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(SOLVED) A play about a town where Sunday repeated over and over again Literature
When I was in… I think 8th grade, I was homeschooled with the A Beka curriculum, and it came with a literature book that I enjoyed leafing through- it contained many excerpts from such classics as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, “Adrift on an Ice-pan” and “Mrs. Ching”, but one I remember in particular that I haven’t been able to find anywhere was a transcript for a play
In the play, there’s a little town where everyone is written with a distinct dialect- I seem to remember them having Irish accents or something along those lines? The play opens with a man doing his job of knocking on everyone’s windows to wake them up or something like that, and he’s telling everyone that he has a strong feeling it’s Sunday again- yesterday was Sunday, but he can’t shake the feeling that somehow Sunday is repeating itself
The town ends up deciding to go along with it and do all the things they would normally do on a Sunday- one thing I remember is that the pastor at the local church decides to preach the same sermon he did yesterday, since it’s the same day all over again anyway
The results are quite positive- one delighted woman says that she was able to understand the sermon better the second time around, and after a few days or so of reliving the same Sunday, a big strong man shows everyone how much stronger he’s gotten from all these days of being able to have a day of rest instead of working himself to the bone, and he demonstrates this by bending a penny with only his two fingers
This goes on for a while, until finally the government gets involved for some reason that I forget- the governor or king or whoever is fed up with all this nonsense, and he consults some sort of calendar or something to prove to everyone that time has in fact passed (I think I remember him relaying the information by telephone, but I’m not sure) and he declares what day it is, but then someone points out what day it will be tomorrow… and the town happily declares “It’ll be Sunday!” And that’s about where the play ends
Nothing I search turns up any results, and I can’t remember the title or character names (though I feel like the man knocking on windows was named Cam or Callum or something similar?) and while I was able to find a similar book on the Internet Archive with many of the excerpts I remember, the play wasn’t in there, so maybe I had a different edition? I’d love to find that play again, it was quite memorable
Edited by ArtsyDreamerpop up book thats like weirdly grim Literature
it was like a pop up book with a lot of purple and black and there was like a brother and a sister and there was one page with a really really tall house. anyone know this?
Lilliputian-sized people fight horde of goblin-type creatures Literature
Children's chapter book that was read in 90s but possibly older
- The main characters are lilliputian-sized people who live in fortress/castles in (I think) rubbish tip
- They live in a fortress because they come under regular attack from hordes of goblin creatures with green skin and red or orange hair
- There are multiple fortresses and they have an alliance to send aid to each other during the attacks by the goblin creatures
- At the start of the book, the horde attacking is bigger then usual and a group of the main characters are sent to the allied fortress to get help
- The group gets to the allied fortress but finds that the fortress has already been destroyed by the horde
- The group encounter two surviving knights of the fortress. The two knights ride cats - as in domestic cats. The others are shocked at this cause cats are generally seen as a danger to them but the knights raised them from kittens.
- The knights offer to come with the group back to their fortress, saying the cats are worth an army by themselves and the only reason they couldn't save their own fortress was because they were out on patrol at the time.
- They return to the fortress and defeat the horde.
YA horror novel Literature
A group of teenagers and I think a horror writer go to a haunted house and take turns telling each other spooky stories, each of which take up a chapter of the book. At the end, one of the kids dies and another has their hair turn white from the trauma. I think some of the stories were the classic "babysitter gets a mysterious phone call" and "man with hook hand" urban legends.
Book about a punk and a wizard... Literature
Trying to recall the name of a book I read as a teen in the late 90s/early 2000s. It was set in a dystopian futuristic city, and followed a teenage punk scrabbling to make ends meet in the city. At the start of the book, he meets a strange old man who literally appears out of nowhere, and proclaims himself to be a wizard - and he decides to take our protagonist as his apprentice (I think after said protagonist tried and failed to rob him). Whilst the boy thinks the man is mad, both for the assertion of his magical powers and his stated goal being to conquer the world, he tags along with him. At the book's climax, the wizard summons a green, orc-like monster (making our protag realize he really is real) and makes his big attempt to basically kill the city's leader and take over for himself. The book ends with the two being dropped down into the tunnels beneath the city - which actually turns out to be good for our protagonists; down in the earth, the wizard can finally fully recharge his mana reserves. He declares the punk's world isn't worth the effort of conquering and opens a doorway to a new world, with our hero following him through, now committed to learning how to be a wizard himself. Does anyone know what book this could be? Also, would this count as an example of Mage in Manhattan?
Trying to find a specific childhood book Literature
One of the many children's books I used to have and read as a kid was one where the main character is a shaggy dog. I can recall scenes from the book such as the dog rolling down a hill and getting dizzy, as well as one where the dog eats sausages with a napkin wrapped around his neck, but I can't remember the name of the book nor the dog character. The book, if I recall correctly, was published by Scholastic.
