Guess The Book Mk 4

A brand new thread for a brand new book. Just a warning, I'm going to bed after I post this so I may not be around to say yea or nay to your guesses.

"When we had walked about half a mile we came to the edge of the plateau, for the nipple of the mountain does not rise out of its exact centre, though from the desert side it had seemed to do so. What lay before us we could not see, for the landscape was wreathed in billows of morning fog."

Hmmmm, sounds very familiar but absolutely NOTHING is calling out to me. Unless . . . . .couldn't be either Rifling Paradise by Jem Poster or The Book of the Heathen by Robert Edric? Failing that, I'll let you get some kip and try again tomorrow.

You caught me before I toddled off to bed, it's neither of the books you mentioned. Just so you know, you don't have this book or any other by this author in your library. Though you may still have read it...

Mountains shaped like breasts say King Solomon's Mines to me.

You would be absolutely right. I considered putting in a "noble savage" moment, but I figured that would be even more obvious!

Try this:

The ball, rocketing off the crotch of the rim, leaps over the heads of the six and lands at the feet of the one. He catches it on the short bounce with a quickness that startles them.......it appears the ball will miss because though he shot from an angle the ball is not going toward the backboard. It was not aimed there. It drops into the circle of the rim, whipping the net with a ladylike whisper. 'Hey!' he shouts in pride.

The Basketball Diaries?

No - the right game, of course, but the main character plays other sports too:

In avoiding looking at Eccles he looks at the ball, which sits high on the tee and already seems clear of the ground. Very simply he brings the clubhead around his shoulder onto it. The sound has a hollowness, a singleness he hasn't heard before.....
.... It hesitates, and (he) thinks it will die, but he is fooled, for the ball makes this hesitation the ground of a final leap: with a kind of visible sob takes a last bite of space before vanishing in falling. 'That's it!' he cries ......

Rabbit, Run by Updike?

Yes, indeed! Well done. Your turn.

Bum! Should have known that.

Okay...........

"For a thousand years, he prays for a son. The story does not say to whom he prays, given that he is omnipotent, the sole, supreme lord; nevertheless, he prays and, finally, he becomes pregnant."

I won't be able to chewck back in until early afternoon.........

Well, don't hurry back on my account ;-) No idea!

I want to say Midnight's Children ... I read it ages ago and am about to start again and I'm sure I've read this somewhere and the style sounds similar.......

Nope.........think spiritually and/or allegorically about this one!

The Prophet?
Or The Death of Vishnu?
Please say it's nothing to do with Paolo *&+@*@%* Coelho.

Ah - hang on a minute though! I'm thinking now that maybe it IS Coelho! Let's try the most obvious then - The Alchemist?

A bit more subtle...............you can do it!!!

Oh dear - starting to lose the will to live. Okay, a couple of stabs in the dark - The Devil and Miss Prym? Veronika Decides to Die?

Bingo, oh devilish one! You're up!

Wow -thanks (God I hate that man!)

Try this, then:
"He was imagining things that would have been unimaginable to him just a year ago, a month ago. It was the same fantasy that had carried him through prep school, only recast to fit his current life and shrunken expectations."

God, that sounds awfully familiar.

A random stab from shared books: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

I'm thinking no, since I don't know the Japanese to be big on prep school, but it sounds so damn familiar.

No, it's not The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

How about Scott Fitzgerald?

No, not Scott Fitzgerald. Shall I go on a bit? It continues -
"Over the years, as it gained in intensity, ----'s desire had become less and less specific; now what was growing in him was simple. undifferentiated need."

That's not The Stranger is it?

Someone better guess soon. Not knowing what it's from is really bugging me.

No, not The Stranger. Let's try a few more clues. The book is by a contemporary US author. It's considered by most people to be a modern classic of gay fiction.

Interesting clue...........no idea! I'm thinking a good recommendation may come from this one, though!

Oooh-er - trying so hard to think of another clue. It was written in 1986 and the author has written a number of other books - both fiction and non-fiction, including one about the WW2 Bletchley Park code-breaker Alan Turing. The next clue will be a very obvious one about the title.

Oh, I think I know what it is, but I'm a giant cheater so I'm going to wait for someone else to guess.

Still, not sure why it seemed so familiar... It's getting added to my wishlist anyway.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles?

Not A Separate Peace.

Okay - if this doesn't give it away nothing will. Hemlok and twomoredays - you are absolutely right to add this to your wishlist - it's a beautiful book about all kinds of relationships, and a smack in the eye to everyone who thinks homosexuality is all about sex, not about love. I think anyone with a heart, of any sexuality, would be touched by this lovely novel.

The title could also be 'The Missing Tongue of Certain Examples of the Gruidae Family' - a bit tortuous, I know. Sorry about that.

Doh... I should have got that, but 1986 is a long time ago. I was thinking about Alan Hollinghurst, but then you threw me off by saying it was an American writer - different sort of prep school!

Indeed, a classic: The lost language of cranes. I didn't know he'd written a book about Turing - is it as bad as While England sleeps?

Since Sloth gave us such a strong clue, here's the next quotation already:

____ ____ said commas were unnecessary, the sense should be intrinsic and not have to be explained by commas and otherwise commas were only a sign that one should pause and take breath but one should know of oneself when one wanted to pause and take breath.

I don't know the book, but I think Gertrude Stein said that about commas.

Of course you got it right thorold! To be honest, the Turing one wasn't the most exciting read I've ever had - then again, I'm still looking for one that is. Considering he was such a fascinating man with such an interesting life I can't believe no-one has yet written a decent biog of him. If anyone knows of one, please share the secret. I can't tell you whether it is as bad as While England Sleeps as that one is still on my TBR pile. I have to say, it's not calling to me very loudly. Please don't let that put anyone else off Cranes - which is a truly yummy book.

Don't know yours. I'm tempted to list a load of stuff like Fowler's Modern Usage, Strunk and White's Elements of Style or even Stephen King's On Writing (in fact, I think I just did) but I suspect you are being a lot more devious than that and hitting us all with a really good bluff.

I'm going to guess it's Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss as it's the only book I can think of so concerned with commas...

