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I had a quick idea for a puzzle that may or may not be too hard to solve, but nothing is too hard for Puzzling SE so let's give it a go.

One of my friends gave me a list of classic books to read last week. For fun I wrote down short descriptions of each of them and then crossed out the initials in the titles.

For example, Moby Dick became massive whale dies became assive whale ies.

The problem is, I've lost the original sheet with the authors and titles of the books. I've managed to recover most of them, but there are a couple long ones I'm having trouble on:

joads est (3)

o illed over alleged rpe (4)

mn ie fr cash (4)

in the end she is (4)

s boys ight (4)

oaming the y (4)

un oe acks everyone (5)

oman not uilty after bad aher (6)

niag ees a fish (6)

The letters in parentheses denote the amount of letters missing from the clue, ie the number of words in the title.

Bonus! Reaarange the books in the order you would find them in a library and pick letters out of the author's last names to get a bonus book:

m 5 a66 c2 425 jo7 6 (5)

I'm not quite sure what else to tag this as...

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  • 4
    You say you crossed the Initials out, and in many instances this seems to be the case. But it looks like there are many missing letters also on not-leading-position in words (i.e. "fr"). Can you elaborate on that? – Cashbee Oct 22 at 8:36
  • 1
    Do you remove all the instances the initials appeared in the description or only once? – ImongMama Oct 22 at 9:05
  • 1
    @Cashbee I crossed out the initials of the book titles, not the descriptions. – awesomepi Oct 22 at 13:13
  • @ImongMama Only once – awesomepi Oct 22 at 13:14
  • @awesomepi ooooh now I see. Thanks for clarifying – Cashbee Oct 22 at 13:28
up vote 12 down vote

Partial Answer

ads go est (3)

Goads go west (although I think it may be Joads instead)

and the book is Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

o illed over alleged rpe (4)

Tom killed over alleged rape

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

mn ie fr cash (4)

man dies for cash

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

in the end she is (4)

in the end she is laid

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

s boys ight (4)

Lost boys fight

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

oaming the y (4)

Roaming the city

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

oman not uilty after bad her (6)

Although it doesn't quite fit, I think this must be

Woman not guilty after bad weather

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

We need an extra "a" word in the title so perhaps the OP had the title in mind as something like All Their Eyes Were Watching God

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  • Holy snap yeah I don't know why I though their name was Goads... – awesomepi Oct 22 at 13:11
  • Wouldn’t “in the end she is” be “n the en she s”, if your title is correct? – El-Guest Oct 22 at 17:08
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    @El-Guest actually what I'm suggesting is that all of the deleted letters were in "laid" (as in "laid to rest") an additional word in the sentence. – hexomino Oct 22 at 22:22
up vote 6 down vote

Partial

niag ees a fish (6)

Santiago meets a fish = The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

un oe acks everyone (5)

U.N. Owen attacks everyone = And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie)

The bonus:
m 5 a66 c2 425 jo7 6 (5)

Christie
Faulkner
Golding
Hemingway
Hurston
Lee
Miller
Salinger
Steinbeck
m s ann ce see joe b (5)

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  • and this is the moment where he realized that he accidentally arranged the authors' last names in the wrong order... – awesomepi Oct 25 at 4:33

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