What are your favorite short stories or short story collections, anthologies etc. [more inside]
posted on May 28, 2008 - 54 answers

Help me remember the name of this short story about a draft dodger in Vietnam. [more inside]
posted on May 15, 2008 - 8 answers

Help me find this quotation. The gist of it is something like this: in current times, fantastical metaphors are the only way of describing the convoluted reality of experience. [more inside]
posted on May 12, 2008 - 6 answers

Trying to make a list of fictional drinks. For instance: Clementine mixxes up a couple of "blue ruins" in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Silver Jews' song Buckingham Rabbit makes reference to "shattered dogs on the rocks." What other fictional drinks can you think of? [more inside]
posted on May 4, 2008 - 51 answers

Short-story filter: contemporary American story with a scene of a baby boy whose father cruelly dangles a pocketwatch just out of reach so as to get the boy used to disappointment. [more inside]
posted on Mar 5, 2008 - 3 answers

Recommendations/sources for good erotic writing? [more inside]
posted on Mar 1, 2008 - 16 answers

What are some good books on gangs, gang activities, internal organization and structure? [more inside]
posted on Jan 21, 2008 - 23 answers

Help me identify this short story! It is a story told from the perspective of an infant as he is free-falling through the garbage chute of a multi-level housing complex after being discarded by his teenage mother. The story is divided into nine parts, with each part signifying the baby's arrival at each floor until he finally reaches the trash compactor at the ground level. [more inside]
posted on Jan 16, 2008 - 4 answers

What is the name of this short story that I am thinking of? [more inside]
posted on Jan 6, 2008 - 6 answers

Looking for some good, loooong novels. [more inside]
posted on Dec 17, 2007 - 102 answers

Short Story Filter: I'm trying to track down a wonderful short story I read maybe 15 years ago. It focuses on a couple struggling with a dysfunctional marital and/or sexual relationship. The story is set somewhere in a snowy/icy climate, and the central conceit of the story is that the husband needs to free their car which is stuck in the snow. As the story unfolds, the author describes the back-and-forth rocking of the car as he slams it from "drive" into "reverse" and back again, and it becomes clear that the movement of the car is a powerful sexual metaphor. Finally the car rolls free and the dramatic release seems to provide hope for the relationship. Does this sound familiar to anybody? I thought the title of the story was "Unstuck," but Googling has led me nowhere.
posted on Dec 11, 2007 - 5 answers

I am looking for some fiction where the main character is a loner and seems to be OK with it. (possible spoilers) [more inside]
posted on Nov 11, 2007 - 45 answers

"Me not ugly, me is beautiful." Do you know what monster might have said this? [more inside]
posted on Nov 2, 2007 - 24 answers

Can anyone remember the name of a book from my childhood? Kid lit from the late 60’s/early 70’s. Book is about the Holocaust, I think. Bought the book from the Scholastic Book Club (they don’t have lists from back then). The book has a red cover with a picture of a girl with dark brown hair. Part of the story takes place on a train going to Siberia(?). Hope you can help me find this book!
posted on Oct 31, 2007 - 12 answers

I would like to read some literate, accurate portraits of what it's like to be an attractive person in present U.S. or European society. [more inside]
posted on Aug 7, 2007 - 25 answers

Help me remember the name of this short story (or novel that includes this story): A housecleaner's employer tells her she can keep all the change she finds when she cleans his office. She ends up with a jar of change containing more than one hundred dollars, and the employer reneges his offer. Thanks! [more inside]
posted on Jul 14, 2007 - 6 answers

"The master's body!" roared the butler into the mouthpiece. "I'm sorry, madame, but we can't furnish it — it's far too hot to touch this noon!" What he really said was: "Yes… yes… I'll see." I've always wondered what this passage from The Great Gatsby means. [more inside]
posted on May 24, 2007 - 15 answers

ShortStoryFilter: Looking for a short story where Americans go on vacation and get killed. [more inside]
posted on May 6, 2007 - 3 answers

