Her Book Self

For those that enjoyed Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair (my review here), the sequel Lost in a Good Book delivers more of the same: more action, more quirky characters, more wordplay, and of course, more Thursday Next.

Though Fforde never quite crosses the line into somber, this entry in the series takes a slightly more dark and serious tone. Super criminal Acheron Hades is assumed to be out of the picture, but when Thursday is in the cross-hairs of death by coincidence a few too many times, she begins to suspect that only Hades could be behind the attacks. Meanwhile, the Goliath corporation is still after the Next family's book jumping technology, but Thursday soon learns of a whole world of literary travelers and takes on an apprenticeship to Miss Havisham in the world of Jurisfiction - the written word's version of her own job as a LiteraTec.

Crossing genres artfully as few other authors can, Fforde again dabbles with time travel, history, humor, and horror without hesitating to borrow heavily from the classic canon of Shakespeare, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and even Franz Kafka. With their unprecedented level of quirkiness, the Thursday Next series is not for every reader, but for those that are hooked, Lost in a Good Book provides another delightful adventure that is as enjoyable on a reread as it was the first time around.

Welcome back to Fairy Tale Fridays!  Though I never quite completed my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge, I wanted to return to this feature since it's been a while since I shared my thoughts about a short story.  Today's tale of choice is from the authors I seem to favorite: The Brothers Grimm! 

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The Twelve Dancing Princesses is a story that I always thought should be more magical than it actually is.  The story begins with something of a mysterious and enchanting scenario:

There was a king who had twelve beautiful daughters. They slept in twelve beds all in one room and when they went to bed, the doors were shut and locked up. However, every morning their shoes were found to be quite worn through as if they had been danced in all night. Nobody could find out how it happened, or where the princesses had been. 

At this point I can imagine all sorts of mythical and frightening plots which cause the girls to be spirited away and hypnotized into an endless dusk to dawn dance.  The king is equally puzzled about the circumstances and places a challenge - anyone who can solve the mystery of where the princesses go will receive permission to marry one of them and become king.  However, anyone who accepts that challenge and does not succeed in three nights will be executed. 

Predictably, "a king's son" is the first to attempt the task and he fails.  "Several others" - whom the reader can assume are also noblemen of some type - follow suit with equally tragic outcomes.  Then comes a different sort of man to attempt the task.  He is described as an old soldier and on his trek into the kingdom and into the story his first encounter is with an old woman who asks his destination.  He replies,

'I hardly know where I am going, or what I had better do,' said the soldier; 'but I think I would like to find out where it is that the princesses dance, and then in time I might be a king.'

I like that the soldier is so unassuming and I think it's this rather ho-hum attitude that sets him up well as the hero of the tale.  Fortuitously, the old woman knows something of the antics of the princesses and warns the soldier not to drink any wine he is offered and gives him an invisibility cloak to help him on his quest.   As is typical with fairy godmother types, this encounter is the only appearance of the old woman in the story.  The reader is never told if she is a seer, fairy, or witch and the fact that she knows so much of what is going on remains unexplained. 

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The soldier proceeds to the castle and undertakes the challenge of solving the dancing princess mystery.  Following the crone's advice he drinks no wine, pretends to be asleep, and then dons the invisibility cloak to follow the girls through a trap door in their room.  The princesses proceed down a stairway, into boats manned by twelve princes, to a secret ball where the dance the night away.  The soldier follows and partakes in their revelry with only the youngest princess suspicious of his presence.  The elder girls all tell the youngest that she is imagining things or explain away the sounds she hears.  Three nights proceed the same way with the soldier secretly following the girls and collecting evidence of their activities.

When the time comes for the report to the king, the soldier explains all that he has seen.  Oddly enough, there is little protest or argument from the girls.

The king called for the princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said was true and when they saw that they were discovered, and that it was of no use to deny what had happened, they confessed it all. 

