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Author
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Comment
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swanchick
Registered User
(3/14/02 1:28:14 pm)
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recommended books
Here's a new topic--anyone jump in if it sounds interesting! I came up with this question because of those lists of recommended books found in the back of the "Snow White, Blood Red" series and the newer editions of the Fairy Tales series. When I first started digging in to fairy tale literature, they were a jumping-off point for me, but many of my favorite fairy tale books I found on my own. So here's the question: If you could add five books to Windling and Datlow's list of adult fairy tale books, five books you'd like to recommend to fans of the two series, what would they be?
I choose:
_Daughter of the Forest_, Juliet Marillier (The Wild Swans)
_The Wild Swans_, Peg Kerr (The Wild Swans)
_Stardust_, Neil Gaiman (original tale with fairy-tale feel)
_The Snow Queen_, Eileen Kernaghan (The Snow Queen)
_In the Country of the Young_, Lisa Carey (Oisin and Niamh)
swanchick
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Terri
Registered User
(3/15/02 6:40:39 am)
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recommended books
Swanchick: Consider it done. Those are all good books, and can certainly be included in the next Fairy Tale Series novel's Recommended Reading List. (We're not doing any more fairy tale anthologies at the moment.)
Another book I've enjoyed recently is Grimm's Last Fairytale by Hadyn Middleton. A friend of mine found the emotional tone of the book too cool and the protagonist unsympathetic, so perhaps it won't be everyone's cup of tea. But I thought it was gorgeous.
Edited by: Terri at: 3/15/02 7:02:39 am
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swanchick
Registered User
(3/16/02 12:59:27 pm)
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other fairytales
I haven't bought _Grimm's Last_ yet because it's hardback and quite
expensive. I want to, though...
BTW, perhaps irrelevantly, it occurred to me the other day that my little list would be twice as long if I had included Tam Lin stories. _Winter Rose_, _Ill-Met by Moonlight_, _The Perilous Gard_...I think I could read Tam Lin stories till I turned ninety, if there were enough of them, without getting bored. ...
swanchick
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JaNell
Registered User
(3/16/02 4:54:22 pm)
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(original tale with fairy-tale feel)?
I'm confused, I thought that "Stardust" *was* a fairy
tale.
At least, that's how everyone has described it to me...
JaNell,
who believes staunchly that new fairy tales are being written every day. Sometimes at her house by slovenly elves or the little crazy people in her head. (Not the knife welding ones, the ones wearing polka dots and striped tights and goth gear. And purple, lots & lots of purple...)
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swanchick
Registered User
(3/18/02 4:55:20 pm)
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Stardust
Oh, _Stardust_ definitely is a fairy tale; it's just a new one and not directly based on an old story. I only made the comment about it being oroginal-with-fairy-tale-feel because I had been citing, for each book, the fairy tale they were based on. And in the case of Stardust, it wasn't really based on anything.
BTW, does anybody else out there have any fairy-tale books they
wish everybody knew about? Since my posting I also thought of the
short-story collections, _Book of Enchantments_ (Patricia Wrede)
and _Sister Emily's Lightship_ (Jane Yolen)...my fondest hope was
that lost of folks would post books, and we'd all get to read a
few new books out of the deal. But I'm always looking for new books.
swanchick
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JaNell
Registered User
(3/18/02 8:17:42 pm)
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Re: Stardust
See, that's where I get confused...
Hmmm, a new topic.
Are Fairy Tales being written today? Real, original, not-based-on-a-previous-historic-work Fairy Tales?
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Terri
Registered User
(4/2/02 4:21:02 pm)
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Re: Stardust
Swanchick: Have you read Peter Rushford's YA novel Kindergarten? It's about an English boy trying to cope with life after his mother is killed in a terrorist incident, and it involves German fairy tales. It's gorgeous -- one of my favorite books, though it keeps drifting out of print.
Has anyone here read Adele Geras's YA novels? I just finished her new novel Troy, based on the Iliad, which is pretty good -- and I noticed that in the publicity info she is credited with having written three novels based on fairy tales:The Tower Room, Watching the Rose, and Pictures of the Night. Are they worth picking up?
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(4/2/02 4:23:40 pm)
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Geras
I found the Geras fairy tale books more annoying than enlightening. Troy has the world's most gorgeous cover.