January's right - anyone like to guess the book? It's not in the first place a book about punctuation...

Tender Buttons?

No

Another quote perhaps?

Let's try The autobiography of Alice B Toklas, then.

Yes - there aren't really that many possibilities, are there. If I'd looked in a bit earlier, I'd have revealed that the blank stood for "Gertrude Stein", which would have given it away as well. Your go, Abbott!

Time we had some French:

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-etre hier, je ne sais pas.

French major in college.............I am pretty sure it is L'Etranger by Albert Camus

Oui! Vous avez raison, c'est votre tour. ;-)

Merci beaucoup!

Voila..........."I am telling this story because if I don't you wouldn't understand what happened that evening with the fog so thick you could cut it with a knife and it was already April......"

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon?

No, but I can understand how you might think that.

Paranoid Park?

Okay.....sorry, was at Niagara Falls for the day...........new clue......Think Italian author......

"It's my first attempt at writing," _______ answered, "and ever since I wrote it-I was fourteen, I think, and was still a boy of the woods-I've carried it with me like an amulet."

The only Italian author I know that sounds like that would be Eco. I don't remember it from The Name of the Rose, so I'll guess Foucault's Pendulum, which I've never read.

So very close, TadAD! Try another of the same ilk.

Baudolino!

I didn't recognize it at first but when TadAD mentioned Eco, I knew what it was right away.

Hats off to you, aces! Your turn.

"Rain was still spattering against her window, but with diminishing force. The wind was swinging around from the south to the west; the storm was passing and the temperature falling. Her room was cold, but she did not plug in the little electric heater her parents had given her to supplement the inadequate heat which came up the attic stairs. Instead, she shoved her books aside and tiptoed back downstairs, stepping carefully over the seventh stair, which not only creaked but sometimes gave off a report like a shot."

'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle?

A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books, but the writing style is the same. That thing about the little electric heater and the seventh step is so familiar to me...
I think it is A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

right you are januaryw. It is A Wind in the Door.

Yippee!

"A smell of burning and oil hangs in the mist. A sound of flapping canvas, the hacking of early morning engines. Few even bother to look at me, going about their business."

I'm thinking maybe Tim O'Brien? If I Die in a Combat Zone? Or The Things They Carried?

Nope. Next quote:

Again I had the impression that she wanted to tell me something, that she knew something. I touched her hand, reaching gently for her thoughts, but saw nothing more than before, gray and greasy, against a purple sky.

I'm thinking a story with Walt Whitman in the periphery, girls in burning workhouse......I can't get it....Aargh!

I think I'm way off beam here, but how about The Five People You Meet in Heaven?

For Whom the Bell Tolls?

The book hemlokgang is thinking of is Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham. If that is right then it is all your hemlokgang, I wouldn't be able to post anything for awhile.

Wow! You guys are all over the map!

A Quote:
She was filled with this solemn children’s lore, my mother, eyes lighting up with delight at absurdity. All stories delighted her—

A clue: this might give it away, but this is a sweet mother/daughter drama fiction tyoe-thing

Edited to add nope, nope, nope and nope.

No idea! but thanks for the help, vegetrendian!

Since there has been no guesses for a bit, I figure it's time for another quote and another clue.

"I'll not stay." He looks at me for a moment, then puts out his hand, a stilted yet oddly touching gesture. His handshake is firm and cool. I feel stinging in my eyes; something falls onto the old man's sleeve--his or mine, I am not certain which.

Clue: they made a movie out of this book a few years ago

Etited for fat fingers

Persepolis?

Nope.
This is probably going to give it up, but here goes.

The movie featured Johnny Depp.

Chocolat?

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Ed Wood ?
Pirates of the Caribbean ?
A Nightmare on Elm Street ?

Speaking as both a mother and a daughter, I'm now utterly ashamed to find how little mother/daughter stuff I've got on my shelves.

twomoredays had it! The book is Chocolat by Joanne Harris! If you haven't read it, I recommend it... much richer than the movie.

Have at it twomoredays

Edited to ask MrAndrew... are those books??? Was Johnny Depp IN Nightmare on Elm Street?

Here we go:

"He scooped up the bedding and he folded it and wrapped the tarp around it. He looked up. The snow drifted into his eyes. The fire was little more than coals and it gave no light and the wood was nearly gone and the trees were falling about them in blackness."

Sounds like The Road to me.

That was quick. The Road it is.

#77 Ah well, there you go - that's about the only one I DO have - and I still didn't recognise it!

#80 - Really good book!

Try:

New York was an inexhaustible space, a labyrinth of endless steps, and no matter how far he walked, no matter how well he came to know its neighbourhoods and streets, it always left him with the feeling of being lost.

I'm fairly sure this is wrong, but it reminds me of part of an H.P. Lovecraft story, maybe The Music of Eric Zahn?

No, weener, it's more recent than that. First published in the UK in 1987, a year or maybe two before in the USA.

OT but to answer januaryw, yes Johnny was in Nightmare. It was his first movie.

Is that from Auster's New York Trilogy?

I think twomoredays is on the right track... it sure sounds like Paul Auster

Absolutely right, TMD. Your turn.

Sweet!

"I have now heard–and am powerless to describe–reggae elevator music. I have learned what it is to become afraid of one's own toilet. I have acquired "sea legs" and would like now to lose them. I have tasted caviar and concurred with the little kid sitting next to me that it is: blucky."

This is Dave Barry, am I right?

Mmm, nope, not Dave Barry, but I can see how you would guess that.

How about another quote? This will probably give it away:

"My cabin bathroom has plenty of thick fluffy towels, but when I go up to lie in the sun I don't have to take any of my cabin towels, because the two upper decks' sun areas have big carts loaded with even thicker and fluffier towels."

Naked by David Sedaris?

No, but still not too far off in a way. (But it's not anything else by him either.) Another quote?

"–whereas on the East Coast, politico-sexual indignation is the fun. In New York, a woman who'd been hung upside down and ogled would go get a lot of other women together and there'd be this frenzy of politico-sexual indignation..."