I loved fairy tales as a child, and now that I am (nominally) a grownup, I love the "retellings" of fairytales — the fleshed-out versions which, for example, feature actual character development instead of lines like "she was as beautiful as she was good". I love Robin McKinley's retellings of "Donkeyskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" (which she did twice for good measure), and Gregory Maguire's surprisingly political Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. What other good grown-up fairytales are out there?
posted on Apr 11, 2007 - 60 answers

I am looking for well regarded books/scholarly papers about writing. Most specifically in the areas of Nonfiction (the essay style of article writing) and Children's Fiction (for a young adult audience). Any tips? Go as far and broad as you can. I'll be off to the British library tomorrow, so the sky is the limit. [more inside]
posted on Jan 9, 2007 - 6 answers

I want to write a Christmas-themed essay for my book review blog, and I'm trying to come up with some Christmas lit to review. It might be fun, for instance, to gather together a selection of Christmas tripe such as Santa's Christmas Prayer (link not safe for those who have any literary sensibilities and have just eaten) and go to town on it. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, to write something about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Which Christmas novels/stories/poems do you love and loathe? I don't review movies, so text only please...
posted on Nov 28, 2006 - 13 answers

I want to read something by Thomas Bernhard. I understand that his works are incredibly bleak, but that they lie on a continuum: ranging from blackly humorous to straight-up splenetic. If I am a fan of Hilary Mantel, which Bernhard book might be good to start with?
posted on Nov 21, 2006 - 11 answers

Is Science Fiction primarily an American genre of literature? [more inside]
posted on Nov 4, 2006 - 35 answers

Book series for children and young adults? Recommendations welcome. There is [more inside]
posted on Oct 23, 2006 - 49 answers

I like to go to dark, smoky, dive bars and sit there with a drink and a book for hours. Unfortunately, I'm running out of good bar reading. Can you help me find more? Examples inside. [more inside]
posted on Sep 27, 2006 - 48 answers

Enrique Vila-Matas is an author known by using other author's quotations into his own fiction books. Bartleby & Co. and El mal de Montano quote dozens of works by other authors. How can he do this, legally? [more inside]
posted on Sep 25, 2006 - 2 answers

Please help me select a book as a present for my nephew. He's 19, and when I gave him a Chapters gift card for his high school graduation last spring, he used it to buy a complete set of Tom Clancy novels. Political espionage/intrigue/adventure has to be the genre I know the least about. If my nephew likes Tom Clancy's and Frederick Forsythe's works, what other books in the same genre would he enjoy?
posted on Sep 17, 2006 - 25 answers

Is there a literary term for a fictional work in which the author and protagonist/narrator are (fictionally) one and the same? [more inside]
posted on Aug 30, 2006 - 41 answers

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

I need some recommendations for great fiction. And yes, I've read all those other threads. [more inside]
posted on Jun 29, 2006 - 38 answers

Given my favorite authors from the modern and pomo canon, please help me find some young, lesser-known contemporary writers. [more inside]
posted on Jun 16, 2006 - 29 answers

The Protagonist: What can you tell me? [more inside]
posted on Jun 8, 2006 - 17 answers

Help me judge this book by its cover. I'm looking for the title and/or author of fairly recently released book that has a man in a suit underwater on the cover. [more inside]
posted on Jun 6, 2006 - 2 answers

Can you name short stories, preferably from the classics, about a birthday? [more inside]
posted on Apr 13, 2006 - 5 answers

I'm looking for the longest sentence in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. [more inside]
posted on Mar 24, 2006 - 16 answers

a short story by a continental european writer that directly addresses or suggests conflicts within human nature-- the desire to perform "good" acts vs. our tendency (the temptation) to commit "evil" ones? [more inside]
posted on Mar 8, 2006 - 10 answers

The Great Books: where should I start? I seek timeless wisdom. [more inside]
posted on Feb 21, 2006 - 74 answers

Fiction usually comes in two flavours: 1st person narrative or 3rd person description. What short stories or novels have been written in 2nd person perspective (i.e. from the reader's viewpoint)? Also, are there any movies shot entirely from this angle?
posted on Jan 17, 2006 - 63 answers

Help me find alternative history books [more inside]
posted on Dec 14, 2005 - 30 answers