I half expect the youngest princess to blurt out some form of "I told you so" to her elder siblings.  Though she seemed the wisest and most astute of the lot, the soldier surprisingly chooses the eldest to be his bride.  The story explains that she is a better match age-wise, but I almost wonder if this is to be interpreted as some sort of punishment for the eldest. I found the ending of the story to be rather anticlimactic and combined with the lack of magic and mystery surrounding the princess's disappearance every night, it's not one of my favorite fairy tales.  I know there are several retellings and reinventions of this tale and I would be intrigued to search out and read some of them.  For myself, I would love a new version of the story (though not one starring Barbie) in which the princes that spirit the girls away are wizards or ghosts or possess some other enchantment over the princesses such that their evening dancing is more the result of fantasy than just rebellion.

What do you think of The Twelve Dancing Princesses?  Do you like the ending of the story or do you wish it had a bit more excitement?  Have you read or seen any other versions of this story?  

This post marks my first Fairy Tale Fridays entry of 2012.  To check out more FTF posts and my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge click here!

In lamenting a particularly frustrating portion of my work as a research scientist, I once described a group of my assignments as "The Rumpelstiltskin Effect".  I felt as though in moving my project forward I was being asked to spin straw into gold - a task that was in every way something that nobody could do, but still I was pursuing it.  Needless to say, that project did not pan out as well as some of my others.

Reflecting on that portion of my work, I also realized that I've never reviewed and analyzed the popular Brothers Grimm story Rumpelstiltskin.  As many know the story begins with the Sisyphean task for the miller's daughter all because of something her father says:

"Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, 'I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.'" 

Notice that the problems all begin because the man was trying to "appear important".  The adage of pride before the fall comes to mind here as the story is set in motion.  The greedy king locks the girl up with a room full of straw and a spinning wheel and threatens to kill her if she cannot perform the feat by morning.  Partly I wonder if this was the king simply trying to call the man's bluff.  I have to wonder if the king would really go through with executing a subject - and a beautiful one at that - for what seems to be an obvious exaggeration.  So the miller's daughter is more than a little bit stuck.  The story tells us:

"She had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.  But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man..."

I'll try not to roll my eyes at why the miller's daughter didn't at least start trying to spin her straw, plead hay fever and demand release, or fess up to her father's lies; but as in many fairy tales, we have a male who comes to her rescue.  The stranger creates the gold in exchange for a necklace and when the king's greed causes a repeat of events the miller's daughter turns over a gold ring.  (Does anyone ever stop to wonder why, if the miller was so poor, does his daughter have a necklace and a ring that become some pretty hefty bargaining chips?  Or why, if Rumpelstiltskin can spin stray into gold, does he have need of the girl's trinkets?  Sorry, moving on.)  On the third night, the girl is once more thrust into a room of straw and told by the king, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife."

Rumpelstiltskin appears to save her once more but she is left without anything to offer him in trade for his service - and yet he offers her a deal:

"'Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child.'"
Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold."

I know fairy tale heroines are not known for their brains but since the king promised to marry her for one more night of spinning and if Rumpelstiltskin had already delivered a straw to gold transmogrification twice, why didn't she think she would be queen?  So the story proceeds with the girl marrying the king, and eventually having a child that Rumpelstiltskin comes to claim.  She pleads with him not to take the baby and he offers her a reprieve if she can guess his name.  (I have to wonder, how did he help her out three nights in a row and she never asked who he was?)  Of course the big "R" is not a name on anyone's lips so the new queen's situation is rather dire.  She sends out messengers to seek new names from all the kingdoms and eventually one returns with the following tale of what he observed:

"Round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted -
     'To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,

     the next I'll have the young queen's child.
     Ha, glad am I that no one knew
     that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'" 

The queen reveals the answer to the guessing game and the peeved little man suffers a rather disastrous fate:

"...in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two."

Typically Grimm, that line is the morbid end to the story.  At first, my reaction to this story is one of disdain.  None of the characters are exceptionally virtuous, but on second look there are some actual morals to be found.  The first may be that honesty is the best policy and that one should not tell lies to make themselves seem more important, but I think the larger lesson revealed is to guard one's words.