Native Companion kills a mosquito without looking at it. "And they all take Prozac and stick their finger down their throat out too out there. They might ought to try just climbing up and spinning and ignoring assholes and saying Fuck 'em. That's pretty much all you can do with assholes."

"This could be integral."

something by Hunter S. Thompson?

Nope. The author shares the first name of the authors in the first two guesses and the book I'm quoting is a collection of essays.

The first two quotes are from the title essay. The third is from a different essay, and this one is from yet another essay:

"Unless you're one of those rare mutant virtuosos of raw force, you'll find that competitive tennis, like money pool, requires geometric thinking, the ability to calculate not merely your own angles but the angles of responses to your angles."

How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers?

Nope, not that David either, but maybe closer?

He's also written another book that involves tennis.

A Tennis>humor tagmash has led me to believe that this book is A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments by David Foster Wallace.

Eh?

It IS David Forester Wallace isn't it? Maybe Infinite Jest?
I saw a post of TMD's on another thread which quoted it and it seems like the same style of writing.

Weener is right. It is A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Infinite Jest is the other book about tennis I referenced.

All righty!

"'Anyway, when a person reached puberty, he must then give each ancestor a day for himself or herself. The ancestor comes into full possession of the carrier's body and consciousness. The carrier himself still gets one day a week for himself."

No guesses? I'll give another quote.

"The highest point of music in the history of this planet occurred when a conductor, Ruboklngshep, fell off the platform. The orchestra, in trying to follow the wildly waving flags during his descent, produced six bars of th most exquisite music ever to be created, though some critics have disparaged the final three notes. Art, like science, sometimes gets its best results by accident."

Is it The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie?

Nope!

"Simon got up and ripped off the Pharoah's right leg. For a moment, he was tempted to chew on it himself, but he didn't have the teeth or the stomach for it."

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy?

Or So long and thanks for all the fish or Life , the Universe and Everything. I could go on but I think cheese is right!

Haha! You are both very close. This book was actually written a couple of years before Hitchhiker's Guide and is very similar.

It's more obscure a book than I usually do for this, but I'll give you a big hint: it was written in the style of a fictional science fiction writer and originally published under his name.

Sci-fi. In that case I'm the closest I'm ever gonna get - over to you cheese!

I'm blanking here....can't think of any sci-fi books written by a fictional author. But the one about the conductor just sounds so familiar. If it turns out that I haven't read it, I think I'll be buying this book when we finally get the answer!

Another hint - the real author won a Hugo in 1953.

The fictional author was supposed to be a hack whose work was usually published in pronographic magazines.

Kilgore Trout/Kurt Vonnegut?

Though I'm not sure that holds up on chronology.

Yes, the book was supposedly by Kilgore Trout.

Venus on the Half-Shell?

That's it!

Venus of the Half Shell by Philip Jose Farmer, writing as the fictional Kurt Vonnegut character Kilgore Trout.

Even though i've read it, i was thinking Douglas Adams too. I probably wouldn't have got it if it wasn't for your suggestion, Jesse. If i am right, please go ahead if you have a quote ready.

ETA, whoops! slow post! Forget i said anything.

Nothing at hand. You can take it.

Thanks Jesse, this is really your turn... but in the interests of keeping the game going:

'She's not worth it,' said Gaspode. 'Messin' around with girls who're in thrall to Creatures from the Void never works out, take my word for it. You'd never know what you were going to wake up next to.'

I think we're talking talking dogs here - is it Moving pictures?

yup :) you're up!

Probably a bit too easy - you could have blanked out the character name!

OK, here's mine. (Caveat: it's a translation, so the precise wording might be different in your edition):

I am a a good swimmer, not so good as Byron or Edgar Poe, and this plunge did not embarrass me.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

Yes - well done!

"It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor..................."

The Crow Road by Iain Banks. I've not read that book, but it was reviewed in the paper recently, and that opening line was unforgettable! If I'm right, was it a good book?

You're definitely right. Has to be one of the best opening lines ever!

Wow! I haven't even read it yet..........it's yours, AMQS.

I haven't either, but I did read and remember the review. Okay -- this is my first time... here goes:

"During the night something like a miracle happened: ____'s age grew an extra digit."

Edited to correct punctuation.

No bites yet, so I'll continue where I left off:

"The extra number had weight, like a muscle, and _____ hefted it like a prize."

Uuuuuhhhh.... growing new digits??? No idea! Is it a children's book? Noting ones age in terms of "adding a digit" sounds like something a kid would think about.

One of the Artemis Fowl books? It sounds familiar but I can't place it....

No, it is not a children's book, but this character is a child. The book is adult fiction, but I think I heard somewhere that it is being assigned in high schools.

No, not Artemis Fowl.

The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time?

No, not The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. This one was published a few years before Curious Incident. U.S. author.

It's not The Shadow of the Wind, is it?

No, not The Shadow of the Wind.

Grrr! I know I'm going to go 'Doh!' when someone gets this because I recognise it....

#138 klarusu -- It's not in your (very large and amazing) library.

Hmmm, then where is this ringing a bell from? Mind you, I've begged, borrowed and passed on quite a few.....

And thanks for the 'amazing'!

This sounds like it might be by Gary Soto. Is that right?

Don't we deserve another quote??

Deserve? I don't know, but crave? Definitely!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close?

How about earned... haven't we EARNED a new quote?
There are 4 or5 guesses here!

Sorry!! Away and without a computer, so you've more than earned another quote.
No correct guesses yet.
Not sure if it matters... but this quote is from later in the book:

"At that moment, miles away in New Carpenter, a man looked at his watch and threw a switch. Electricity blinked through the wires to Aliceville.

And the lights in the uncles' houses came on.

Jim thought for a heartbeat that the uncles' houses had exploded into flames, and involuntarily took a step backward. His mouth dropped open."

Oh dear, have I killed it? Let's try this:

Published in 2000.
Author is American.
Story is set in Depression-Era North Carolina.

Evidence of Things Unseen?

No, that's not the one.

Another clue: this book is in my library.

Well, using my great powers of deductive reasoning, I'm going to guess it's Jim the boy by Tony Earley (which I've never even heard of, but it fits the clues.)

