What Is This Book?

[Ripley]

m, is it The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World?

[mariposalabrown]

I knew someone would get it in two seconds! Just bought it, thank you, Ripley!!

[danadel]

I read an excerpt of a book in Good Housekeeping magazine probably back in the early 90s. I guess it could be considered a romance, but it was about a girl at Harvard or some big-wig school who meets a Middle-Eastern or something prince (I believe named Mischa?) when he comes to that school. She winds up marrying him and moving to his palace wherever it is where she has a hard time adjusting to this new life... I've tried to remember the name for years, but just can't.

[chonies]

Holy balls! I was just thinking about that story today during elliptical time. I forget, but I'll try to find it. I think the author was related to some famous writer, too.

[Maddiemoo]

There's this series of YA type books I can't remember the name of. My friends and I used to pass them around in high school. The books were set on a really small island town. They were this group of teenagers, maybe seniors or juniors in high school, and the narrator jumped from character to character. The storylines got kind of 'incestuous' since they lived in such a small town. One of them got in trouble for a car accident that one of the others had caused, and another was named Nina and she liked to hold a cigarette in her mouth without smoking it. There was another guy who was blind. I can't remember what it was called at all.

Okay, this is from waaaay back on page 7, but I'm just psyched that I finally know the answer to one of these -- I read this series when I was younger, and I'm pretty sure it was called Making Out by Katherine Applegate. Actually, I think they had been renamed and earlier on they had been called something like Boyfriend/Girlfriend, if that sounds more familiar.

[Smilla]

The book I'm looking for was published sometime between 2002 and 2006 by one of the good female contemporary fic authors—a Barbara Kingsolver type (although I'm pretty sure Kingsolver isn't the author). The plot is centered around a semi-exclusive neighborhood in a big, metro area in the East (I think NYC, but I could be wrong) where "nothing had changed" for at least two decades. I vaguely recall thinking something like, "Ah, middle-aged yuppies and their discontents" after reading the blurb. I also remember the cover as having a lot of mint green on it. Anyone?

[famvir]

This a really hard one. I actually heard it as a book on tape.....

It's from maybe 20 years ago.

It's a short story about a Christian Televangelist TV station and an over the top Preacher, and Dante's Inferno.

It's also a comedy....

The beasts from the circles of hell arrive and wreak havoc on the blasphemous preacher and hilarity ensues.

I remember the beasts were called centrians, and amphaspams and chilidrads, and these other things called "snot rockets" that slimed everybody.

Ring a bell with anyone?

[satellite]

danadel said:

I read an excerpt of a book in Good Housekeeping magazine probably back in the early 90s. I guess it could be considered a romance, but it was about a girl at Harvard or some big-wig school who meets a Middle-Eastern or something prince (I believe named Mischa?) when he comes to that school. She winds up marrying him and moving to his palace wherever it is where she has a hard time adjusting to this new life... I've tried to remember the name for years, but just can't.

Was it fiction? It sounds similar to the real life story of Queen Noor, but she met King Hussein while working in Jordan.

[chonies]

It was definitely fiction, and was actually more likely based on the life of Hope Cooke. It was definitely set at Harvard, and there was some mention of the girl wearing ugly black tights and being a 'cliffie. After she marries the guy, the housekeeper spies on her "moontime." I still can't think of what it was, though.

[Xerox]

There's a kids' novel I read some time around 5th-7th grade (early 1990's). It's about a girl whose school is putting on the play Cinderella and she wants a role and gets her two friends to audition with her. Both friends get leading roles but the main character isn't chosen at all and ends up as stage crew, making her feel like she is Cinderella and her friends are the stepsisters. One of the friends' lead role goes to her head and she begins acting like a stuck-up diva, possibly even snubbing the main character because she's "only" crew. I remember the cover depicting the main character standing onstage in the foreground holding a broom and looking forlorn while a girl wearing a fancy costume is in the background behind her. Does this sound familiar to anyone?