My fourth grade teacher (in about 1971) read to our class a book about a zoologist couple and their two children (a boy and a girl) who went on an expedition together as a family to the Amazon jungle to discover animals. I think for a zoo, but maybe not. Each chapter was about a search for a different kind of animal (like an armadillo) describing its nature and its habits. The children had some thrilling adventures – for example, with a jaguar – from which they were rescued by their parents. It was a series because I remember that there was another book where they went to Africa.
Category Archives: Series
364X: Fae Dark Romance Series
I read a book series several years ago and I usually have an excellent memory in regards to books, but for some reason I cannot seem to remember this one. It’s an adult dark romance series about Fae or Faries, and only some people can see them. In the first book, there was a woman who could see the Fae since she was little but ignored it until recently (for some reason…).
There is one Puck-like character in several of the books and he’s meant to be perceived as a bad guy until his book rolls around at number 3/4 in the series when he becomes a good guy (actually was the whole time). I don’t remember his first name but I remember his last name was Black. What’s funny is that I actually read them out of order and I read this one first and went back to read from the beginning, chuckling each time he came up because the mains didn’t like him but I knew he’d be good eventually.
I also remember that there is some kind of a fairy kingdom in another dimension that are really not good people. And in fact the character I mentioned above, Black, I think used to be a kind of henchman for them? And he wanted out, but in order to protect himself and his love interest, he had to make a verbal contract with another Fae which can be tricky because they love to find loopholes, so he went on for a long time trying to cover every loophole he could think of and never breaking eye contact to try to make sure that this other Fae couldn’t hurt them in the future.
I know this is long and I’m sorry I can’t remember more….but is there any chance you could help? I have been wracking my brain for days trying to think of the series but I just can’t remember…
364J: Russian (?) siblings go live on a farm when orphaned (Solved!)
This is actually two books that I remember reading many times in the 70’s. These were two novels. The plot was that two siblings were orphaned and went to live on a farm. Maybe they were Russian or Ukrainian? I remember the description of the girl being given a special costume to wear that had many many skirts. I also remember a description of the Wax, Dyed Eggs at Easter. I think they went to the special fair and got a very decorated cookie. The Farm was stocked with lots of food, including sausages hung in the pantry. The second novel was a little darker, because I believe there was a war.
Thank you for any help you can give with these two books.
363J: The Flying Chair
Can somebody confirm that there is a children’s book series or maybe just one book about a flying chair? It may be by a British author and was available in the 1960s. If so, what is the name and is it still in print?
362R: Wild Manipulation / Duplication Box Adventures
Science Fiction / Fantasy
Originally read in ebook format on a nook or kindle around 2010 or 2011. The book was free. No history on services.
Man Travels the Universe using software
The book starts off on a ship with a team of people headed to Mars (it is possible the book started with them there). The team is given or find a box which they find has symbols and words inside it. The entire team studies the item. They find they can replicate items by putting it in the box. The main character discovers how to manipulate the symbols and words, which he relates to programming BASIC, to do different things. Together with a female teammate they decide to terraform Mars by opening a path to earths atmosphere. They then head back to earth using the device (instant transport).
They are a couple for a while on earth where they figure out how to duplicate money and do some other fun things. At some point they are discovered by someone. A “creator” who invites them to their place somewhere in time / space. The creator has traveled time and space and acquired all sorts of historical documents and brought interesting people to his home. He talks about an experiment with sports players and taking Babe Ruth out of his era and putting him in the current era and Babe Ruth still excels in the current era. He also talks about viewings of history through a pinhole in time which allows him to see but the people he is viewing in history to not know.
Up to this point the main character has been traveling with the female companion. The “creator” breaks them up by introducing the man to an actress that had died in the 1930’s to 1950’s but he pulled her out of one of the realities and brought her to his home. He ends up sleeping with the actress. The woman companion knows what happened. They then break up. The “creator” says it was for the best as it would never have lasted. Tells him he can go wherever, whenever he wants and if the actress wants to go, she can. While here the creator also transfers his brain to a younger body of his using the “syntax”. The ‘creator” gives the man a pda (older style tablet) device that has pre-loaded code written to accomplish specific tasks, like duplication, portals. The man and the actress travel back to his current time and create a movie with the actress as the lead role (even through in this reality she has been dead for years). Can’t remember much after this.
There was a sequel to the book where a different man finds a pda in a bar bathroom and figures out how to use it and goes on some epic quests. The original owner of the pda was placed in a coma and was hospitalized. in the second book was trying to have the universe re-written with his DNA encoded but a programmer said it was not possible.
361W: Japanese book about a boy who seeks a powerful sword from a dragon atop a mountain
I don’t know how you guys do with a series compared to single books, as this may be memory of the plot being tied to all the books, but I will try to order what I can remember as I go. If I were to guess I’d say there’s between 3 and 6 books.
361E: Boy lives in lighthouse, has AI companion, fights elemental monsters (Solved!)
361B: Trilogy With People That Absorb Magic Power (Solved!)
This is a high fantasy trilogy that I read in the early 90’s where the magic system had a very unique requirement that required a person that was sensitive to magic power, who would dedicate his life not to casting/making magic but only with the ability to absorb the magic power around him like a battery and then was able to give that power to an actual mage that could then use it to make magic. The mage would be useless without having access to this other person who would feed them magic power.
Also by the third book the magical world gets invaded by a world/reality that has modern technology like tanks and guns.
360E: Alphabet Shaped Houses Series
358U: Book of children’s stories written 1930s-40s
1. No Title (the cover is missing
2. Book is about 100 pages +/-; Chapters are individual stories with a moral such as: Page 17, The Storm, Page 2, The Burglar; Page 71, The Letter to Mama, etc.; also includes black/white photography of animals, children, people, scenes with captions & guessing the “origin” such as “@ Topical” or H.A. Roberts titled “It’s Lots of Fun Helping Daddy” page 64; or Page 58 Gendreau “Feeding the Horse”;
3. There were at least 1 or 2 others books very similar to the above. Our mom would read a story at nap time or bedtime in the 1940s-1950s; The books we had were soft-back.