Help balance my male dominated library. Looking for authors that happen to be female and great reads (either literature or very good genre). Specifics inside. [more inside]
posted on Mar 10, 2008 - 60 answers
Looking for the name of a sci-fi book. Man is injected with a serum that causes him to shrink forever, eventually discovering there are universes smaller than atoms. [more inside]
posted on Feb 7, 2008 - 9 answers 
Why do/did certain old novels censor names of towns/shires/boroughs? [more inside]
posted on Sep 28, 2007 - 17 answers
What novels are on the middle school syllabus these days? or What novels should be on the middle school syllabus? [more inside]
posted on May 23, 2007 - 24 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
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
Bookworm MeFites: I'm looking for novels, short stories, and plays by white authors where their non-white characters speak in a dialect. For instance, the slave Jim in Twain's Huckleberry Finn. [more inside]
posted on May 25, 2006 - 45 answers
I'm looking for the longest sentence in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. [more inside]
posted on Mar 24, 2006 - 16 answers
How does one go about publishing a novel (specifically a first novel) in the literary market? [more inside]
posted on Mar 8, 2006 - 15 answers
Recent Canadian Lit. Recommendations? [more inside]
posted on Feb 25, 2006 - 24 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
LitFilter: Please help me find books, preferably novels, in which the narrator has some sort of mental disability. [more inside]
posted on Nov 20, 2005 - 47 answers
I'm looking for high quality erotic fantasy/sci-fi novels. Any recommendations?
posted on Sep 14, 2005 - 22 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
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
What are your favourite historical fiction novels? [more inside]
posted on Dec 11, 2004 - 47 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
IMDB.com has a list of top-grossing movies of all time. Is there a similar list of best-selling novels anywhere? The DaVinci Code topped the lists for ages...but does it approach the record?
posted on Oct 23, 2004 - 6 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 examples of Victorian novels with elaborate (and ridiculous) chapter titles? I know these ("In which our hero meets an extraordinary figure, who resolves some puzzles, and at last explains the purpose of his life, and the meaning of his many adventures") are satirical examples, but what about the genuine article? Are there particular authors (or genres) notorious for the practice?
posted on Mar 29, 2004 - 14 answers
Please recommend fantasy novels for someone who doesn't like fantasy novels (more inside).
posted on Mar 23, 2004 - 59 answers
This is yet another "help me identify a book I read in childhood" question [more inside].
posted on Dec 19, 2003 - 7 answers