Your powers have not failed you -- Jim the Boy it is.

I guess I am surprised by how few people have heard of Jim the Boy. It got a lot of attention when it was published -- front page of the New York Times Book Review, New York Times Notable Book of the Year, etc., but I've never met anyone else who has read it outside of my book club (we loved it). I hope it finds a wider audience.

Okay, I'll stop now, my turn being over and all... it's yours now, aviddiva.

Interesting -- I'll have to see if I can find it at the library.

Here's a new quote:

"I hesitated a moment, then did as she asked; and then I took a breath, to nerve myself for whatever queer thing she might do next. But all she did was reach beyond me, and seem to take up something from the pile of wool upon the table; and after that I heard her step to her shelf and take something from there. Then there was a silence."

Total stab in the dark here, is it The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood?

No, not The Handmaid's Tale

Another quote:

"Then she came closer to me again & put her hand upon the clasp of the necklace. She said, 'You know I am only trying to make your powers greater. I would do anything for that. You know how long I have waited.' "

Have I killed the game? The author isn't Margaret Atwood, but it is by a living woman writer.

Is it by Ursula K. Le Guin?

Or Anne Rice? (just random guessing now)

No, the author is English, and younger than either of those.

Another quote:

"It is not quite midnight, and bitterly cold and bleak, and I am tired, and dull with chloral -- but the house is quiet, and I must write this. I have had another of those visits or signs, from Selina's spirits. And where can I say it, except here?

It came while I was at Garden Court. I went there this morning and stayed until three, and when I came home I came straight, as I always do, to this room; and then I knew at once that something had been touched or taken, or tampered with. The room was dark, I couldn't see that anything was changed, I only felt it."

Is it Fingersmith by Sarah Waters?

I think you have the author right, but I believe it's Affinity.

Good job, BKieras, it is Affinity, and you are up next.

Here goes...

"The two main facts were clear. She had behaved splendidly, and he had helped her. He could not expect to master the details of so big a change in a girl's life. If here and there he was dissatisfied or puzzled, he must acquiesce; she was choosing the better part."

Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh, pick me pick me! I know. It's uh.... ummmmm.... er...

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster?

That is correct! Excellent job and your turn....

Oooooh! I think I'll do an easy one to see if anyone is paying attention...

I gladly lost myself in her porcelain gaze and listened to her talk about things that at the time I could not possibly understand. She described people scenes, and objects she had never seen with the detail and precision of a Flemish master.

The Alchemist?

No, not The Alchemist

'nother quote?

Holding onto the banister, I slowly ascended. Soon the steps gave way to a flat surface and I realized that I had reached the first-floor landing. I felt the marble walls, cold and hostile, and found the reliefs on the oak door and the aluminum doorknob.

The Shadow of the Wind?

You got it Booksloth!!! I told you it was easy... have at it!

Wasn't THAT easy! Just something about those marble walls that stuck with me. I need to have a think about the next one. Back soon.

Sorry folks, I wandered off to think and forgot to wander back . Here we go then:

"He leaned over towards her, then, instinctively reaching out his hand to brush the damp tangle of hair from her forehead, her cheek, her throat, but not actually making contact - not daring to make contact - just holding his fingers aloft, mere inches from her skin, like a scrupulous piantist too enthralled by the thought of a tune to presume to play a note."

Edited to try and fix italics

Stab in the dark..The Piano Tuner?

Nope - not the Piano Tuner

Perfume??

Nor Perfume. Off out for a few hours but will add a clue when I get back.

Not wishing to turn this into 20 questions but here are a couple of clues - female author, published within the last 5 years.

The Historian????

The Time Traveler's Wife?

Nope and nope. Sorry. British author.

Fingersmith? or something else by Sarah Waters?

No and no.

We've had tons of guesses, can we get another quote?

Okay. That was the end of a chapter. Here is the start of the next one:

"You forgive me?"
"Yeah . . ." ------- slapped her Bible shut and grinned into her mobile's mouthpiece, almost beatifically, "yeah, I do, as it so happens . . ."

(The number of dashes does not correspond with the number of letters in the name.)

How about Zadie Smith? The Autograph Man maybe?

Phew! Thought I'd killed it again! No, it's not Zadie but you are definitely heading into the right general area. Let's see if I can think up a more obvious clue: Deals with two different historical periods. Tell you what - here's a bit of the back-cover blurb (though not the main bit, of course) -

"Past and present mingle and blur, and the lines between fantasy and reality, sanity and madness are continually rubbed out and redrawn . . .but by whose hand?"

Edited for typos

Let's see...
female British author
published in the past 5 years or so
good and evil theme with a Bible in there...

I am going to guess Darkmans by Nicola Barker

Thank god for januaryw! You got it, it's all yours and you're welcome to it! I thought that one was never going to be cracked!

Oh goody! This book is not in my library, but I am reading it right now. See what you guys think.

By 1939 I was twenty-three years old and had taken a job on the New York City police force. I've never really examined until now just why I should have chosen that particular career, but I guess it came as a result of a number of things. Foremost amongst these was probably my grandfather.

Could it be one of Sara Paretsky's books?

Nope.

"I heard what you said. My government conacts tell me some new act is being hearded through."

Blue Blood by Edward Conlon?

Nope.

Partly it was the beatniks, the jazz musicians and the poets openly condemning American values whenever they opened their mouths. Partly it was Elvis Prestly and the whole Rock 'n' Roll boom. Had we faught a war for our country so that our daughters could scream and swoon over young ment who looked like this, who sounded like that?

Edited to add this hint:
They are making a movie out of this book

What no more guesses? You guys and gals chicken out?

I wish I could help keep things going here but I absolutely KNOW I have never read this book! (And if you post a message now telling me it's in my library I'll be needing time off for a quick nervous breakdown.)

Good news Booksloth, it is not in your library!

The last quote rings a bell but I can't place it (and I could just be making that up in my own head!)

Teeney weeney extra clue?

Another clue ( a free clue, you don't even have to pay for it)

This books is on Time Magazine's 100 Best English-Language Novels Since 1923 list.

