will show the boy where to find one growing in the wild in exchange for his freedom. They make a secret journey into the wilderness at night to find the plant. I think the title is something obvious like “The Horse Who Could Talk” but I can’t find anything online.