Short historical fantasy story with a larval phoenix preserved in amber (solved) Literature
I ran across this story years ago on what I think was an online speculative fiction zine - I clearly remember the short story Wikihistory on the same site, but that hasn't exactly helped me find it again (it's all over the internet now). :P
- The protagonist is an archetypal Loveable Rogue, and one of a number of immortals wandering the earth, who rejuvenate themselves by draining prehistoric magic from insects encased in amber.
- The protagonist magically contracts Wolbachia from the insect he last used, begins slowly turning into a woman, and sets out to try to find a cure. (Among his contacts are another immortal who was previously infected but has long since accepted her transformation.)
- He uncovers an artefact in the possession of another immortal - a larval phoenix, in the form of the maggot which first hatches from the phoenix egg and consumes its parent's body, encased in amber yet still slightly alive, which has a dangerous amount of magic which should be able to restore him if properly used.
- (I think the lost panels from the Amber Room are mentioned too?)
- Ultimately the protagonist realises an alternative plan and embraces her new form and identity, instead seizing the opportunity to steal the phoenix from its current owner and reincarnate it.
Children's fantasy book with drawing and dragons Literature
There was a children's book- probably from 2010 or earlier- about a girl in a village learning magic. In order to control the magic, she had to be very familiar with the thing she wanted to control, so her mentor set her to drawing blades of grass and leaves in painstaking detail. At the end of the book, a dragon comes to town and the girl uses magic to fight it. At one point she uses grass to bind the dragon's feet to the ground.
A book about Chinese animals Literature
I remember reading this book when I was a kid. It was a children's picture book about a little boy in the Chinese mountains who is told by his father about a dragon - he either goes looking for the dragon or is following a lost buffalo... I don't know.
Anyway, he comes upon a golden pheasant, a giant panda and a Chinese giant salamander (and maaaybe other animals... fireflies?)... before finding his way home. The last image of the book is the shape of a dragon in the mountains.
Book with humans using crab-like tanks/mecha to fight winged humanoids Literature
Fantasy type book set in a world where humans use crab-like tanks/mecha to fight winged humanoids
- Main character is a girl who works on tanks/mecha that have crab-like legs that are used a mobile platforms against a race of Winged Humanoids (possibly other races but they main featured ones)
- Main character is daughter of sort of government approved prostitute who soldiers are encouraged to use in order to have more more babies to replace the population losses caused by the war. Mother is obese as she has a lot of children and the government rewards her large amounts of chocolates and alike. Main character is embarrassed about this.
- Government agent approaches the main character about discovering why their tank/mecha keep getting ambushed. She discovers that the Power Crystals are giving off detectable radiation and that it can be hidden by covering it in tar.
- A rival girl talks a guy into getting rid of the main character under the auspices that main character could be government spy monitoring them. After the Main character is captured by the winged humanoids, the government agent tells them that the real spy was a man posing as a homeless Peeping Tom who was camping outside the showers of he facilities.
- The winged humanoids take the main character to tower of iron that was naturally formed from a volcanic eruption.
Kids' book with animals with odd naming conventions Literature
In this book, there's a lizard who says that in his family, the girls are all named "Liz" and the boys are all named "Zard". Another character, a snail, is named "Snail-Snail-Snail", because in his family, everyone is named "Snail" as many times as their birth order dictates.
[FOUND!!] children's fantasy book with magic? Literature
I've been trying to find this one book series I read when I was younger, can anyone help me out? From what I remember in the first book, there were two main girl characters. The first one meets some kind of fairy/magic queen-like lady who introduces her to the second character, who wields a baton (it had a specific name) that's meant to be used for dancing (she gets scolded for trying to point it as if it was a weapon for this reason). I think the second character had a sister(s), but this is either elaborated on in the same book or a different one. Anyways after they meet this fairy, they are given a quest, and to complete it they have to follow a map, and there's a third girl whose main purpose is to make maps like these for quests and is the main character of a different book in the same series. I read it sometime in the early 2000's-2010, if that helps. This is a vague description, but I'd appreciate any help in finding out what series this is!
Edited by StrayShardPicture book with machines and stuff. Literature
I was thinking about a picture book I found in a library when I was around 10. It was somewhat like a look and find book but it had detailed pictures of elaborate machines and contraptions and would ask questions like "Where will this wheel emerge from this machine?" Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Edited by CHClausenBook with villain manipulating people and events Literature
All I know is that: A) It’s a fantasy book series B) The “main” villain is/was nicknamed something like “The Man with the Pointy Hat”, since he is a wizard archetype C) Said villain is manipulating individuals and events throughout the series, for some strange, mysterious reason
Any help what this book series is please…?