I'm looking for book or movie characters and/or plots that follow this particular scenario: A prisoner or potential rescue victim are told that salvation (being broken out, being rescued) can come only if the person agrees to have all prior memories and events that make up their personalities wiped out, leaving only a blank, but functioning, 'consciousness.' Any ideas? Specific quotes?
posted on Oct 4, 2005 - 21 answers

Please recommend some good novels about people between 25-35. [more inside]
posted on Aug 30, 2005 - 24 answers

What's your favourite work of trashy fiction? I'm looking for some good, fun, trashy yet smart reads in which I can unabashedly wallow. [more inside]
posted on Jul 19, 2005 - 47 answers

Are there any precursors to the science-fiction genre that appear earlier than Frankenstein? Essentially, I want to know: what is the first ever appearance of science-fiction?
posted on Apr 26, 2005 - 30 answers

I'm trying to get into reading again, and am looking for fiction authors who write well-defined characters and seem genuinely to like people. [more inside]
posted on Mar 26, 2005 - 55 answers

Fuzzy Memories Please help me identify a book I read as a child. [more inside]
posted on Mar 22, 2005 - 8 answers

Solve This! I love mystery novels and have a hard time finding some that I like. What do you recommend? [more inside]
posted on Mar 8, 2005 - 35 answers

I'm trying to learn about the Edwardian era especially (but not exclusively) in England, Ireland, and Canada. What excellent materials (fiction and non-fiction books, movies, websites, etc.) have you read and seen about this period?
posted on Mar 1, 2005 - 17 answers

I read Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland this weekend and really enjoyed its fiction and speculative geometry/mathematics. I guess the logical next step would be to read the unofficial sequel, Flatterland, but can any of you recommend other books that similarly twist math and fiction, or just books that explain mathematical concepts or theories to laymen such as myself in ways that are entertaining to read?
posted on Jan 3, 2005 - 28 answers

What are your favourite historical fiction novels? [more inside]
posted on Dec 11, 2004 - 47 answers

More FictionFilter: Nuclear warhead, meet Oz. Sound familiar? [more inside]
posted on Nov 19, 2004 - 8 answers

The lights along the dim hallway flickered as she walked toward the door at the end. The floor of the old house creaked underneath her webbed feet, but otherwise all was still. Until she heard the sound of footsteps behind her, and she turned and saw.... I love ghost stories. Can any of you recommend some good ones? To give you some idea of what I would like, I loved Edith Wharton's creepy tales and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, but I'll pass on any more Stephen King or Peter Straub. I want good writing, subtlety, suspense, and enough thrills and chills to scare the feathers right off me.
posted on Oct 30, 2004 - 16 answers

A friend in a sociology graduate program has turned to me for advice and I could use yours: she is required to read a book of fiction (a novel or short story collection) per week for a course, and wants recommendations. [more inside]
posted on Sep 12, 2004 - 56 answers

I'm failing miserably at brainstorming. Can anyone think of any famous security guards or security chiefs from popular literature? Google comes up with Inspector Gadget, various Star Trek series personnel, or Babylon 5, and I need something more on the mainstream or classic side.
posted on Jun 28, 2004 - 37 answers

The 2nd Man. Can anyone think of any examples of literature which is written in the second person? We've had a think in this office and can't think of any 2nd person stuff that is pornographic. Surely there must be something?
posted on May 7, 2004 - 28 answers

What are some great novels and/or myths that feature two heroes?
posted on Apr 13, 2004 - 33 answers

Please recommend fantasy novels for someone who doesn't like fantasy novels (more inside).
posted on Mar 23, 2004 - 59 answers

Fiction that centers on online interaction? [mo' inside makes it mo' inside]
posted on Feb 6, 2004 - 16 answers

This is yet another "help me identify a book I read in childhood" question [more inside].
posted on Dec 19, 2003 - 7 answers

Like many other geeks here, I grew up reading sci-fi and fantasy. But I gradually got tired of it, because so much of it was poorly written or antithetical to my tastes. But I still yearn for other worlds at times, so I'd be interested in recommendations. [more inside.]
posted on Dec 16, 2003 - 65 answers