Is it On the Road?

Nope.

Reportage on this second instance was more detailed. A supermarket stick up had been prevented thanks to the intervention of "A tall man, built like a wrestler, who wore a black hood and cape and also wore a noose around his neck."

Nope, lost me now! Maybe I was making up the fact I recognised it!

If it helps, it's not in your library either klarusu

Edited to add... there have been 4 guessers and it isn't in any one of your libraries.
*off to discover who has put it in their library*

There are at least 2525 copies around here somewhere! It has excellent reviews. Maybe this one takes a bit of thinking outside of the box.

The Big Sleep?

The Watchmen? I haven't read it, I only guess it because I saw a preview for it the other week.

Thinking Outside The Box?

I think I have to give it to weener the book is Watchmen not The Watchmen which is a different book, but you said that you saw the trailer for it... you MUST be talking about the graphic novel with masked avengers and whatnot.

Have at it weener!!!

Um, duh...I guess I should have paid better attention to that trailer (or at least the list you linked to!). I'll post a new quote when I get to work.

OK, here goes.

"'I saw you inside a room. I could see part of the room, and there were books all around - more than in Daddy's library. You were wearing pants like a man - the way you are now. I thought you were a man.'"

Oooh, I know this! Now all I have to do is remember the title!

Perhaps another quote will jog your memory:

"Daddy used to make them wait until corn shucking or Christmas to marry," Rufus told me. "They like parties when they marry, and he made a few parties do."

Is it a Toni Morrison book?

It's not Toni Morrison.

"They called the baby Hagar. Rufus said that was the ugliest name he had ever heard, but it was Alice's choice, and he let it stand. I thought it was the most beautiful name I had ever heard."

Blind stab in the dark... The Color Purple by Alice Walker?

Nope! But you are sort of on the right track.

I'll give you a hint.

It's science fiction.

Then again - maybe I don't know it after all.

This sounds familiar -- is it something by Orson Scott Card?

Not Orson Scott Card.

"I had said I couldn't do anything to change history. Yet, if history could be changed, this book in the hands of a white man - even a sympathetic white man - might be the thing to change it."

Think: black feminist science fiction.

Must be Octavia Butler, then. Kindred? I haven't read it -- I'm guessing from the clues.

Bingo! It's an excellent book, too. Your turn.

OK, here's a new one:

"The birds were starting up their morning chorus. They were in full form now, this far into the spring. What was it now, the nineteenth of May? Full form and feather. He listened. The prothalamion, he had named this in his mind years ago: a song raised up to connubial union. There were meadowlarks and chats, field sparrows, indigo buntings, all with their heads raised to the dawn and their hearts pressed into clear liquid song for their mates."

Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami?

No, not that one.

Kafka on the Shore? I know I have read it, and it strikes me as Murakami. Maybe it is just the bird talk that had me thinking of The Windup Bird Chronicle.

No, it's not Murakami. Here's another quote:

"It was later, long past dark, after she'd pinched out the lamp and was nearly asleep in her cot but not quite, when she heard him outside. Those were footsteps, she felt sure, though it wasn't the crackle of a step she'd heard. It wasn't anything, really. She sat up in bed hugging herself under the blanket, holding her braid in her mouth to keep herself still. It was nothing, but nothing isn't an absence, it's a presence. A quieting of the insect noise, a change in the quality of night that means something is there, or someone. Or was it less than nothing, just a raccoon waddling through his endless rounds, come to scavenge the cornbread she'd thrown out?"

It makes me think of Willa Cather.

It is a woman author, but not Willa Cather.

Barbara Kingsolver?

Right Author -- which book?

Is it Prodigal Summer?

That's the one! You're up, AMQS.

Prodigal Summer is languishing on my shelf -- should I move it higher up on the TBR list?

Here's a new one:

"O, Brandy Broth is the King of Broth and royal in the rooms of the mouth."

#233 - Yes, you should!

Don't know this one.

No guesses yet, so here's another quote:

"There is a night that was, with everybody going home in groups round the roads and over the mountain, with one group over here singing a line of chorus, and listening for a group over there to sing the next, back and fore, till the sound fell in the depths of the miles between and the wind was too tired to do any more carrying.

And the mountain lying awake on his side, smiling in the quiet darkness, happy to have us about him."

It sounds like a book written by a poet is it Jack Kerouac? Maybe Dharma Bums?

*kicks at touchtones*

edited to give the touchtones another solid kick

Not Jack Kerouac. It does sound like a poet though, doesn't it? The author was a novelist and a playwright, although that may be misleading, as he is primarily known for this particular book.

Here's another quote:

"There is proud I was to go for my first suit made by hand. Before, of course, my mother had made my suits, or bought them from the shop, but there is no feeling to be had from a shop suit because there it is, made, and ready to hang on you. And hang it does, with lumps in the seat of the trews, and lumps under the arms, enough in the front to fold around you twice, the cuffs down to the tips of your fingers, and the trews too short to be long trews, and too long past the knee to be short trews."

How Green Was My Valley?

Yes, that's the one. A very distinct style, isn't it? I loved that book. Your turn, aviddiva.

I loved it, too -- it took me a while to recognize it because I kept thinking it sounded Irish instead of Welsh.

OK, here's a change of pace:

"Below them the town was laid out in harsh, angular patterns. The houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted grey. Each had a small, rectangular plot of lawn in front, with a straight line of dull-looking flowers edging the path to the door."

is Edward Scissorhands a book?

Let's see... how about The Giver?

No, but you're on the right track.

"She tried to scream, but within that icy horror no sound was possible. Her father's arms tightened about her, and she clung to his neck in a strangle hold, but she was no longer lost in panic. She knew that if her father could not get her through the wall he would stay with her rather than leave her; she knew that she was safe as long as she was in his arms."

Have I stunned the game again? This is a very well known book -- there are almost 7000 copies on LT.

Is it a Philip Pullman one?

No, but you're on the right track.

"Of course, our food, being synthetic, is not superior to your messes of beans and bacon and so forth, but I assure you that it's far more nourishing, and though it has no taste of its own, a slight conditioning is all that is necessary to give you the illusion that you are eating a roast turkey dinner."