There are multiple Biblical proverbs about this topic, and regardless of your thoughts on the divinity of scripture, the advice is exceptionally wise.  One example is Proverbs 13:3 "He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." (18:21 says, "The tongue has the power of life and death" and 21:23 states, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.")  Knowing that the Grimms were in the practice of moralizing, I think it can be rather obvious how these verses tie into the tale.

Firstly, the father's boastfulness is what begins the whole fiasco.  The king's harsh threats cause the miller's daughter her panic, which in turn leads to her making an unwise promise to Rumpelstiltskin.  All through the story we see the characters causing their own trouble because of what they say and ultimately, it is the little man's words when he thinks no one can hear him that leads the queen to have his name. 


What are your thoughts on the morals and lessons of Rumpelstiltskin?  Is discretionary speech a good theme to pull out of this tale or do you interpret it differently?  Do you feel bad that things ended so poorly for the titular character or do you think he got what he deserved? 


This post marks another entry in my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (10 out of 12) hosted by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  I'd love for you to share your thoughts on this post or any of my previous Fairy Tale Fridays selections and wish me luck in finding two more tales to post about before year's end!

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

~ Mark Twain

Happy 176th Birthday to Samuel Langhorne Clemens!  I know most of us are used to seeing pictures of a white-haired Twain, but I wanted to choose a younger photo, especially after coming across this quote: "Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen."  Odd that a man who dreamt of a backwards life is immortalized as an octogenarian!  

I was first introduced to Twain's writing when I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in sixth grade and I really fell in love with his work after reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I was a junior in high school (okay, I admit, the musical Big River plays a large part in my obsession with that novel).

Do you have a favorite Mark Twain book or quote?

Sometimes it's the books I love the most that I have the hardest time writing reviews for.  There are certain titles that I just feel rather defensive or possessive about - the books which when others admit to not liking them, I almost feel a bit offended.  Does anyone else have works that they get this emotional about?  For me, one such book is The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

The bare bones of the plot is a mystery centered around a detective named Thursday Next who lives in an alternate version of England in the 1980's in which the Crimean War is still raging, time travel and dodo cloning are routine occurrences and literature is taken exceptionally seriously. In fact Thursday is no ordinary detective as she works for a low-in-the-pecking-order division of Special Ops - Literary Detection.  When the original manuscript of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen all of England is on alert.  And when the super villain targets not just the pages but the characters of Jane Eyre, Thursday must step in - into the story itself - to save Bronte's beloved classic. 

Now the story alone is enough reason for me to enjoy this one, but Fforde's writing is also peppered with wordplay, literary gags, and all sorts of humor for bibliophiles.  Yet, even saying that I know there are still plenty of readers that just never warmed to this book.  And I think I understand why.  The Eyre Affair is the ultimate example of a cross-genre book.  It's satire, mystery, science fiction, and humor.  Numerous classics are referenced, at least one chapter reads like a horror novel; there's a large plot involving time travel that might make your brain hurt if you over analyze it; not to mention a love story; and a good deal of political commentary criticizing war, corporations, and their all too intertwined relationship.  Many negative reviews I've read for the novel point out this mish-mash of details as distracting or unfocused, but to me it just demonstrates Fforde's suave pen at juggling so many seemingly disconnected genres and entwining them all into a clever and cohesive book. 

I first read this book after picking it up at a used bookstore in 2003 or 2004, but I recently reread it and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.  I look to Fforde's novels when I need a happy read, a book I can rely on to make me smile.  Along with picking up more of the jokes and classic references that I had forgotten or missed the first time, I liked this book even more now that I'm closer in age to the protagonist.  It was a fun book when I was ten years Thursday's junior but now that there's only a handful of years between us I can relate to her even more. 

What are your thoughts on The Eyre Affair?  Are you a fan or are you one of the people that failed to be impressed by it?  (You can be honest, I can take it!)  Do you ever have books that you're overly fond of or defensive about people liking?

I almost skipped this week's Top Ten Tuesday, but the more I pondered the topic, the more I really wanted to post about it!
Because this is a glorious flight of imagination many of my choices are deceased and those that aren't likely have families of their own and wouldn't join mine anyway, but I really enjoyed dreaming up this literary dinner table!

