Babel fish

I'm looking for a book I read part of years ago. From what I can remember it was a horror or supernatural thriller about mobsters being killed by some supernatural force. IIRC there was a stripper named Ruthie Jerome or something similar, and at one point a car filled with water on dry land and t...

There was this one book I read when I was four years younger, in elementary school, so I don't recall much. However, I remember it taught cryptography bit-by-bit, and there were a few characters. One of them was teaching the other(s)? I distinctly remember this one scene where they were ordering ...

I'm trying to remember a book in which the character has some problem with another person. He gets approached by a lawyer and decides to take up the lawyer's help. Then, he receives a notice that by asking for the lawyer's help, he's engaged in libel or defamation of the person who was initiall...

I think the story begins with the (crown prince or king) talking to the fl and ml about the problem that they need to be engaged( they love each other).I think they got engaged, the problem is the family of the fl is really bad and everything will damage de ml family. The female lead controls fir...

Recalling what I am pretty sure was an espionage story (or maybe hitmen) Pretty sure I read it in the 80s or 90s. Female spy is riding in a subway train car, she is riding standing up. She is either: Waiting for a handoff of some important info (someone brushing by her will slip it in her purse ...

There is a short humorous "essay" on style, quoted in part below, which according to A Way With Words has been in print since at least 1875. That piece was a favorite of my uncle, and I've referenced it a few times, but cannot attribute an author. Is there any record or indication of the original...

About 10 years ago, I read a series of books that at the time was new or fairly recent. I think it was a trilogy, though it's slightly possible that it was just two books. I think that the hero is female, and she spends the series on the run from and confronting an increasingly escalating collect...

Trying to remember a story having to do with a fencing confrontation between an arrogant student and the getting-older fencing master. I think the student challenged the master to fence with open blades (i.e. very dangerous) and pressed the old bull teacher very hard. I think in the end the mast...

I’ve been looking for a title/author of a book for awhile. It’s a dystopian novel about a society plunged into an ice-age of sorts. What I remember is the main character is a man and his mother lives with him. There’s a description of how they have many plants in their home which creates a warmin...

I'm trying to find a short story I read in the late 70s or early 80s. It was probably published by a UK publisher in an anthology of short horror stories - possibly one of the many Pan anthologies. (It's possible that Ramsey Campbell was involved as writer or editor but also possibly not.) The st...

There is a non-fiction excerpt I found but am unable to trace it back to its original author. Actually, as the question suggests, I'm more interested in identifying the "Balbus" person the author mentions as well as the Sea of Serpents: Christopher Columbus reports that near Paria, he found a gr...

I was recently reading through old TV Tropes Media Finder entries that I'd posted, and one which came up was this one. A small town in Europe has a solid gold crucifix which is renowned for miracles. The Nazis, of course, steal it when the military goes through the town. An investigator finds the...

I vaguely remember reading a short story about a drought on some southern Croatian island (I believe it was Vis, but I might be mistaken) in the late 19th century. Most likely I read it in the middle school. Some events from that story include: People break into somebody's home believing he is h...

I'm looking for the name of a book a teacher read to my class years ago. It featured several kids solving a mystery and in order to keep up you had to notice clues in the illustrations that the characters noticed. The only section I clearly remember has the kids taking a suspect bouillon cube to ...

I'm trying to find a book I read a long time ago and really hoping someone can help me find it. Here are the details: When did you read the story/poem/novel, etc., and how old was it? I read the book between the years 2012-2014 Medium and appearance It was an ebook I read on my phone using a book...

I'm trying to find a specific book of myths and legends from around the world because I think my mom got rid of it before I had a chance to read it. It had myths and legends from around the world, organized by theme. Think a section for witches and witchcraft or a section for tricksters. It was...

I am reading an encyclopedia about mythology and literature entitled "Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes, and Archetypes" (Ed. Brunel P, trans. by Allaston W, Hayward J, Selous T) with the section on "The Grail". This passage on a little known Victorian-era edition of the Arthur legend caught my...

