Does anyone know of some good reads on conversation and social skills? I'm not suggesting that you can learn these subjects entirely by a book, but what I'm looking for is some methods to make communication a little bit easier when meeting someone or groups of people. [more inside]
posted by Garden on Oct 30, 2009 - 8 answers

I am looking for a certain type of non-fiction book. These books are very often instructional with the words handwritten (or typed with a font that imitates handwriting) and the illustrations hand-drawn giving the book the appearance of a photocopied notebook. [more inside]
posted by wannalol on Oct 22, 2009 - 14 answers

When I was a kid, I remember a series of biographies in the library, either in the kids or YA section. They were short biographies of American figures, and I'm sure I read all the ones with female subjects. Can anyone help identify this series? I'd love to have some of these books for my niece when she's old enough. [more inside]
posted by whitearrow on Oct 19, 2009 - 12 answers

BookClubfilter: I'm tasked with picking the next book. I have some ideas, but could use the Hive's help. [more inside]
posted by indiebass on Oct 19, 2009 - 41 answers

Are there any great books about surfing or skateboarding?
posted by EnormousTalkingOnion on Oct 16, 2009 - 8 answers

Recommend some great literature in the Steinbeck tradition. [more inside]
posted by Go Banana on Oct 14, 2009 - 18 answers

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

Long-lost childhood books: a history book printed after one of the World Wars. I don't know the title or author, but I'll tell you everything I remember. Hivemind, please help me find it! [more inside]
posted by cmyk on Oct 8, 2009 - 5 answers

[Book/Story-filter] Trying to place a book or maybe short story from my youth (child of the late 70s-80s). The only thing I can remember is a guy going swimming at the Y. He thinks he sees a towel stuck in the drain at the bottom of the pool, but once he gets down there he realizes it is a rat coming out of the drain. It could be a really popular book for all I know. I just know that it scared the crap out of me and still freaks me out to this day a bit. Any ideas?
posted by speeb on Oct 5, 2009 - 2 answers

Woohoo, it's October! Lets get some Autumn/Halloween reading suggestions! [more inside]
posted by CZMR on Oct 1, 2009 - 18 answers

Calling all music Mefites: Can you recommend any good books about indie music or musicians? [more inside]
posted by bibliophibianj on Sep 14, 2009 - 24 answers

I am looking for a young child's easy reader book from the late 1960s/early 1970s about a bear and his bus. [more inside]
posted by goml on Sep 10, 2009 - 6 answers

Please help me figure out what book this is. [more inside]
posted by magnoliasouth on Sep 2, 2009 - 3 answers

I'm looking for a book I read in year 6 (1995), and I loved, but can't remember much about it. I think it was "world of O", or "secret of O", or something along those lines, but searches on that don't come up with hits on Google or Amazon. I remember that on the cover, the O had a sinuous line through it (like the yin/yang symbol), and there was a bit where the guy was given special gloves and socks that allowed him to cling on to a sheer cliff face (might have been a deep hole instead, not sure). Does anyone recognise this book? Help appreciated :)
posted by Anon Ymous on Sep 1, 2009 - 5 answers

I'll be speaking at a conference in New York City, and I'd like to figure out how best to get there. [more inside]
posted by fake on Aug 28, 2009 - 16 answers

DonatingTextbooksInAustraliaFilter: How would I go about donating a heap of recent secondary school textbooks to worthy causes. I'm in Melbourne, Australia. [more inside]
posted by micklaw on Aug 25, 2009 - 6 answers

Help me identify a book about an amazing Italian man with obsessive compulsive disorder. [more inside]
posted by Wordwoman on Aug 24, 2009 - 1 answer

I'm trying to remember the name of a series of preschooler picture books. They were written a few years back and the main characters are two animals that look like bunnies but aren't. One is white and one is black. I can't remember their names, hence my dilemma since their names are also the title of the series. I think one name is odd and starts with a B and the other is ordinary, maybe Maggie? Anyway, they are wonderful oddball characters who mange to find their way in and out of trouble. Their charm lies in being different. What are their names?
posted by Lorna on Aug 20, 2009 - 8 answers

christopher hitchens' edited the portable atheist is probably the most current book which by using the word "portable" purports that it is an essential reader in condensed format. but there are so many other titles which use "the portable such-and-such". how and when did this tradition start? [more inside]
posted by sardonicsmile on Aug 20, 2009 - 4 answers

Need some book recommendations. Just finished reading Bram Stoker's Dracula...and am getting through the Historian. In the past I have enjoyed The List of Seven, Club Dumas, The Alienist, Name of the Rose and so forth. So I guess I like the mystery-within-history sort of suspense/horror/thriller. The things I didn't get into were Dan Brown, Ian Pears, and anything having to do with Templars or Mary Magdalene. Can you recommend me your favorites? -- Thanks so much.
posted by snap_dragon on Aug 15, 2009 - 35 answers

Jules Verne. Hans Christian Anderson. Don Quixote. The Brothers Grimn. Pippi Longstocking. They say that Americans don't read books in translation (only 874 of the 185,000 books published in the US in 2004 were adult literature books translated from other languages, according to this link), but I'm sure that more than 0.4% of my childhood canon was from non-English sources. Help me add to the list! [more inside]
posted by math on Aug 14, 2009 - 41 answers