10. 9. & 8. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte
Thanksgiving for me is always about family so there would be something really intriguing for me to sit down with the Bronte sisters as well as my own sisters.  I would be very curious how their family dynamic compared to ours, although to be fair I would have to read something by Anne if she were in attendance!

7. Edgar Allan Poe
I have a feeling that if EAP ever got a taste of my mom's fabulous cooking or any of our many traditional desserts he would have a much sunnier outlook to his writing. Plus, I think Thanksgiving should be about including those that are needy and since Poe never really made it in his own time, I would be glad to save a place at our table for him.


6. Mark Twain
Every conversation - especially among an eclectic group of strangers - is more enjoyable with a storyteller and I can think of none better than Mark Twain to fill the role.  I would love to hear him read some of his own work or regale us with stories from his childhood.

5. Dr. Seuss
I would invite Seuss to entertain all my nieces and nephews while the dinner is cooking.  I feel like he would be a fun guest and in my imagination all the kids would enjoy gathering around him for story time. 

4. Rachael Ray
I adore my mom's cooking, but I'm also a huge fan of RR's 30 minute meals cookbooks.  I wouldn't trade my mom's turkey and stuffing for anything, but if Rachael could come and help us throw all the side dishes together in a jiffy, I would love to let my mom relax and know that it was all taken care of!

3. Lee Strobel
Thanksgiving is also a God-centered holiday in my family so I would love to have Lee Strobel join us to say grace for our dinner.  I've always admired Strobel's writing and his faith journey so I think he would be a great guest to remind us to be thankful to God for all the blessings in our lives.

2. & 1. Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde
I mentioned Family, Food and Faith and the other "f" that's sure to be found at our Thanksgiving feast is always Fun.  Many a dinner with my parents and siblings has erupted into extensive gales of laughter so I would invite Moore and Fforde to our table since they are two writers that always make me laugh. 

I'm sure if I keep thinking about this topic I'll change my mind a hundred times, but I think I've got a pretty interesting crowd selected.  How about you?  Who of my choices would you like to be seated near?  Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.  Check out their blog for future topics and to link up with your own TTT post!  (My previous Top Ten Tuesday posts can be found here.)

I'm falling woefully behind on my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge and feeling uninspired by classic fairy tales last week, I sent out a Twitter request to Tif from Tif Talks Books asking her to recommend a tale for me to read and review.  I was expecting something along the lines of HCA or the brothers Grimm, but Tif surprised me by suggesting Fables the graphic novel series by Bill Willingham.  Even more surprising was walking into my local library and spotting book one of the hardbound deluxe edition of the series hours after it was mentioned to me!

Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One encompasses the first ten issues of the series.  The first five compose the story "Legends in Exile" (Chapter 1: Old Tales Revisited; Chapter 2: The (Un)Usual Suspects; Chapter 3: Blood Tells; Chapter 4: Remembrance Day; and Chapter 5: The Famous Parlor Room Scene (Sans Parlor).)  In this sequence, the characters and world are introduced and the reader discovers a neighborhood of New York City known as Fabletown in which all the classic fairy tale characters are alive and thriving in modern society without the general population having any clue to their existence.  As the introduction by Bill Willingham states, "Welcome to the woods: where all fairy tales take place - even those that don't."  Ruled over by King Cole and his second in command the ever beautiful Snow White (who has a less than amicable relationship with her ex-husband who is not-so Charming), things are far from happily ever after as the main plot of this section of the story involves a murder mystery and the subsequent investigations by Sheriff Bigby Wolf.

The story was bound to hook me in, but as with any graphic novel, the artwork is what kept me glued to the pages.  I love hardbound editions to graphic novels because not only do I love diving into multiple issues at at time but I love that the finishing on the inking and design gives them an even more vibrant look.  Color aside though, I think this is a series that would be enjoyable in any format since I really just loved the way the characters were conceived and drawn.  Take this example of a figurine designed off sketches from issue eight:



Which brings me to the second half of The Deluxe Edition, the story "Animal Farm" (Chapter 1: Road Trip; Chapter 2: The Guns of Fabletown; Chapter 3: The Pirates of Upstate New York; Chapter 4: Warlord of the Flies; and Chapter 5: Twilight of the Dogs.) 