I'm looking for a YA book I read a few years ago that was probably written between 2010-2020. The main character (MC) was a teenage boy who spent his entire summer working a landscaping job to pay restitution for some crime he committed. He somehow got close to a popular girl from his school, pos...

I must have read the story around 1975 - 1980, 90% certain it was in the German edition of Reader's Digest. Two brothers are play-fighting in the snow. I do not remember the details, but the younger one gets killed. As an adult, the surviving brother is deployed in a war / conflict in a snowy reg...

I owned this book in the early 90s. In my memory, it involved animals. One may be a bit of a curmudgeon. He is also illiterate and maybe hiding that? He stacks cans of food (?) upside down or in the wrong areas bc he can’t read the labels. I think he might be a badger or similar, but not sure.

everything i remember from the manga: at the beginning, the female lead dies on top of a building chased by other people. manhua; historical; can't remember whether the FL was a assassin or a criminal reincarnated as a extremely poisoned girl the female lead tames a ice beast, many higher ups...

When I was in college in the mid-1990's, I saw a rock opera that I've been trying to identify unsuccessfully. This was a touring production (not a college production). This production had only one single male actor onstage throughout, performing all the songs to pit accompaniment. Ostensibly it s...

In the Pippi Longstocking books the character Tommy has a favourite song, whose title is sometimes translated as Here Come The Swedes With A Hullabaloo. (There are several different English translations available, it might be named differently in other versions) Is this actually a real song?

There was this YA book I read which was in this sort of sci-fi(?) world/city which had a bunch of dragons. It was about a boy. I think at one point he almost misses the school bus, which is actually a large box that is harnessed to a big dragon (sort of... think of a school bus but the engine and...

My wife was recently recounting to me the death of Rick Derringer, proclaiming how sad it was, but had to look up what he'd done when I professed to be unfamiliar with the name. It suddenly reminded me of a book (short story?) where a teenage boy was reeling from the then-recent suicide of Kurt C...

I am trying to remember the title of a children's book where a boy in England digs up an old ring in his garden, possibly connected to King Arthur/Camelot. The ring generated an intrigue involving magic or a time warp, but I can't remember the details. I read this book in the 1980's or early '9...

Who do you think Elysin is from Keeper of the Lost Cities? Only keeper of the lost cities fans can answer because this is a question that you won't know otherwise.

I remember seeing snippets of a warrior cats web-fancomic on Pintrest about a beige/tan cat who is missing their front two legs. They live in windclan. I think their name included the word "hop" but that could've been wrong. They had a trainee cat they were supposed to train who kept getting anno...

I read a book around 2015 (maybe earlier), and I’ve been trying to remember its name ever since. It was a fantasy novel with dark romance elements. The story follows a female protagonist who comes from a small village, possibly set in an older or alternate historical time. She falls in love with ...

This poem has been shared many times with many attributions, the most common being "anonymous."  The earliest I could find was in 1962. Who is the true author? I dreamt death came the other night And heaven's gate swung wide; With kindly grace an angel came To usher me inside. Yet there to my as...

Looking for help finding the title of a book in which corporate roles (what you do) are identified by animals. Not that the characters ARE animals, but numerous allusions are made e.g. if you "are a tiger" you act one way but if you are a "dog" you act another. I believe it would technically be a...

I read this book some time around 2000-2005 at my school (I went to school in England and the book was in English, if that helps narrow it down). As I recall, it had a mixture of text and illustrations, and the plot went something like this: A family sit down in front of the TV to watch the lott...

In this series of novels, a male ex-baseball player switches bodies through a portal in a tunnel with the hero of a fantasy world. More people from earth switch bodies with the inhabitants of the fantasy world. Along the novels a Bigfoot joins the band of the protagonist. Bigfoot, a Satyr an ugly...

