[Publib] book identification help

[Tracey.Reed at myClearwater.com]

Ok...got an answer for #2...it was LM Montgomery's "The Blue Castle".  Thanks to all who responded.  If anyone knows the other two, my friend would be extremely grateful!

-t

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of
Tracey.Reed at myClearwater.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 12:45 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] book identification help


Hi all,

This is one of these that came from a friend of mine who knows I'm a liberrian. ;) 
RA is not my forte, so I'm throwing it out to all y'all for help.  Because you're the best...
The books might be Australian publish only, which adds to the challenge.  

1. This is the oldest.  The story involved a brother and sister, who had various adventures with the people they knew in their neighbourhood. The incidents I can remember were that they went to visit a Chinese man, who would take his caged linnet out for walks. He showed them a porcelain statuette of a lady and explained that it was used in the olden days for ladies who were too shy to talk to a doctor but they could circle the area in question where they were troubled so that the doctor could make his diagnosis. Another time, the sister was being given a lift by a major (?) - I have the impression that all the action was set in the 30s - when he told her to take the wheel because he was going to sneeze. He then gives her a bit of a lecture about how we close our eyes when we sneeze. There was also another bit about a Christmas goose, which possibly turned up frozen, but I'm getting a bit hazy now. I'm sure there must have been a story to the book, but I can just remember these odd episodes.
2. When I was a little older, my dad used to get me books out the library every weekend. I remember this one was by an author I particularly liked but I can't remember who, or what their other books were but if we can identify this one, I should be able to revisit the others from there. The story was about a fairly plain woman, who shocked everyone by marrying a man thought to be a bit of a thug, who lived in a run-down house in the forest. The husband turned out to be quite educated and they actually got along quite well. One day, on a trip to the city he caught her looking at a $5 string of fake pearls in a shop window and later bought them to surprise her. She was dismayed by this because she didn't think they could afford it and wasn't until much later that she found out they were real pearls and he was rich all along. Hurrah! I think this was set in the 20s (the cover possibly had a woman with a flapper style bob on, in muted blues and greens).
3. This is more recent and my ex and I had both read it and were subsequently unable to identify where it came from. I keep thinking it's Douglas Coupland but I can't find it in any of his books. Anyway, the author spent some time working for a large company and came to the realisation that people's fates were determined by the decor in their office, eg a blue carpet and white walls meant you were heading for redundancy or a green carpet and beige walls indicated promotion

Thanks much all!

-t
-----
Tracey Reed
Computer Services Librarian
Clearwater Public Library System
tracey.reed at myclearwater.com
727.562.4970 x5036
www.myclearwater.com/cpl
> "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi 
> 


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