I have been trying to remember a picture book I read to my children back in the mid 1990s. My son now has a child and wants to find that book. I am pretty sure it is a Japanese folk tale ( but maybe Chinese?) .  The story is  about a deformed scholar who is hired to tutor the beautiful young daughter of an important rich person.  There is a myth that before a baby is born, they know the person who they are matched to be with, their “soul mate”. But before a baby is born one of the angels will press a finger to the middle of the upper lip ( hence the dent in our lips)  causing the baby to forget all memories of this person.  then they search during their lives for that one person.
Apparently in heaven before birth, the deformed scholar was a handsome baby and the young girl was the one with deformities . For some reason… ones I cannot remember, he switches with her so she will be beautiful and he will carry her deformities. They end up falling in love down on earth. This was such a lovely book that both my children remember even 20+ yrs later

This children’s book I used to have was this paperback book about two brothers who live on the island of Mozambique. Its a fairy tale story that take place in the modernize world early 1900s. One i thing i remember is this particular scene from the book. The brother kills a snake with a machete that is trying to kill his brother and his brothers wife in bed. When they wake up the brother in bed accuses the brother with the machete of trying to kill him. When the brother with the machete explains what really happened he turns into stone. Its a really beautifully illustrated book and uses a lot of deep blues and greens. I bought it in Boston around the late 1990s.

Novel about hillbilly-type farm family talked into turning farm into guest farm. Grandpa has apparent narcolepsy and ends up passes out anywhere and everywhere. A visiting couple finds watching cows being butchered erotic. I remember describing wallpaper of old magazines and newspapers because so poor. Read around late 1980s to mid 1990s?

This is a book about a witch (or a haggard lady) the illustrations are drawn in pencil but they’re really graphic and detailed.  Her house is a mess and you feel like a voyeur seeing it. I read it in the early 90’s

A contemporary fiction book in the published in the early 2000s, this book by a male author had a male main character.  It centered around a special house, a beloved house, that the main character wanted to own or live in.  At some point a leather-bound book was a major plot point and the leather-bound book was hidden in the house, or possibly the walls of the house, and later found.  The novel had beautiful language, and was very tightly written.

Thank you so much for your help!