I loved the plot of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Any recommendations for similar books, shows, or movies? [more inside]
posted by reenum on Oct 28, 2009 - 10 answers

With NaNoWriMo looming ever nearer, I would like to hear your best tips, tricks, habits, and techniques for staying chained to the keyboard. [more inside]
posted by BitterOldPunk on Oct 22, 2009 - 26 answers

I saw a graphic novel in a store today - the sequel to an earlier work, about a female high school student's adolescence, and written by a woman. Any ideas on what it could have been? [more inside]
posted by mippy on Oct 14, 2009 - 3 answers

What well-known novels lack any character descriptions aside from names?
posted by odinsdream on Oct 9, 2009 - 17 answers

Please help me understand aspects of the ending of the novel "The Terror" by Dan Simmons! Super spoiler-icious details inside (definitely don't read unless you've read the book, or are sure you never want to)... [more inside]
posted by taz on Aug 21, 2009 - 12 answers

People talk about "writing the Great American Novel." What do you think are valid examples of the G.A.N.? What novels, American or otherwise, did you enjoy reading and wish you had written?
posted by Busoni on Jun 20, 2009 - 70 answers

Need help remembering the title of a line of young adult books from the 80s involving mysteries and requiring a mirror to solve. [more inside]
posted by charlesv on Mar 18, 2009 - 4 answers

Stand-alone fantasy book recommendations? [more inside]
posted by Jaybo on Feb 19, 2009 - 57 answers

Help me identify a novel about a female student in Edinburgh, her boyfriend with acne scars (referred to as 'my soft-scarred angel') who used to buy her nice underwear, and some kind of traumatic event in her past (either parental or some kind of mental trauma) that kept coming back to affect her. It was printed in the '90s and googling the details I know brings up nothing! [more inside]
posted by mippy on Jan 10, 2009 - 6 answers

This question reminded me that I have a trashy paperback romance novel memory of my own that I would like to track down. It was about a female highwayman and its cover art was mostly in shades of dark green. [more inside]
posted by matildaben on Dec 12, 2008 - 5 answers

Help me find this book! It's about a family, possibly from the North of the UK / Scotland, but the thing I remember most is one of the brothers travelling through South America. He washes up on a riverbank, plants almost grow up around him. Local indigenous people save him and he becomes a medicine man. [more inside]
posted by pipstar on Nov 18, 2008 - 0 answers

I'd like to read a book set in/about every US state, and would love recommendations from those living in or from each state. Actual travel I'd been hoping to do won't happen, so please help me make a journey via the library. [more inside]
posted by carbide on Nov 18, 2008 - 46 answers

I need a longish, interesting, well-written book (fiction) to read on an upcoming trip. Any suggestions? [more inside]
posted by mosessis on Aug 21, 2008 - 58 answers

Why do novelists use "________" in place of a character's name? [more inside]
posted by serazin on Aug 11, 2008 - 10 answers

[spoilers within] Please help me understand the ending of Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. [more inside]
posted by drgonzo on Jul 30, 2008 - 11 answers

What's-the-title-of-this-book-Filter: I read a review of this novel but can't remember the title or the author. [more inside]
posted by zardoz on Jul 9, 2008 - 3 answers

I'm looking for an old science fiction novel about an evil, blue giant titled "The Blue Man" - the Google and Amazon search is poisoned by both The Blue Man Group, and a young-adult science fiction novel "The Blue Man" which isn't it at all. [more inside]
posted by Slap*Happy on Jun 27, 2008 - 3 answers

What one book will allow others to gain the truest insight into the soul of each city or region [more inside]
posted by reenum on May 6, 2008 - 16 answers

Help me remember title of really explicit and racy romance novel from the 70s or 80s please! The main character was a young orphaned woman who was in love with her rich caretaker who was a male family member who took her virginity so roughly that she required surgery and was left barren. [more inside]
posted by citystalk on Feb 16, 2008 - 3 answers

I'm looking for the title of a Scholastic (I think) kids' book published possibly in the early to mid-1960s, and also the name of the author of a teen novel published in the 1950s. [more inside]
posted by droplet on Dec 28, 2007 - 6 answers

I'm looking for books, fiction or nonfiction, where the main character claims no country as his/her own [more inside]
posted by reenum on Dec 2, 2007 - 19 answers

I've just finished my first novel, now how do I revise this thing? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Sep 26, 2007 - 17 answers

I’d like to read some fiction books where the heroine is intelligent, 40+ years old, not incredibly gorgeous or incredibly wealthy or incredibly famous, but with responsibilities (like teenage kids or a career), who has explicit & hot sex. Chick lit all grown up, you might say. [more inside]
posted by b33j on Jun 14, 2007 - 24 answers

BookFilter: I've recently gotten done with Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (link here). I'm looking for more books like it. [more inside]
posted by reenum on Apr 23, 2007 - 19 answers

Has anyone vastly improved -- or just changed -- someone else's already published writing by editing? [more inside]
posted by callmejay on Aug 30, 2006 - 25 answers

ID-That-Book-Filter: I read this novel in the mid-90s, and my recollection of it is very vague, but I'd love to find and read it again. I read it in the school library so it was probably written well before then; I'd guess maybe in the 80s. It was [more inside]
posted by evariste on Jun 29, 2006 - 11 answers

What's the most exciting novel you've ever read? I mean this in the simplest sense: an exciting plot. I'm looking for page-turners. Novels that keep you on the edge of your seat and refuse to let you sleep until you finish them. I'm looking for genre novels -- but I don't care what genres: Mystery, thriller, sci-fi, etc. (though sci-fi/fantasy has been done-to-death here, so I'm really more interested in other genres.) Oh, I care about words. So no matter how exciting, I'll quit reading if the prose is crappy. [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on May 25, 2006 - 148 answers

Good (perhaps even great) recent horror-related novels? [more inside]
posted by jimmy on Oct 31, 2005 - 19 answers