Jane
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Terri
Registered User
(4/3/02 6:19:25 am)
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Re: Geras
Hmmm, I won't rush out and get them then. Did you read Hadyn Middleton's Grimm's Last Fairy Tale? I thought it was a lovely book, beautifully written, if not an entirely...warm...one, in that the heroine is a repressed 19th century type. The heroine put Delia Sherman off it entirely. Have you read it? (And have I asked you this already, Jane? Apologies if I have...)
I also have Gary D. Schmidt's Straw into Gold on my bedside table, which seems to be a Rumplestiltskin tale. Ellen Kushner recommended it.
Edited by: Terri at: 4/3/02 6:21:15 am
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Gail
Unregistered User
(4/3/02 7:00:10 am)
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Straw into gold
Just finished this one last night -- I read it in one sitting (it is a slight book) and enjoyed it. Just wondering what others thought of it. It had a lovely premise -- and left a lot of questions dangling at the end -- but that didn't bother me somehow. Gail
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(4/3/02 7:20:01 am)
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Larky Mavis
Just thought I'd add a picture book I enjoyed reading this morning, Cole's LARKY MAVIS. The symbolism, I thought, is more religious or spiritual than fairyish, but my kids are convinced the character - variously attributed as a mouse, a bat, a deformed baby, etc. is a fairy. I thought angel, but I suppose that's the books beauty, one can decide for oneself. I loved the illustrations, as well.
Laura Mc
PS - sorry this is a bit off thread. This is not a recommendation for any list of Terri's, just a recommendation in general for you all who I think might enjoy it.
Edited by: Laura McCaffrey at: 4/3/02 7:21:36 am
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(4/3/02 7:56:53 am)
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Andersen
Haven't read any of those, Terri. Am deep into Andersen right now for a picture book biography. Boy, he wrote a lot of lousy stuff along with his great tales. I still get chills in "The Nightingale" when the little bird sings Death away. And his own life story was the stuff of fairy tales.
Did anyone here ever read the marvelous essay that Le Guin did where she begins with Andersen's story "The Shadow" and heads off from there? It was what began me on my SISTER LIGHT novels.
Jane
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swanchick
Registered User
(4/3/02 2:54:30 pm)
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Adele Geras
Terri,
I actually liked the Adele Geras books on some level, in the kind of way that makes me thing I would have really loved them at fourteen when I was reading V.C. Andrews, etc. That fourteen-year-old is enough a part of me that I liked them. *shrug* They're sort of melodramatic, I guess, but generally OK. They're not fantasy, just so you know--the fairy-tale elements are metaphorical.
swanchick
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swanchick
Registered User
(4/3/02 2:56:38 pm)
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Kindergarten
Terri,
Sorry to clog up the posts, but I forgot to say thanks for the recommendation;
I'll make sure to try and get my hands on _Kindergarten_ asap.
swanchick
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(4/3/02 5:10:16 pm)
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Anderson
Yes, from The Language of the Night. Smashing book. I'm about due for a re-read.
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Terri
Registered User
(4/4/02 7:21:30 am)
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Re: Anderson
Laura, though this thread started with books that could be listed in the "Recommended Reading " section of the fairy tale series, by all means let's widen it to include other book recommendations. Another book I've enjoyed recently is Paul Brandon's first novel, Swim the Moon, which is a contemporary fantasy set in Scotland, making good use of folklore, folk music, and selchie myths in particular -- somewhat Charles de Lint like in feel, though Brandon has a distinct voice of his own. I also enjoyed The Nature of Water and Air by Regina McBride, another first novel, though this one is a mainstream publication. It's a coming-of-age story set in Ireland about a girl's complicated relationship with her "tinker" mother, and though it's not actually fantastical like the Brandon book, it too uses selchie myths to tell the story.
And hey, Carolyn Dunn, who frequents this board (though not lately -- Carolyn, are you out there?) has a *fabulous* new collection of poetry out, Outfoxing Coyote. Here's a shameless plug for Carolyn: Everyone should immediately run out and get this one, which is rich in Native American myths, such as deer women legends. It's gorgeous. Carolyn's also got a deer woman story in The Green Man anthology I've edited with Ellen Datlow, which will be in bookstores later this month (I just got a hot-off-the-press first copy). Jane has a poem in there too, and Midori has a story in it, and Charles Vess contributed wonderful cover and interior art...so this board is well represented.
