Name that book?

[DrNefario]

The Jupiter one sounds like part of City by Clifford D Simak.

[BenG]

The one on Jupiter sounds like Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson. You can read it here: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/978162...791085___2.htm

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Lordblacknail

that looks like a good story, but alas, not the one im looking for. This one for sure had the cockroach in a suit and carrying a briefcase. Also, there is another one where some guys were transformed to go down to jupitor, big hulking rhino type bodies, but none of them wanted to come back, turned out that that form was much better than human form. Those are the two that are in my mind to search for. Anybody know a site that might help with these kind of questions? Maybe like Penzler or something?

I recall a comic book adaptation of a story about someone whose body was transformed into a form that would be suitable for life on Jupiter. Could be the same story, but I can't remember the name of it. Seems to me his existence on Jupiter was a solitary one.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by BenG

The one on Jupiter sounds like Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson. You can read it here: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/978162...791085___2.htm

I'm nearly positive that was the name of the story in the comic. Another story in the same issue of that comic was Isaac Asimov's "Does a Bee Care?" It was a great comic. Wish I could remember its name.

[BrickyBrian]

I wish ask if anyone knows of a story of a band that played very badly and the band leader thought that he could make them sound better by making them change places. Was it one from Aesop’s fables?

[Bookworm0323]

Woman Returns to hometown faces past tragedy (death of child) gets back together with ex (father of children)

I first read this book in late 2006 early 2007. It was about a married couple who has three young children and somehow one of them dies.
It seems to me that it was an accident in the yard or house. Possibly involving blind chords. The mom was a nurse at a hospital and her husband can't get a hold of her and brings daughter to the ER (daughter is maybe twoish, surviving children are maybe 5 and 8. Following the accident the family is broken, the other kids were not given enough attention and everyone feels responsible for the accident. The book was told from the parents point of view mainly the wife though at times I believe it went back and forth between her and the husb/ex husb. The book doesn’t reveal details of accident till maybe mid-book.
The couple divorces. Later (10-15 years) the woman goes back to hometown or at least where she lived when she was married. (maybe to finalize divorce) at that time surviving children are grown the couple reunites. The husband owns or runs a book store or a coffee shop. I think when the couple reunited it was during the Christmas season.

[curtw]

Yesterday, my Kindle with special offers "offered" me a free Prime Reading book. It was a thriller with the Macguffin being world-changing consequences arising from a 60-year-old undelivered letter.

When I tried to download, the Kindle threw an error, and kicked me back to the book I was reading, and out of the offer area.

I can't find it on Amazon's site today. Obviously, I can't recall the author's name, but I think the title has the word "Memorial" in it.

EDIT: I just found it. "The Last Monument" by Michael Grumley. And it's NOT free for Prime Reading, which is probably a mistake that got corrected in the time between them sending me the offer and me trying to take advantage of it. Maybe it was a January title, and my screen hadn't updated yet by February 2? I'll go check Overdrive, can't see spending $7...

[cpegg]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

The Jupiter one sounds like part of City by Clifford D Simak.

I first read this as the stand-alone story Desertion back in the 70's when I was a kid. I'd forgotten the author's name (but definitely not the story) and was surprised to find it again decades later as part of City.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by curtw

Yesterday, my Kindle with special offers "offered" me a free Prime Reading book. It was a thriller with the Macguffin being world-changing consequences arising from a 60-year-old undelivered letter.

When I tried to download, the Kindle threw an error, and kicked me back to the book I was reading, and out of the offer area.

I can't find it on Amazon's site today. Obviously, I can't recall the author's name, but I think the title has the word "Memorial" in it.

EDIT: I just found it. "The Last Monument" by Michael Grumley. And it's NOT free for Prime Reading, which is probably a mistake that got corrected in the time between them sending me the offer and me trying to take advantage of it. Maybe it was a January title, and my screen hadn't updated yet by February 2? I'll go check Overdrive, can't see spending $7...

It is in the Kindle Unlimited program. My library has the audiobook, but not the e-book.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

It is in the Kindle Unlimited program. My library has the audiobook, but not the e-book.

Thanks. After finding it, I checked out the Amazon reviews. Decided it’s a pass.

Spoiler:

Bad guys are modern Nazis.

[janrey]

Originally Posted by Bookworm0323

Woman Returns to hometown faces past tragedy (death of child) gets back together with ex (father of children)

I first read this book in late 2006 early 2007. It was about a married couple who has three young children and somehow one of them dies.
It seems to me that it was an accident in the yard or house. Possibly involving blind chords. The mom was a nurse at a hospital and her husband can't get a hold of her and brings daughter to the ER (daughter is maybe twoish, surviving children are maybe 5 and 8. Following the accident the family is broken, the other kids were not given enough attention and everyone feels responsible for the accident. The book was told from the parents point of view mainly the wife though at times I believe it went back and forth between her and the husb/ex husb. The book doesn’t reveal details of accident till maybe mid-book.
The couple divorces. Later (10-15 years) the woman goes back to hometown or at least where she lived when she was married. (maybe to finalize divorce) at that time surviving children are grown the couple reunites. The husband owns or runs a book store or a coffee shop. I think when the couple reunited it was during the Christmas season.

Sounds like a Jodi Picoult book

[j.p.s]

The book I am looking for is actually a short story, but I am certain it was published in at least one collection of Isaac Asimov stories.

In the story almost all people acquired the ability to read by some fast and easy process, maybe by taking a pill or something. But there was a small proportion of children where that process did not work and they had to learn to read the old fashioned way. These children were considered unintelligent by their peers, most adults, and even themselves.

Spoiler:

It turns out that they weren't so dumb after all and theit teachers knew it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The book I am looking for is actually a short story, but I am certain it was published in at least one collection of Isaac Asimov stories.

In the story almost all people acquired the ability to read by some fast and easy process, maybe by taking a pill or something. But there was a small proportion of children where that process did not work and they had to learn to read the old fashioned way. These children were considered unintelligent by their peers, most adults, and even themselves.

Spoiler:

It turns out that they weren't so dumb after all and theit teachers knew it.

It is by Isaac Asimov, and it's called Profession.

It's even available on-line, by permission of Doubleday: https://www.abelard.org/asimov.php

[Lordblacknail]

I am still looking for the title of the short story about a group of guys who travel to the future one at a time, come back and just start drinking themselves silly, until one explains that the first thing he saw when he arrived in the future was a statue of a cockroach.....wearing a suit and hat and carrying a briefcase.

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Lordblacknail

I am still looking for the title of the short story about a group of guys who travel to the future one at a time, come back and just start drinking themselves silly, until one explains that the first thing he saw when he arrived in the future was a statue of a cockroach.....wearing a suit and hat and carrying a briefcase.

Well, a couple of things here fit, many don't, but at least there's a cockroach:

"The Figure" by Edward Grendon, originally in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1947. It has been anthologized a few times.

https://archive.org/details/Astoundi...e/n45/mode/2up