In the book series "Before The Incal", there is a robot who recites quotes from the current era that are long forgotten in the Incal universe(s). He often quotes the Bible, previously using paraphrased verses from Ecclesiastes about teamwork and the burden of wisdom In the second book in the seri...

I think, at the age of 9 in 1961, I read a comprehension piece in an English textbook by Ronald Ridout. It was an extract from a short story by, I think, possibly Frank O'Connor. It described the thoughts of a young Irish boy who has been required to study a poem which was clearly 'The Brook', by...

What I remember is the bus breaking down, and the boy chooses to walk the way home. When he has almost arrived home, he realises the bus has caught up with him, and decides to race it the rest of the way. He can hear the people in the bus cheering him on. Unfortunately, the boy trips over a walki...

Trying to identify a story I read years ago. It was published in an anthology of short stories but cannot remember the name or any names of the characters. The story centred on an isolated house in the winter with snow on the ground where the new owner is having a small party. During the party th...

It was series of books centering around a group of friends. Each character had their own book. I don't remember much about it but I know the one I had was purple and centered around a little asian girl. I also remember there being illustrations. Please help me find it

I have a vague feeling this might have been in a paperback Alfred Hitchcock anthology, but I can't pin down which one (I read several as a child). I probably read it in the late 1980s to early 1990s. I think it was set in a small town. A man had been found to have committed a crime (not certain w...

In the Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Captain Haddock has different eyes compared to other characters: Others have circular or oval eyes with a completely black color. But Haddock has the same shape but with a color similar to his skin. Since Haddock is a drunkard I think this is the reason for ...

Several years ago I read an interview in a newspaper of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with Oriana Fallaci. Where can I find the full text of this interview? I thought it was included in the book called Interview with History. However, it isn't.

I read a manga that a forgot the name of some time ago about a boy getting teleported with a girl to another world, but he gets separated from her and is in a very dangerous dungeon. Where he meets a talking cat who helps him get out of there after fighting a some dragon or hydra. They then go to...

I read this in high school in the mid 80's. A woman lives on the edge of town in a mobile I think, with her dog. This guy is stalking her, hanging outside her house at night and the dog keeps barking at him. She would call the dog in. He was so enraged at the dog he kills it. It is written from h...

I was in Montreal a few years back and I walked into a random book & comic store. It looked like they had a lot of local and niche authors. I remember picking up this interesting comic book (actually I think it might have been a hard cover) and flipped through some of the pages. The cover of t...

I was reading the entry for Hypnosis Can Do Anything on TV Tropes and I was suddenly reminded of reading a short story with the plot above. A group of criminals want to break into a safe (a bank?) and retrieve the money within. For some reason, he's unable to perform the action (I think either he...

I wish to obtain a full text rendering of the Roman d’Alexandre en prose, which is a French Alexander Romance from the Middle Ages -- not to be confused with the similar sounding Prose Life of Alexander. So far I've only been able to retrieve commentaries of this text, which are rather prevalent....

I vaguely remember reading a passage somewhere that compared cemeteries to villages, with the coffins being the houses and the tombstones being their chimneys. This probably would have been at least twenty years ago. Does anybody recognize this? Who wrote this, and what story is it in? I have alw...

I was in a garden that had tall, narrow trees. They looked very pretty as they swayed in the breeze. Whereupon came to mind a poem I once read. I can't recall it quite, but I think that it said: trees are like paintbrushes; their canvas is the sky. That's not the exact line, which I've forgotten ...

In his account of the feud between Voltaire and Pierre Louis Maupertuis (president of the Prussian Academy of Science), Lytton Strachey wrote: Voltaire issued yet another edition of Akakia, appended a somewhat unauthorised version of the President’s letter, and added that if the dangerous and cr...

I remember reading the script, translated to Croatian (but you can see by the names that it was not originally Croatian), for a childrens theatrical play about a boy named Bruce who is aspiring to become a magician (not supernatural one, just one doing magic tricks for money), but whose parents a...