Edited by: Terri at: 4/4/02 7:26:47 am
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Gregor9
Registered User
(4/4/02 11:29:22 am)
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Re: Anderson
I'd add Graham Joyce's "The Tooth Fairy", which is a superb coming-of-age novel with a dark fantasy bent to the fairy.
At the moment, though, I'm addicted to the Spanish writer, Arturo Perez-Reverte. While not fairy-tale books (not yet, anyway, he seems able to write on nearly any topic with remarkable authority), his novel "The Club Dumas" is a tour-de-force of literary mystery and fantasy--one of those rare novels that comes down to the final paragraph to deliver the coup de grace. Don't be put off by the awful film rendition of it--Polanski's The Ninth Gate (pity, because Jonny Depp was perfect casting).
Greg
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Annette
Unregistered User
(4/8/02 5:19:37 am)
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Books
Not quite a fairy tale, but with a fairy tale feel and very poetic writing, is Prospero's Children by Jan Siegel.
Changeling by Frances Gordon (Rumpletskin)
Wildwood by Frances Gordon (Red Riding Hood)
Thorn by Frances Gordo (Sleeping Beauty)
HeartBeast by Tanith Lee (Red Riding Hood)
The Mists of Avalon (Arthurian legend, but lots of fairies)
Hey Dorothy, You're Not in Kansas Anymore by Karen Mueller Bryson (The Wizard of Oz)
The Shee by Joe Donnelly (dark fairies)
The Spellkey by Anne Downer (lots of Irish folk tales paraphrased here)
Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
Daughter of Regals by Stephen Donaldson (A collection of short stories with quite a few fairy/fantasy types.)
The Stone and the Flute by Hans Bemmann (very long book, but good.)
Take care,
Annette
write your own dream
www.annettegisby.n3.net
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(4/8/02 5:40:40 am)
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The People of the Sea
I just picked up a book I'm enjoying a great deal, David Thomson's The People of the Sea. It is a collection of seal legend tales from the Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney Islands, and the east coast of Scotland and the west coast of Ireland. It's more than a collection of folk tales though. It's also the description of how these places were changing in the early 1950's, as well as a description of Thomson's personal reflections on growing up and being intrigued by this folkloric world, but feeling outside the culture telling the tales because of education and upbringing.
Laura Mc
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Charles vess
Unregistered User
(4/8/02 7:09:25 am)
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What I'm reading...
Well I just finished gobbling up Alice Hoffman's PRA CTICAL MAGIC and want to read more of her writting. I'd seen the movie version a couple of years ago and mildly enjoyed it, but was not prepared for how GOOD the book was. Anyone have any further reccomendations on her?
In my recent trip out to the desert I needed a book for airplane reading (having finished the above way quicker than I had anticipated...) and a cover using a beautifull Burne Jones painting caught my eye. I'm now about 3/4 through POSSESSION by A. S. Byatt and loving the experience. Brilliant use of language and an exciting tale that slowly reveals the mystery behind the lives of two Victorian poets.
Terri and all,I read GRIMM'S LAST FAIRY TALE some time ago and was very dissapointed with the book in that my expectations (and the jacket copy) had lead me to believe that it was going to be a historical novel dealing with the two brothers and their efforts to collect all the German fairy tales (which is a book I'd still be eager to read). What I got was a story of love (or lust) attempting to overcome class structure and a heroine that endless agonized over which brother was her real father. Maybe one day I'll re-read the novel (without those pesky expectations) and discover an interesting tale...
Charles
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Terri
Registered User
(4/8/02 7:22:30 am)
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Re: What I'm reading...
Charles:
Well, you're not alone. So far no one but me seems to like Grimms Last Fairytale...
As for Alice Hoffman (one of the very best writers in America, in my opinion), my favorite Hoffman books, in roughly this order, are:
Practical Magic
Here on Earth
Second Nature
Illumination Night
Turtle Moon
The River King
...which is not to say that the others aren't good, but these are my favorites. The only one that really disappointed me was her lastest, The Blue Diary.
And I *adore* AS Byatt's Possession -- but any fan of the Victorian period and fairy tales
would, I think. For more of her fairy tale oriented work, try the story collections Fire and Ice, and The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. I'm reading and enjoying her new novel now, The Biographer's Tale. It's not fantastical in any real sense, but it's a treat nonetheless.
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