Name that book?

[orlok]

Originally Posted by alanHd

Can anyone help me find this book, Its either a lawyer or private investigator set in England who is left a country house by a relation. When he goes to clean it out he finds the relation was a collector of the occult, with a secret basement full of occult things, he was planning on selling some books to a collector but one was stolen before the deal could be done.

If I remember right he was going to use the book to summon someone.

Yes, it's Nightfall by Stephen Leather, the first in the Jack Nightingale series. I'm up to #4 now, Nightshade.

[alanHd]

Thanks for that, I normally mark all my books has read in calibre but I have missed a few. I think a reread is on the cards and I will check out the latest books.

[Ranny]

5th in the series 'Lastnight' not long been released.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Ranny

5th in the series 'Lastnight' not long been released.

Thanks for that. Didn't realise it was out yet.

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does this thread still need to be a sticky?

with the number of books and the length this will probably become it almost seems to deserve it's own forum.

[sun surfer]

Could someone help me with this one:

A classic English novel with a female protagonist who at some point goes to visit her sister (or perhaps cousin or relative?) Isabella. Isabella lives in London and is married and not quite so well off but happy enough.

Google tells me this is probably the novel Emma, but I don't particularly remember reading Emma. It could still be it - maybe I had to read it in school and forgot much of it - but before I decide that must be it, I'd like to make sure that there is no other novel that this could fit and that this description precisely fits Emma (all Google tells me is that Emma has a married sister Isabella).

[sun surfer]

I have a second book as well:

Written circa 1995-2006 (probably in the 2000s) and set sometime between the 80s and early 2000s, this book is set in NYC or thereabouts among the wealthy and fashionable crowd. All the details I can come up with are vague and/or uncertain, but maybe altogether someone will recognise it - It is either a satire, mystery or drama, or all three. There is a particular section where the main character or characters go to a party in an expensive apartment or house; I think it's the Upper East Side but it could be somewhere else. I don't remember much about the party except that people are vapid and hitting on each other or the feeling of the party is people trying to hook up with each other and maybe some casual drug use too.

For some reason I'm thinking it's in the same kind of league with Bret Easton Ellis. In fact, it could be from American Psycho if anyone can confirm that a scene just like that happens in the novel. Perhaps Bateman goes to a party or something and maybe meets a girl there. I've tried to look up summaries of the American Psycho but none seem to mention any party like that. But also, it seems like a separate book, as if I read it around the same time I read American Psycho and that's why they're connected in my mind (that would've been early 2000s).

I can also even vaguely see a cover and perhaps title. It seems like maybe the cover is bright, shiny pink, or pink has something to do with the story, and the cover has no picture but more of a graphic, and maybe the title is in bright, shiny yellow and in the middle of the cover and slanted diagonally going slightly up from left to right, something like that. Maybe it's a one-word title made from two words combined, something like "Star______" or "Glitter____" something like that. I'm sure there is a book with a cover like that but I'm not positive it's this book, though my hazy memory is telling me it could be. Google is no help for me. I looked at Ellis' other books and none seem right. The closest was "Glamorama" maybe but this book wasn't about satirical terrorism I don't think.

[BenG]

Ellis was a member of the "literary Brat Pack" in the 80s which included Ellis, Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney. Could it have been one of their books?
I didn't much care for them and didn't read a lot of their work.

[orlok]

Could it be Glamorama by Ellis? Lots of parties in that, as well as plenty of celeb name dropping. One edition has a pink/purple cover.

[DrNefario]

I think it's probably Glamorama, too. I've read it, but I'm struggling to remember many details except for one particular unpleasant bit. The main character's a male model, I seem to remember, and is pretty shallow and deluded. You're never quite sure how real anything is.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I think it's probably Glamorama, too. I've read it, but I'm struggling to remember many details except for one particular unpleasant bit. The main character's a male model, I seem to remember, and is pretty shallow and deluded. You're never quite sure how real anything is.

Yeah, I've only skim read it and I didn't much like what I saw, so didn't bother. Same with Ellis's work too.

[JeremyR]

I think I read this in the '80s or early '90s. It's a post apocalyptic novel, I think the protagonist is a member of a tribe, but it's set in a giant building, like a hotel resort at a theme park.

At the end, they figure out how to open the doors and go and attack a neighboring building/hotel

[CharredScribe]

Can anyone help name this Young Adult novel for me?
- published no later than 1995
- cover I saw has a young woman's face with a line down the middle and the two halves looking different (but clearly the same person)
- basic story: young woman (YW) is unhappy with her family life, and one day she meets an older woman (OW) who has lost her daughter. The YW looks a lot like the OW's dead daughter, so the OW (who is wealthy) starts inviting her over, giving her clothes to wear etc., and they become close. However, over time, the OW becomes delusional and has convinced herself that the YW is actually her daughter. If I recall correctly, the book ends

Spoiler:

with the OW drowning in the moat around her mansion as the YW tries to run away from her house.

I have googled repeatedly and also looked at popular YA lit lists and still come up with nothing, so this is a long shot I guess. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Back with another science fiction request. This one is almost certainly a short story. It's set in a world where being insane, that having a totally distorted perception of reality, is an advantage for survival where people are trying to kill each other. Sound at all familiar?

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by BenG

Ellis was a member of the "literary Brat Pack" in the 80s which included Ellis, Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney. Could it have been one of their books?
I didn't much care for them and didn't read a lot of their work.

Originally Posted by orlok

Could it be Glamorama by Ellis? Lots of parties in that, as well as plenty of celeb name dropping. One edition has a pink/purple cover.

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I think it's probably Glamorama, too. I've read it, but I'm struggling to remember many details except for one particular unpleasant bit. The main character's a male model, I seem to remember, and is pretty shallow and deluded. You're never quite sure how real anything is.

Thanks for the suggestions. It took me awhile, but I finally made it to an actual brick and mortar bookstore (they still make those? ) to check out Glamorama. That's the tricky thing about book previews online - they only give you a smattering and you can't flip around trying to find something you're looking for like with a physical copy in your hand. Luckily the store had the book and I browsed through it and I can say that it is definitely not the book I'm thinking of, unfortunately.

I've also browsed Janowitz and McInerney online and while it could be a book from either of them, nothing rang a bell as I browsed and no covers looked like the one I'm thinking of.

Sigh, back to the drawing board.

(And no one really has any idea of who that mysterious sister Isabella is in my other query? I don't like browsing through a classic that I might read, but I may have to give in and browse through Emma to see if indeed that is it, though I'm still thinking it's more likely another book)