I know I know, it's A wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle I have been AFK (away from my Keyboard) for a couple of days, I had it at Message 242.

I am right, right?

Right, you are right! You're up next.

Something hard and unyielding smacked into the hull, which spun ninety degrees and came side-on to the invisible obstacle. Then it stopped suddenly and a wash of cold sea foam cascaded over the deck, so that for a few seconds … was under several feet of boiling green water. He began to scream and then the underwater world became the deep changing purple color of fading consciousness, because it was at about this point that … started to drown

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

Or, if not, maybe Pincher Martin?

Nope and nope. I am away from the book at the present moment and will get back to you with another quote.

A clue to tide you over... this book is in a series.

Down below, thieves, assassins, trolls, and merchants all realized at about the same moment that they were in a room made treacherous of foothold by gold coins and containing something, among the suddenly menacing shapes in the semidarkness, that was absolutely horrible. As one they made for the door, but had two dozen different recollections of its exact position.

Jingo by Terry Pratchett?

Right series, wrong book

The magic faded away—slowly, over the millennia, releasing as it decayed myriads of sub-astral particles that severely distorted the reality around it.

hmmm. I know that i've read it but stuffed if i can recall which one. #252 sounds like the trunk.

The Colour of Magic ?

kicks touchstaines

You got it MrAndrew!
Your turn!

woohoo! *does happy dance*

hokay:

"...we sensed how ancient they were, how accustomed to trauma, depressions, and wars. We realised that the version of the world they rendered for us was not the world they really believed in, and that for all their caretaking and bitching about crabgrass they didn't give a damn about lawns."

No guesses. I want a new clue so I will make a stab in the dark. Hmmm... "the world they had rendered for us..."

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Really wild guess - Maker of Universes?

NOOOOOOO! However did you guess?

ha ha, no. It's actually the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

Well, that would be cool, wouldn't it?

Ok, ok, a clue or two and another quote.
1. It's not nearly as funny as #258.
2. It's a 20th-century American novel.
There, that should narrow it down. *brushes hands*

'We stuffed them into bags, thousands upon thousands of insect bodies with wings of raw silk, and Tim Winer, the brain, pointed out how the fish flies' tails resembled those of lobsters. "They're smaller," he said, "but possess the same basic design. Lobsters are classified in the phylum Arthropoda, same as insects. They're bugs. And bugs are only lobsters that have learned to fly."'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides?

Bingo Flamingo! You're up, cheesy.

"The bull was bellowing. The sound went up into the air in a dark red column. ___ leaned moodily on the hoot-piece, watching _____, who was slowly but deftly repairing a leak in the midden-rail. Not a bud broke the dark feathery faces of the thorns but the air whined with spring's passage. It was eleven in the morning. A bird sang his idiotic recitative from the dairy roof."

Brokeback Mountain?

Is it Plainsong by Kent Haruf?

Neither I'm afraid. I don't have the book to hand (I'm at work) but I'll post another quote in a couple of hours once I get home.

Correction, I checked our stock and seems we have a copy here, so here's the next quote:

"Even _____ could not find much comfort in the time-table. It seemed to her even more confused than usual. Indeed, since the aerial routes and the well-organized road routes had appropriated three-quarters of the passengers who used to make their journeys by train, the remaining railway companies had fallen into a settled melancholy; an idle and repining despair invaded their literature, and its influence was noticeable even in their time-tables."

Sounds as though there might be something nasty in the woodshed!

Spot on, thorold! I thought the bull in the first quote might be a dead giveaway, but apparently not. Your turn next!

Could you post the title for those of us who are not quite as well read?

I ain't well red, but i kin google. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

...sorry for the delay - I completely forgot that I'd posted an answer! I think it was the midden-rail that that gave it away, but the aerial routes confirmed it. More agriculture:

The sheep-washing pool was a perfectly circular basin of brickwork in the meadows, full of the clearest water. To birds on the wing its glassy surface, reflecting the light sky, must have been visible for miles around as a glistening Cyclops' eye in a green face. The grass about the margin was a sight to remember long — in a minor sort of way.

Sheep washing? Certainly should be Far From the Madding Crowd.

Oh come on...........

It's not Independent People is it? That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of sheep, but I don't remember sheep washing...

Sorry, slow checking in again: Booksloth was right first time. There's a whole chapter of sheep washing (and all sorts of other interesting things about sheep...).

Thanks thorold - you can't mention sheep washing without making me think of FFTMC! Though I seem to remember a bit in The Thorn Birds too - which I'd have picked for my next clue if I could find my copy. As I can't, I'll have to go away and think for a minute. Back soon.

Okay, I'm back -

'The road to ------- is lined with Beheading Trees, so called because the more you cut them down, the faster and thicker they grow back. So it's been with rebels from various periods of ------'s history. Once they take root, you can't eradicate them completely.'

(The rows of dashes both represent place names - though two different ones. If I'd left them in it would have been just too obvious.)

Ann of Green Gables?

No, not Ann.

Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres?

Edited to add, Anne with an e would be rolling in her grave right now if literary creations had graves.

Cheese! Don't seem to have seen you for ages!

No, it's not Birds Without Wings.

Profound apologies to Anne-with-an-e. I haven't actually read the book (Shame! Shame!) and just copied from januaryw's post.

My bad everyone! I didn't even notice that I left off the e!

I noticed but physically restrained myself from posting as my husband says I have to stop correcting grammar and spelling all the time ;)

It's not Rebecca is it? Something's mighty familiar about it ....

#286 Ignore that husband! Some of us must have standards! Speaking as someone who goes everywhere armed with a piece of chalk so that I can correct the mistakes on restaurants' 'Specials' boards, I'm all in favour of a good chunk of pedantry wherever I can get it. (Even though I was the one who perpetuated the above.)

ET clarify who I was talking to

And again for typo!

No, not Rebecca either, though I will give a first minor clue - it's by a woman.

