Category Archives: Unsolved

324Q: Aesop’s Fables and Fairy Tale Collection

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Looking for an illustrated hardcover children’s book, a collection of fairy tales from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. It contained stories from Hans Christian Anderson (including The Princess and the Pea), the Grimm Brothers, and other authors. It included The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. It also had a section of Aesop’s Fables. The table of contents separated out the Aesop’s Fables from the other types of stories. Please help me find this book, thank you so much!

324P: A History of Sturdivant Hall

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In the mid-1970s, I enjoyed a family vacation through the Southern States. We stopped in Selma, Alabama, and toured Sturdivant Hall.  During the tour, I remembered a book displayed on a table in the entrance that I wanted, but my parents thought otherwise.

The tour guide said that it was about the history of Sturdivant Hall (or family). I believe it had a photo of one or two girls whose portrait was hanging on the wall of the front parlor. It was a creepy painting because their eyes seem to follow you as you moved about the room.

I failed to note the name of the book. I remembered it being fairly thick.  I cannot find anything close on the internet (archive.org, amazon.com, google.com) to what I remember seeing.

324O: Girl(?) Plays In Dump Where Strange Man Lives, Finds Him Dead In Fridge/Freezer

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I’m looking for a book I read in middle school (most likely) or high school: A young girl(?) either moves in with a new family, or a new house. She plays in the woods and the local dump. Her parents warns her to not play in the abandoned fridges/freezers because children get trapped in them. At some point there is either talk of, or discovery of a man living in the woods – he is slow minded. He is seen positively by the girl. Later this man is found by her inside a fridge/freezer in the dump. This is the first time she has been confronted by death.

324N: Girl Camping In A Treehouse

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Looking for a book - not sure if it’s a novel or short story - about a young girl spending time, possibly during summer break, in the woods. She’s pre-teen or teen, and with the permission of her family is living either in a tent or a treehouse out in the country, perhaps right on her family’s property. I don’t remember much else except 1) her eating roasted grasshoppers, and 2) someone (her father?) dropping off books for her to read and her being annoyed because she didn’t want help. I read this in the late 70s/early 80s, but have no idea when it was published.

324J: Man On Beach With Watch Is Real Bore

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This one seems a real stumper but I would be so grateful to anyone who can help! Do not know the title.

It’s all a bit fuzzy but here is what I remember.  It was about a man who would stand on a beach (I think) maybe in France. The pictures were pastel colored and the beach goers (men ) wore those lovely long old bathing suits with stripes and they would change in little tents on the beach. Like the 1920’s ….. but it may have been later.  The man, our protagonist, clad in a three piece suit would occasionally be asked the time by a passerby and he would pull out his pocket watch and start nattering on about its materials and history, of which he was very proud. Eventually the people would move on, never getting the time out of him.

The point was he was lonely and eager to engage anyone in conversation. So would bore them to death with his watch’s details. “This part is gold plated and was made in the time of King Louis the XVI or such and such. “ or something like that.

I grew up in the 70’s in Europe so it may be more European and not American – like the Enid Blytons etc…… I miss my dad reading this to me. Want to find this book. Can you help?

324I: Weird Creature Turns Against Boy Who Spared His Life

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Looking for a children’s science fiction collection. Only remember one story. It was about a boy who finds an alien or some weird creature in his room, behind a chair I think. He goes to swat it or stomp on it, but it startles him by talking to him, begging for its life. It convinces him it’s friendly. But by the end of the story, it’s clear the creature had malicious intentions; but it’s too late. And the end of the story is the creature telling the boy he should’ve killed it when he had the chance. That’s how I remember it, but I read it 30 years ago.

324G: Vampires create living breathing buildings out of human slaves

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I read a fiction series in 2006 while I was pregnant with my daughter. The author was male.  It seems there were at least 9 books in the series…maybe as many as 15.  I checked them out in hard cover from the public library in Boise Idaho.

I remember the series beginning in a land where Vampire masters harvest from herds of worker slave humans.  Humans are basically chattel to the masters.  The masters transform the bodies of live slaves into buildings. The stuff of body parts are re-purposed for architectural functions…..tall, complex buildings where slave lungs and hearts are pumping water and fresh air throughout the layers of the buildings.

The vampires called their homes “eyries” like eagle nests.  Tall buildings.

The series moved forward being quite political as Vampire masters battled amongst themselves to destroy each other.  Alliances, betrayals, etc…

As the story developed, it turns out that the vampire land is an alternate plane of Earth. Some characters from modern Earth cross over, get themselves into trouble, then return to Earth.  Eventually, guns get introduced to the vampire kingdom.   During the final (?) book, a battle is happening between a handful of characters and Nazi soldiers who are jumping back and forth across the dimensions.  Absolutely crazy stuff…

I realize this isn’t a whole lot to go by.  Thank you for any help you can provide. My brain has residue of the images of the breathing, living buildings. Amazingly creepy and awe inspiring.

324F: As Railroads Are Built, Professional Pie Lady Looks For Love

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I’m really hoping someone can help me with this one because I’ve been trying to remember the title for years now after losing the book in a move.

It is a romance I read in the late 90s set in the Midwest while building the railroad. The woman gets hired on with the train company and makes pies in the dining car (I think shes running from an arranged marriage or bad home situation like dean guardian?). Her big thing is pie making, lots and lots of pies. Eventually the company moves up into the mountains (?) where she is responsible for cooking for the one crew. She gets involved with the lead foreman (?) and at some point gets kidnapped by an Native, and he goes after her. Pretty sure I remember her being pregnant when shes kidnapped. And that’s about the sum total of my memory on this one. Thanks!