Zev’s Comments (group member since Feb 26, 2019)

Zev’s comments from the What's the Name of That Book??? group.

I read this a few times as a kid. It was written in the 80s, I think? I found it in my parents' bookshelf in the living room. It was a slim hardback book with black-and-white illustrations that looked like they had been maybe done in pencil. The cover was maroon or magenta; dark red color. I think the title was done in silver font. The MC's name was Johnny, and he was staying with his grandparents for the summer at their cabin I think. It wasn't the point of the book. The point of the book was the friendship he had with a boy, Sam?, who changed into a fox at midnight. Both boys were between the ages of ten and twelve. Given how the book was written, it took place in the early 1900s I want to say. The characters didn't speak how modern people did, and they didn't have modern technology.

"They swam together, not splashing, not calling," because it was midnight and not a lot of people knew Sam was a fox. I think his parents were, too. Johnny wasn't supposed to be up at midnight anyway. They swam in a quiet lake in the woods. He helped Sam dry off and teased him about having wet fur. In the daytime, Sam was a regular boy. I remember the ending was either sad or creepy. It didn't seem at all like a children's book, just a book with children in it, I remember thinking.

I'll comment if I remember anything else.

This seems like one I've been looking for, too. Was the girl's name Rebecca? I'll check out the book suggestions.

bump dancer got his tongue cut out, escaped, and joined a company multi pov story

bump serial killer says tasha is a boot camp buccaneer

Bump girl whose aunt has to cut her wrist to drain magic blood

Ooh, thank you! I was just thinking about editing and bumping it soon, but couldn't really come up with any ideas. This is great!

Could it be part of the "Ruby, The Rabbi's Wife" mystery series?

"Amity and Sorrow" by Peggy Riley is it. It's listed as adult contemporary fiction.

I laughed a little when I read your comment--this happened when you helped me find "A Country Called Home," where I'd thought that one was YA and it wasn't.

Considering the content, this one might not be YA either; it might be adult fiction told partially from the POV of a child. I'll keep looking with both criteria.

Thanks for the list! I'll look through it.

I think the narrator's name started with an M or a B, and I remember the pregnant sister had a somewhat unusual name starting with S.

Trigger warning: possible sexual assault, possible incest, stillborn

I read this between 2005-2012. The book opens with the narrator thinking her older sister is carsick. The family is on some kind of road trip. It turns out her sister is pregnant, and goes into labor in a parking lot. The father of the baby was a family friend or possibly related by blood to the girls. I think he was a preacher. The family was super Christian. The narrator freaks out when she realizes the details of her sister's pregnancy. Her sister tells her the father of the baby told her they were making Jesus each time the abuse occurred. The teen compares herself to the mother of Jesus and prophets. The narrator responds negatively. She wants to help her sister get out of the situation. Her sister asks quietly, "But what if I liked making Jesus?" and hints it's been going on for years, but this is the first time the abuse resulted in pregnancy. The baby is stillborn.

The teen sister wears long, dark skirts and long sleeves. The narrator wears t-shirts and jeans, and her mother and her sister's abuser frown on this. The mother doesn't know, and later doesn't believe the girls. A lot of other stuff happens in the narrator's life during the book, but I can't really remember. She's quiet and shy. This was a physical book I checked out from the library. I think it was a paperback with a colorful cover.

I'll comment if I remember anything else.

This might be an incredibly long shot, but "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech had a character who was great at skipping stones and might have carried them around.

Could it be "Whodunit You Decide" by Hy Conrad?

Could it be the Encyclopedia Brown series?

Bump girl whose blood is magic and has a boyfriend who has an evil twin

Yes! Thank you!

This took place in either Chicago or New York.

CW: sex acts

I read this in the early to mid-2000s. It was a paperback and might have been the ending of a series. I checked it out from the library after it came out, maybe by a few years. It was a mystery, but I remember much more of the romance. An Irish-American cop turned bodyguard (?) protected a reporter who was being stalked. I think her name was Andie or Autumn. The cop fell in love with her and introduced her to his family quickly. They called him "boy-o" as a nickname. They or his friends played in a band? They said about their playing, "The more drunk you are, the better we sound!" He played bagpipes I think, which is more of a Scottish thing so he might have been Scots-American. He talked about circular breathing before playing for the reporter lady. She later gave him a blowjob and made terribly stupid puns about circular breathing. He shouted that he loved her halfway through the book at some kind of public event--maybe his band was playing? And then fell off the stage? He was shocked by his own behavior, but didn't stop what he was doing. He gave the reporter his late grandmother's handkerchiefs, which were treasured heirlooms, just because they were sleeping together. When they slept together the first time, she explained she was on birth control. He refused to use a condom and said it was because he was Catholic. He was lying. They had sex anyway and his version of sexy talk was to pant over and over again about how much birth control was a sin, so they were doing a lot of sinning.

The stalker was caught and the cop turned bodyguard married the reporter. The reporter was seventh months pregnant when she rushed out of the house exclaiming that she'd put his grandmother's handkerchiefs in the wrong laundry load and they were dark blue in a tie-dye pattern, not white anymore. She felt bad, and he laughed if off and said he didn't marry her for her laundry skills or her cooking, for that matter. I think one of them was quitting their job to be a stay-at-home parent.

I'll comment if I remember anything else.

bump literature professor novel

Bump: dance choreographer multi pov story.