I don't have a guess, but as an Anne-with-an-e, I appreciate the attention to that small but important detail! Once when someone was going to write my name, I told her it was "Anne... with an e". She gave me a look of disdain and said, "You spell your name E-N-N?" Then it was my turn for disdain.

Okay, perhaps I do have a guess -- is it by Lily Tuck?

#290 You should try being called Lyn. Or, should I say Lin, Lynne, Lynn, Linda, Melinda (oh yes, you'd be amazed how many people, when they can't shorten a name, choose to lengthen it instead). It gets to a point where you answer to pretty much anything - and that's fair enough - it's the people I have been sending Xmas cards to for the past 30 years (always signing 'Lyn') and who STILL send one back addressed to Lin that get my back up.

No - after that little rant - not Lily Tuck.

>292 Booksloth: You should try being named Diana. You'd think it's a pretty straightforward name, especially considering Princess Diana, but 90% of people think I'm either named Diane or think it's spelled D-i-a-n-n-a.

>292 Booksloth:
I'm Lynda-with-a-Y and people are forever spelling my name Lydia while calling me Linda. In sixth grade they decided to put 4 Lindas, a Brenda and me in the same class, I have been going by my last name ever since. Only my brother and sister call me by my first name now.

Life is tough! I guess we'll all get over it.

Look, I am sorry that I sparked such a tangent! I will be far more careful when I type. I didn't realize how sensitive this crowd is to the proper spelling of names... what an emotional topic!

Anyway, back to the bokk we are guessing for here.

Is it something by Amy Tan, maybe The Kitchen God's Wife?

*checks spelling and kicks touchtones*

I'm sorry if my post was taken that way. I think I was sort of trying to say I'm not a bit sensitive about it in the normal way and it's just a cross we all have to bear. Anyway - I don't think anyone was being snappy about it - just another of those LT tangents that make the whole thing so much fun. (And an insight into the world of the pedant - we're more deserving of pity than anything else!)

Anyway - you're bang on with the author! Not that it's any help to anyone out there but this is my favourite of her books - but not The Kitchen God's Wife.

The only reason I made a fuss about Anne-with-an-e is that Anne herself makes that fuss in the book. It was meant to be a bit of a joke, but apparently no one but me remembers Anne's tribulations with her name. *sigh*

As for the book, is it The Joy Luck Club?

Did we decide peeking in someone's library is cheating? If it is, I cheated. If not, then I am very clever. I saw that you have several Amy Tan books in your library and Saving Fish from Drowning was rated higher than the others.

Am I right?

Am I disqualified?

#300 Oh dear - I hope it's not cheating, 'cos I do it! Much as I like the idea of being able to disqualify people who guess the right answer to my clues, I don't think that would be quite in the spirit of the game. It's all yours, januaryw.

#299 And cheese - forget it. We all know you're a good person. I've never actually read the book and my comment about being called Lyn was just a pointless 'aside'. I'm grateful for any info I can get about any book and if Anne had problems with her name that's another small addition to the store of pointless information I like to keep tucked away at the back of my brain.

You're all good people with beautiful names. Just sorry I brought it up.

I am so happy that I get to do a booky thingy! I have to run off now and grab a book to quote!

And cheese - forget it. We all know you're a good person.

Dammit. They're on to me!

And while we're waiting:

dreamloikechease
junuaryv
Bookslath
LA12Hyrnandez
weenner
klaroosu

There, everybody annoyed yet?

Not yet, MrsAndrje. Actually, I kind of enjoy my Kath & Kim-like new spelling. Look at moi!

dreamloikechease? That's 'ow us sez it yur in Devon!

Well, I wuz barn in Darset (or Dorset if you prefer conventional spelling!) so that pronunciation seems only appropriate. For years I made fun of the Dorset accent before I learned my true origins. The shame, the shame!

Meanwhile, where did januaryw get to with that new quote?

Sorry for the wait! Good to see that you found ways to entertain yourselves. Here it is, the New Quote!

The pieplates he had plenty of, and they can be of use for selling eggs in; and this is far more use than he ever got out of the feathers before. Why even the head of his costume is pieplates, a helmet of pieplates, two for the earflaps, one for the top, and one bent to fit his face—with eyeholes, and a breathing hole, and two tiny punctured holes for the wire which fastens on the hammered tin of his beak. A beak sharp enough to pierce a man through.

OMG. I didn't realise that they wrote a book about Pieman.



Edited because that was just a little bit too much pieman, even for me.

Heh heh heh!

Just a wild and hairy guess...A Confederacy of Dunces?

Nope.

The headlight was dancing over them; the squat alive boxes, three tiers high, looming in front of and fast above us. The humming Iron bottom of the flatbed—sagging under honey and level with our coming headlight—reflected our unfair arrival back to us.

I checked your library for what I thought it was and notice you've got it tagged as 'want to read' but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway. I think I remember this quite clearly from an early-ish John Irving. I'll try Setting Free the Bears?

Okay - this was bugging me so much that I just thumbed through my copy and found it so I hope I'll be forgiven for carrying on without waiting for confirmation that it IS SFTB - another great novel by one of my all-time favourite authors!

So here's one from another book I simply adore -

'It was another glorious morning, warm and windless as yesterday. After the endless wakeful night it was a positive relief to be forcing his chilled body through the waist-high bracken. The stunted laurel was easily located by the scraps of paper, now limp with dew. A parrot flashed through the trees ahead where magpies were gurgling in full-throated morning joy.'

I'll guess an author in order to get another clue/quote (i'm a clue slut). Tim Winton? Or even D.H. Lawrence?

Booksloth--great detective work. I need to change the tag to "currently reading." Thanks!

#316 Not so much detective work as just having a passion for Irving which, judging by your library, you have too! A kindred spirit!

#315 No - way off the mark there (though I see where you're coming from). This was made into a rather eerie film back in (and I'm guessing here) late-70s/early-80s(?)

Here's a bit more:

'He laid his head on a stone and fell instantly into the thin ragged sleep of exhaustion, waking with a sudden stab of pain over one eye. A trickle of blood was oozing onto the pillow. The pillow was as hard and sharp as a stone under his burning head.'