Unknow Book Literature
So bit of an odd one thats been driving me nuts, the book from what i remember was in a city that was in a kingdom that was slowly failing to invaders. The main characters were a pair of inventors who were trying to invent a cannon, with a friend in the city guard. They were broke and almost arrested when their patron died owing a lot of money. Without any other option they threw themselves at an old wealth house to get a new patron, which turned out to be the patriarchs grand-daughter (maybe daughter) holding the family together since the patriarch was money/noble oriented. They traded a toy steam ball on the promise they could make one that would power a ship against the wind. While siphoning as much money as the could to the cannon project
The two eventually hit on the idea of using a bellfounder to cast the cannon. And equipped a ship with a proto steam engine. One of thier helpers turned out to be a relative to a pirate family/clan and escaped the cities sacking with the ship while they escaped with the bronze case cannon/thier notes and the patrons daughter
They went on to found a secret science community while pretending to be priests.
For the life of me i cant recall the title or author of the series
theater sketch about waiting in line for heaven Literature
I'm trying to figure out a bit of theatre we did back when I was in high school (late 90s).
It was from a collection of sketches, and this one was about a family waiting in line to the pearly gates (died in a car accident) and interaction with the angel responsible for managing the waiting line as well as another person in teh line, a woman named Eunice. At the end they get sent back for reincarnation because (IIRC) the dog is in the line too and he's not supposed to be.
I'm fairly sure the sketch was called "The Line" or "The Waiting Line".
(For the curious, I was playing the angel, but we made the character a drag queen. It was a blast.)
Unknown Antimatter work Literature
Antimatter mentions this unknown work:
Short story about a cat and a dysfunctional couple (SOLVED) Literature
I am trying to remember this short story I read in English class some years ago. It was about a man and a woman (I can't remember their names) who found a kitten. The man hates the cat but the woman likes it, so he agrees to let her keep it if she can name it. If she can't decide on a name before the deadline, he will kill the cat. So she spends the story dithering over potential names and reminiscing on her messy relationship with the man. The story ends with the man returning, the implication being that he will kill the cat and also possibly abuse the woman.
Edited by Gravity-WarriorKid's sci-fi book from ~30is years ago Literature
I read the book late 80s/early 90s. Three siblings or cousins and their honorary uncle or godfather or other "relative who's not actually blood related" type. The main thing I remember is the adult granted the kids abilities. One of them got the ability to read body language so well it was almost like mind reading. The youngest got a connection to an alien that was a little like a tribble.
Man jumps, son ceases to exist, short horror/sci fi story from a collection (still unsolved!) Literature
This is all I know:
1. Someone here said that they remember reading something like this. They cannot remember basically anything, except that the cover had a monochrome appearance, largely white with some design in the middle in darker color, covered about a quarter to a third of the cover, and was centered.
2. Someone on Yahoo answers said that Joe Hill (author of Dark Carousel) writes these type of stories.
3. I read this on a horror collection I downloaded in 2015-2017, it was fairly new then. I have tried searching on my Kindle and found nothing.
4. This occurs in the story. A man jumps off a building or balcony (quite possibly suicide), I think a father. The mother and son (how old he was I am not entirely sure) were watching news. Suddenly, the son's body slowly disappears, first I think his legs, then his arms, as this happens, his mother screams, "Eli (I think that was his name), look down at yourself ..." He was ceasing to exist. I cannot remember the ending, but knowing how these stories turn out, I think it was not a happy one.
5. I thought it was the collection, "the Seer of Possibilities - And Other Disturbing Tales" by Thomas O or "Choose Your Doom: Collected Short Stories - Picking Stories for the Apocalypse." Apocalypse seems quite familiar for some reason. Something is telling me that this is from one of the Twisted Endings books by author Timothy D Mclendon, but unfortunately, though I downloaded the entire volumes from Amazon, they were returned, for some reason, they are currently unavailable. I will check E-bay.
6. I asked this (of course here), Reedit, Booksleuth, Yahoo Answers, Do You Remember.co.uk, three horror forums, and I sent this in to my local library. The librarian who was probably the most helpful of anyone, asked this approximately to 500 librarians and not one knew.
Now, I know this is very vague, but I know this must seem familiar to at least someone here, I know tons read horror, and searching several of the queries, people here are quite helpful and have made tons of guesses, and half even led to correct answers, and the queries are even vague. Now, only TWO people have helped, and I wish more would, the majority of the responses are bumps. This is discouraging and I do not know who else to ask. I will find this out by myself if I have to, but as I said, I know several of you read horror, and this must ring bells for someone here. PLEASE HELP.
Edited by thestormtrooper