IDThisBookFilter: I'm looking for a fantasy book by several authors which features a family of painters who can trap people in a painting if they mix their bodily fluids in with the paint. [more inside]
posted by snoogles on Aug 5, 2009 - 3 answers

What are some good recent military history books? [more inside]
posted by mkb on Aug 5, 2009 - 18 answers

The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang, are there other books that are similar? [more inside]
posted by dejah420 on Jul 30, 2009 - 10 answers

Help me find a website/software for making lists about interests like music, movies, books, etc. [more inside]
posted by GrooveStix on Jul 9, 2009 - 5 answers

What's the best reading available for a summary of "Junk Science"? [more inside]
posted by Neale on Jul 1, 2009 - 21 answers

I'd like to learn about biology. Can you recommend some books to get me started? [more inside]
posted by SamuelBowman on Jun 30, 2009 - 21 answers

What are the best nonfiction sources about the atrocities surrounding the Mexican-American War and related Native American wars? [more inside]
posted by Bookhouse on Jun 29, 2009 - 12 answers

What are the best recent books on emerging infectious diseases? [more inside]
posted by msharp on Jun 28, 2009 - 3 answers

I'm trying to locate three books from my childhood (mid-80's) about UFOs, monsters and ghosts. [more inside]
posted by DakotaPaul on Jun 26, 2009 - 11 answers

How can every man be his own Daniel Plainview, or at the very least write like he speaks? [more inside]
posted by seansbrain on Jun 25, 2009 - 13 answers

What are some books I can read before my trip to Europe that will help me get in the mood? [more inside]
posted by Dilemma on Jun 23, 2009 - 24 answers

Want to help remember a book title? 'Course ya do! It's from the 80s and, if I remember correctly, involves some kids that discover a new game at the local arcade. There's a pilot's helmet on top of the machine, and when they try it on and attempt the game they find they can travel through time. I believe the cover was a picture of the machine and the helmet. At one point they use it to break into a research facility or something, but before that I think they go back too far and it's still being built (leading to some fretting about jumping forward in time and ending up halfway through a wall or floor). I know somebody out there can field this one!
posted by Monster_Zero on Jun 23, 2009 - 2 answers

I'm looking for recommendations for some books for my dad, who likes Tony Hillerman, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, and John LeCarre. [more inside]
posted by creepygirl on Jun 13, 2009 - 25 answers

Please suggest movies, TV shows and books that feature unrepentant, amoral characters [more inside]
posted by reenum on Jun 10, 2009 - 71 answers

Children's books in Spanish in Canada? [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit on Jun 8, 2009 - 9 answers

Namethatbookfilter: Post-war Britain about a disaffected male office worker who thinks about (possibly acts on) poisoning the water cooler at his office. Ring any bells? [more inside]
posted by Edwahd on Jun 7, 2009 - 7 answers

Science fiction - filter: I used to read and love Dick, Farmer, LeGuin, and others who coupled great writing with directly confronting sex, violence, and societal change. What contemporary authors might I like? [more inside]
posted by Forktine on May 28, 2009 - 40 answers

I need your suggestions for interesting, exciting and thought provoking philosophy for me to read this summer! [more inside]
posted by tumples on May 27, 2009 - 38 answers

I need a new "big think" book! I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and I loved his other books as well. I've read everything Jared Diamond has published (Collapse, Guns, Germs & Steel, The Third Chimpanzee etc.) I like books that stretch your brain and reveal the hidden factors in life, the world and society. [more inside]
posted by musofire on May 10, 2009 - 65 answers

Please help me identify this comical children's adventure story book from the 80s... [more inside]
posted by kumonoi on May 8, 2009 - 6 answers

Name-that-golden-age-SF-bookfilter: a kid wins a contest to go to a space station, and it's not Have Space Suit--Will Travel. [more inside]
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal on May 7, 2009 - 9 answers

SongFilter: My Superintendent Father-in-Law is putting together a program for his school's "Right to Read" Week and asked if I could help come up with some songs that incorporate "Words". I've come up with some, but I need some more help! [more inside]
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith on May 1, 2009 - 31 answers

How do I send books or magazines to someone in jail? [more inside]
posted by electroboy on Apr 22, 2009 - 6 answers

So, it seems I'm changing vectors slightly, and taking up the challenge of getting a PhD in history. The problem? I did very little actual history classes as an undergrad and graduate student. I have until August to patch holes in my knowledge....help! [more inside]
posted by strixus on Apr 21, 2009 - 9 answers

What are the cleverest, wittiest picture books you know? I'm looking for something you might recommend to a very smart kid who is still young enough to prefer picture books to chapter books. Another way of putting is, I'm looking for the picture book equivalent of McSweeney's. [more inside]
posted by yankeefog on Apr 21, 2009 - 57 answers

Some good memoirs, or other non fictions books that you really love? [more inside]
posted by Rocket26 on Apr 16, 2009 - 55 answers

Please suggest books and films in which the antagonists are consistently clever, creating complex and elegant (evil?) plots-within-plots to befuddle the protagonist and audience! [more inside]
posted by metaBugs on Apr 6, 2009 - 28 answers

Seeking a vanishingly obscure SF novel, "Stranger from the Deep". [more inside]
posted by zadcat on Apr 5, 2009 - 4 answers

NameThatBookFilter: Autobiography by a former criminal/hard timer that later became an author? [more inside]
posted by mrhaydel on Apr 2, 2009 - 16 answers