Surely I haven't killed it again? I'm not making these books up. Big clue then - it's Australian.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith?

No, but you're nudging towards the right era.

A bit more -
"It was a new sensation for Albert to be troubled by anything beyond his own immediate affairs and he didn't care for it."

Picnic At Hanging Rock ?

Bliss ?

Mad Max ?

A Fortunate Life?

Or something by Colleen McCullough or Peter Carey?

heh. i just snooped in Booksloth's library, and i think i may have guessed it. If so, the book sounds more interesting than the film.

We shall see...
*temples fingers*

My Brother Jack?

Yes, you got it MrAndrew! The book is a real delight.

Cool! So it was Picnic At Hanging Rock, huh? Excellent.

New one:

Also, she had been secretary to the soccer coach, an office pretty much without laurels in our own time, but apparently the post for a young girl to hold in Jersey City during the First World War. So I thought, at any rate, when i turned the pages of her yearbook, and she pointed out to me her dark-haired beau, who had been captain of the team, and today, to quote Sophie, "the biggest manufacturer of mustard in New York." "And I could have married him instead of your father," she confided in me, more than once. I used to wonder sometimes what that would have been like for my momma and me, invariably on the occasions when my father took us out to dine at the local delicatessen. I look around the place and think, "We would have manufactured all of this mustard." I suppose she must have had thoughts like that herself.

Sorry, yes - failed to mention which one of your guesses was right - it WAS Picnic at Hanging Rock. Don't know yours though.

"The nipple of the mountain"? That's one of the worst images I've run across in weeks. I wonder what we have at the bottom, where the water drains off.

#330--BHenricksen are you referring to "nipple of the mountain" in post #1? That over 200 posts ago... you got to keep up with these things man!

As for you Booksloth, you have me stumped! it sounds simplistic and goofy, but then there is a hint of a richer flavor. I am making a guess here only to get a new clue.

The Grift by Debra Ginsberg?

Sorry januaryw, I rambled on and didn't make it clear that MrAndrew had got that one right with Picnic at Hanging Rock. My next excerpt was going to be the first line - 'Everyone agreed that the day was just right for the picnic to Hanging Rock' - you'd have got it then! It's a book I highly recommend to anyone who likes beautifully written, haunting prose, and I love it to pieces. So we're now on MrAndrew's book at #328. (Smug smile, though, at having stumped you.)

yeah, januaryw, get with the program. ;-D

Do we need another quote? Or a clue?

I think a clue might be appreciated. And I'd like to apologise to BHenricksen, and anyone else I may have offended with hideously bad Victorian prose. Having said that, the book as a whole was quite enjoyable, but Victorian repression has a lot to answer for.

You only need to apologise if you were the one who originally wrote it, I think, cheese. Wasn't that the one that turned out to be H Rider Haggard? Hideous prose to be expected, I think.

So, just to get this straight - it is MrAndrew we're all waiting for with another excerpt/clue, isn't it? Come on, Andrew - get with the . . . . aaagh, I'm sick of this. ;^)

a fellow has to sleep sometime ;-)

"I was saying that the detail of Ronald Nimkin's suicide that most appeals to me is the note to his mother found pinned to that roomy straightjacket, his nice stiffly laundered sports shirt. Know what it said? Guess. The last message from Ronald to his momma? Guess.

Mrs. Blumenthal called. Please bring your mah-jongg rules to the game tonight.

Ronald

Edited to correct egregious errors.

It's one of Philip Roth's isn't it?

indeed.

Exit Ghost?

Older. Much older.

I'll also say that had i realised how appropriate the book's title was, i would never have read it.

I'll also say that had i realised how appropriate the book's title was, i would never have read it.

Heh. But not guessing because I won't have time to play if I'm thinking of the right thing.

I'm not posting any more quotes/clues if people have already guessed it but are not saying. So there :P~

Takes book and flounces off in a huff. Or a minute and a huff.

I haven't guessed it MrAndrew. In fact I haven't read any of Roth's books. Just remembered "Exist Ghost" being mentioned in some review a while ago so thought I'd have a stab at it.

Please put your flounces back on and divulge another clue. There must be *someone* who can guess the title. And remember most of our USAn friends will have been asleep for most of today - er last night.

By the way, your quote from whatever-book-it-is really made me laugh.

All right, I am with it now. The guess I made was for McAndrew's book, not Booksloth... I just lost track of who was doing what.

The only Philip Roth book I have read so fa is The Human Stain and I am pretty sure that isn't it.

I it, My Life as a Man? That is pretty old (1974).

McAndrew? Och, that's nae it lassie.

Even earlier than 1974. That's the clue for that guess.

If anyone else guesses but doesn't get it, i may perhaps leave another quote. I'm reluctant because i'm finding it difficult to pick anything i'm even remotely interested in repeating. I think i did the best quote in #336 (Thrin, thanks - i'm glad it was not just me).

Sorry MrAndrew, I guess I am not as with it as I claim. I am having a strange week! Looks like I am reverting back to the mistyped name conversation. Maybe I am seeking revenge for being called junuaryv in post #304.

Is this book a 1970's product?
The Great American Novel?
Our Gang?

Actually, i kind of like McAndrew. It's a new one.

nope, nope. Even earlier, febuaryx.

gah, another quote.

"At the park, he drew the skinny blonde wearing the babushka into the front seat of the car, and with the windows rolled up, told her that his son had an incurable blood disease, a disease about which the poor boy himself did not even know. That was his story, bad blood, make of it what you will... It was the doctor's orders that he should not marry anyone, ever. How much longer Harold had to live no one really knew, but as far as Mr_______ was concerned, he did not want to inflict the suffering that was to come, upon a poor innocent you person like herself."

Goodbye, Columbus?

I wasn't going to jump in, because it was so obvious, and Sabreuse dropped such a big clue in Post 341...

Portnoy's complaint, the only Philip Roth novel most of us have ever heard of.

...since I'm pretty sure I'm right with Portnoy, I've taken the liberty of starting a new thread with a new quote.

Portnoy's Whine Complaint was correct as you surmised, thorold. Thank you for playing on.