# The "What IS the name of that book???" Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149 "2008-12-14T20:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/41 "2008-12-20T16:25:12Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > I remember our class sitting in the reading area and watching our teacher read it and make the different voices) How about trying to find your teacher and ask him/ her? Yanno, so that you’re not haunted for the rest of your life. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/42 "2008-12-20T18:41:09Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > The Robert Lipsyte story “Future Tense” is available in the book _Sixteen: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults_. This is not specifically a science-fiction collection so it probably isn’t the book **De La Rue** was remembering, but if s/he wants to re-read that story again then it’s the first source I turned up. It’s possible that **De La Rue** read this book along with the anthologies I tracked down above – _Sixteen_ seems like the sort of thing likely to be owned by a teacher or school library. The odd thing is, Locus lists it as appearing in [two books](http://www.locusmag.com/index/yr1999/s47.htm#A1903.1), neither of which is familiar to me, and not in [The Sci-Fi Factor](http://www.locusmag.com/index/yr2001/t64.htm#A3080). Guess I read it in _Sixteen_. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/43 "2008-12-20T22:23:25Z")
> [@Surok](#): > > How about trying to find your teacher and ask him/ her? Yanno, so that you’re not haunted for the rest of your life. I actually tried that, but staff at international schools tends to change fairly often and it was 13 years ago, and it seems he’s dropped off the face of the planet since then. Not Dahl either. This is good, though; if I keep on being able to cross authors OFF the list of potentials, I’m sure to run out of alternate options sooner or later, right? ---
**Author:** ![Penthelesia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@Penthelesia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penthelesia)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/44 "2008-12-20T22:53:40Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > Can’t help with the ones asked but I have one, or rather three. They’re a fantasy trilogy. > > The one I remember best is the last book. The first two books follow this guy through his life/world, they’re all magicians of some kind but with very little magic/learning in magic but in the distant past powerful mages ruled with an iron fist and so they have to hide what they are and meet in secret and have all these rules. What defeated the mages was another mage, and iirc they call him a saint and say that he will return and they will be able to live openly without fear of being killed. > > The third book involves him finding his way into a mage’s stronghold that is not as ruined as it seems. Something happens to start the magic up again, the mage appears and the guy disappears (I keep thinking Brendan for a name but that might be wrong). He wakes up in the past with a medallion around his neck that is the name of the saint (or maybe he brought it with him, had been wearing it like a Catholic wears) and everyone starts calling him that name. He ends up apprenticed to a mage, and works his way up through the ranks while secretly meeting with people in the town who are moderately talented and teaching them the rules he was taught as a boy to keep from discovery. > > He ends up being the catalyst for the destruction of the mages, he builds himself a stronghold on the moon and goes to live there. When his time (the time he was born in) comes around again, he kidnaps his family just before they die, putting simulacrums in their place and healing them so they all end up alive and well on the moon while not wrecking the integrity of the timeline (all the magic/learning have made him pretty much immortal). When the ruins are discovered by him, he goes there and sends himself back before going to kill the last mage who escaped the massacre way back when. > > Been bugging me, and I know I have one of the books around but I can’t seem to find it. Darn it, I’m sure I read this years and years ago and I can’t remember the name and it’s going to bug me till I find out 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/45 "2008-12-22T15:20:55Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Or maybe I _have_ found one…this is fun, practicing my searching skills. 🙂 > > I don’t recognize this one, but searching on Amazon I found _[Life Mask](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Mask-Emma-Donoghue/dp/0156032643/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229741377&sr=1-1)_ by Emma Donoghue, which seems to have all the elements you remember. THANK YOU! That was driving me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Goblin\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Goblin\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goblin_Queen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/46 "2008-12-22T18:22:04Z")
All right, I have two mysteries for you detectives. The first one was a story about a boy named Gerund who lived in a house with a cat who could talk. The cat was very sarcastic, and also existed in a parallel universe with another boy with a more normal name. The book either had really vivid imagery or illustrations, and there was a final encounter with a supernatural evil/bad guy that took place with one of the boys imprisoned in some sort of cage that was outside in the winter. The wild hunt may have been a theme in the book, and the characters may have sort of died, but not really, due to the parallel universe idea, though that was never explicitly stated. The second is a series of books that were Chinese or Japanese fairy tales. There were three or four books in the series, and they all contained multiple stories. They were very small books–even as a child they were only a little bigger than my hand. One of the stories was about a bamboo cutter and his wife who wanted a child, and one night when the bamboo cutter was out cutting bamboo he opened a stalk and there was a tiny girl inside. The girl grew up with the man and his wife, but when she was old enough to get married she told her foster parents that she was actually a princess from the moon. The story ended with people coming from the moon to take her away. These books had black and white or very faintly colored illustrations and I remembered the ending illustration for the story I remember had the princess in a gorgeous gown being taken to the moon in a chariot. Please help, I remember these books very fondly…if only I could remember their titles… ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/47 "2008-12-22T19:36:02Z")
> [@Goblin\_Queen](#): > > All right, I have two mysteries for you detectives. > > The first one was a story about a boy named Gerund who lived in a house with a cat who could talk. The cat was very sarcastic, and also existed in a parallel universe with another boy with a more normal name. The book either had really vivid imagery or illustrations, and there was a final encounter with a supernatural evil/bad guy that took place with one of the boys imprisoned in some sort of cage that was outside in the winter. The wild hunt may have been a theme in the book, and the characters may have sort of died, but not really, due to the parallel universe idea, though that was never explicitly stated. After playing around with Google for a while, I found [this](http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=1370&type=Book&typeId=2588)… The name is “The Wild Hunt”, could that be it? Incidentally, I found the third mystery book I posted in this thread (it’s a series called Tim and the Midnight People), but the islands which spell something are still leaving me stumped. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/48 "2008-12-22T19:51:16Z")
Okay here’s mine - due to the content, a Google search is almost worthless… YA book about a 16 year old that gets pregnant by her boyfriend, ends up moving out of her parent’s house into a roomate situation, where one of the girls already has a kid. Events ensue, she ends up out of the apartment and attempts to drown herself. She sees the light, doesn’t die, calls her mom, the end. I remember it opened with a scene where the girl is trying to zip her jeans, and can’t because she’s getting a little bigger. It is all set in 1975-ish, and she doesn’t have the baby by the end of the book. Anyone have any idea? I’d like to reread it to see if it was a good as I remember… ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/49 "2008-12-24T18:47:25Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > Incidentally, I found the third mystery book I posted in this thread (it’s a series called Tim and the Midnight People), but the islands which spell something are still leaving me stumped. ☹ [Beaver Towers](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beaver-Towers-Nigel-Hinton/dp/0140370609/ref=cm_cr_pr_orig_subj)? ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/50 "2008-12-24T19:04:16Z")
> [@Goblin\_Queen](#): > > The second is a series of books that were Chinese or Japanese fairy tales. There were three or four books in the series, and they all contained multiple stories. They were very small books–even as a child they were only a little bigger than my hand. One of the stories was about a bamboo cutter and his wife who wanted a child, and one night when the bamboo cutter was out cutting bamboo he opened a stalk and there was a tiny girl inside. The girl grew up with the man and his wife, but when she was old enough to get married she told her foster parents that she was actually a princess from the moon. The story ended with people coming from the moon to take her away. The unimaginatively titled [Japanese Fairy Tale Series](http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/hasegawa/ft_17_c1902.shtml)? The tale of the bamboo cutter is thought to be at least a thousand years old and has been retold in countless books and other media. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/51 "2008-12-24T19:27:08Z")
Ah, [here](http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/hasegawa/splendor.shtml) it is. Related to the series, but not actually numbered as a part of it. ---
**Author:** ![Dervish\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dervish\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervish_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/52 "2008-12-24T21:49:17Z")
**MandaJo** , could your book be “[Surviving the Applewhites](http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Applewhites-Stephanie-S-Tolan/dp/0064410447/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230154936&sr=8-1)?” Only one kid comes to their unschool, and they put on “The Sound of Music,” but it sounds similar. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/53 "2008-12-25T08:31:51Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > [Beaver Towers](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beaver-Towers-Nigel-Hinton/dp/0140370609/ref=cm_cr_pr_orig_subj)? …I love you. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/54 "2008-12-25T14:19:24Z")
> [@Dervish\_Jones](#): > > **MandaJo** , could your book be “[Surviving the Applewhites](http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Applewhites-Stephanie-S-Tolan/dp/0064410447/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230154936&sr=8-1)?” Only one kid comes to their unschool, and they put on “The Sound of Music,” but it sounds similar. It isn’t, but it’s amazing that another book could be that close but not be the correct one! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149/55 "2008-12-26T04:30:02Z")
I wish I could help with some of these, but my memory is absolutely awful. I have one of my own that’s been bugging me forever. I probably read it about 13 years ago. It’s a youth fantasy/sci-fi novel about a girl who somehow knows the dates that people will die. I can’t remember if she has any other abilities in regard to predicting the future. She doesn’t want to know her own date of death. For some reason I also think it has something to do with windmills. I wish I could remember more, but if anyone can ID this I’ll be very grateful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-what-is-the-name-of-that-book-thread/477149.md?page=2)