"Animal Farm" comprised a much darker tale involving the non-human residents of the fairy tale community who, unable to blend into normal city life, have their own residence on a farm in upstate New York.  The title taken from Orwell's classic is no coincidence and the literary allusions don't stop with a revolt led by one of the three pigs.  I was really impressed with the more sinister feel of this set of tales.  Willingham creates a story arc that is constantly surprising and I know if I had read this issue by issue I would have been agonizing over each and every cliffhanger.  

All in all, I'm really glad to have discovered Fables.  I'm thankful both for Tif's suggestion that brought it to my attention and for the fact that my local library carries graphic novels.  I know some readers consider "comic books" to be some substandard form of literature, but I can honestly say that the storytelling I found in this series was as complex and intriguing as many of my favorite fantasy works and I find that well done artwork enhances rather than detracts from the narrative.  (This picture is the spread cover of the Deluxe Edition - just had to give another example of the creative and imaginative artwork found in the collection!)


Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One by Bill Willingham is the latest entry in my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (9 out of 12).  Are you familiar with the Fables series?  Is it one you're interested in checking out?  What are your thoughts on graphic novels as literature?  Does your local library carry them?

I have a nerdy Halloween joke for you all: 

Bad puns aside, the joke serves as a great intro to my spook-tacular edition of A Weekend to ReCOVER!  Bram Stoker's Dracula is my favorite vampire novel and I was really impressed with the number and variety of covers out there for this one. This goes to show not only is this a book that has stood the test of time since its original publication in 1897, but it's also a work that has weathered various reinventions of marketing for a very timeless tale.













Some seem to display scenes directly from the text while others dabble with more abstract images or typical vampire themes.  These are just a fraction of the many covers and if anyone wants to view more, check out the gallery at LibraryThing here. 

Do you have a favorite among the covers I've shown here?  Which edition of Stoker's classic would you be most likely to display on your shelf?

A Weekend to ReCOVER is an occasional feature hosted by Her Book Self comparing or discussing cover art, dust jackets, or anything else related to design and marketing of books.  Feel free to chime in with your comments below or create a post of your own (and be sure to leave a link if you do!).

And for those caught in the Halloween spirit, don't forget to enter the eBook giveaway for a copy of A.M. Harte's collection of zombie love stories, Hungry For You!

Book: Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Series: Anne of Green Gables

Book Order: Anne of Green Gables* (1), Anne of Avonlea* (2), Anne of the Island (3), Anne of Windy Poplars (4), Anne's House of Dreams (5), Anne of Ingleside (6), Rainbow Valley (7), Rilla of Ingleside (8) 
* indicates a book I have read

Anne of Avonlea is the continuation of the story begun in Anne of Green Gables of L.M. Montgomery's indomitable heroine Anne Shirley.  Grown up from the first novel, Anne begins book two as a school teacher in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island.  Many of characters from Anne of Green Gables return in the sequel - Marilla Cuthbert, Diana Barry, Gilbert Blythe, Rachel Lynde - but Anne also makes many new acquaintances and her students and neighbors provide some fresh drama to the story. 

I love this series, but I did feel that this book wasn't quite as enjoyable as the first.  There was something enchanting in book one about discovering Green Gables and Avonlea through Anne's innocent eyes, and this book felt a bit more - for lack of a better word - ordinary.  There were definitely memorable moments and fun points to the story but it's hard to say that any of them were as brilliant as Anne's antics in the series opener.  The first book was the story of a young girl and this one is clearly the story of a young woman.  Anne has matured and so the book lacks some of her youthful humor and fanciful imagination.  Still, it is the characters and the picturesque scenery that make this book a heartwarming read as well as Montgomery's slowly unfolding love story between Gilbert and Anne. 

For any readers who complain about the irksome trend in popular fiction of eye-roll-inducing love at first sight, I give you a quote revealing a different perspective:

"Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps... perhaps love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath."

~ Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery

Even if I may not have loved this book as much as the first in the series, this quote melted me.  The more I read of the Anne of Green Gables series, the more I realize that the beauty of Montgomery's saga is not just in the individual works, but in the sweeping narrative as a whole.  I still wish I had read these books at a younger age, but even discovering them as an adult, they are charming, lovely works and I look forward to the next six in the series.

A while ago I posted a review of book I read back in 2007 but wanted to mention on this blog because it was a charming tale (and I was in the mood to write about something light). The book I mentioned was Becky by Lenore Hart.  In recalling how much I enjoyed that book, I did a little web search of Ms. Hart and found she had released another book - also dealing with a fictionalized version of historic characters but this time focusing on Edgar Allan Poe. I secreted the title away in my mind to pick up in the future, so imagine my surprise when on my very next trip to the library, Hart's book was facing me from the front of the New Fiction shelf!

The Raven's Bride is the story of Virginia "Sissy" Clemm, first cousin to Edgar Allan Poe who later becomes his wife.  The story follows young Sissy who is charmed by her cousin at a very early age and weds him when she was just 13 and he 27.  As a reader it was odd to think about this relationship in modern context, but Hart writes in such a way that Sissy's feelings for Edgar and her intellectual attraction to him seem quite natural.  Despite her youth, she comes across as very mature and her relationship with the moody writer makes for a very interesting story.

Hart ties Edgar's relationship to Sissy with the inspirations for his most famous works and paints a believable picture of what their life may have looked like.  Granted, the story of Poe's life is a tragic one.  Plagued with alcoholism and financial instability, Edgar and Sissy walk a rocky and troubled road.   Sissy's health also fails and though she and Edgar don't have long together, Hart weaves in a bit of the supernatural in a way that is both a positive spin to the story and a tribute to Poe's darker tendencies.

In the author's note, Lenore Hart reveals that her own name is taken from Poe's most famous poem and her admiration for him is shown in her dedication to detail regarding the life of the master writer.  The Raven's Bride is an unique and original story and acts as a great companion work to those seeking to learn more about the lives of Edgar Allan Poe and his lesser known wife.

I know this is a first for me to jump into two Top Ten Tuesdays in a row, but the superb bloggers over at The Broke and the Bookish came up with another topic for which I'm eager to toss around my two cents:

Awesome picture found here!

1. MORE: Though "cowbell" should be my number one on any list of what I want more of, the first trend I can think of is Stand Alone Novels!  I feel like series, and specifically trilogies, have become the norm and I really enjoy when authors can take the time to just write a single well-told story without any to-be-continued at the end.  I can think of a number of books that have been released since I began blogging (Matched, Nightshade, Paranormalcy, The Iron King, etc) that I've avoided reading because I don't like to be in the middle of too many unfinished series at one time. I don't inherently object to series books, but I much prefer them when each entry in the series is a complete story in itself.  (A great example is Delirium - though I recently found out Lauren Oliver has a sequel in the works, the first book works perfectly fine on its own.)

2. LESS: I'm a fan of color and the first trend I can think of that's starting to wear on me is Black Covers.  I talked a bit about the Twilight-esque covers in the comments of this post, but all-in-all I'm a bit amazed how many covers tend toward such dark colors these days.  I would think that bright vivid ones would be more eye-catching but I'm always amazed when I walk into the few remaining bookstores near me and am confronted by black, black, and more black. 

3. MORE: Though I mentioned the book in a previous Top Ten Tuesday post about movies, one of my favorite books is The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  I mention it here because I think it's a great example of a Young Adult Work that Appeals to Males as well as females, and I would love to see more books in that category.

4. LESS: Along those same lines, I think the book world can afford to do with less novels about Thirteen-Year-Old Girls riding around in Limos and Drinking Martinis.  I know a lot of what I read as a young girl was very much fluff-fiction, but I seem to see lots of books these days geared at girls in which the main characters are rich socialites.  Though I understand the fun of these characters, why not decrease this trend and have more females making a difference rather than just enjoying themselves.

5. MORE: And while I'm on the subject of having more characters make a difference, my wishlist of trends definitely includes more Novels Set in the Real World.  I like dystopia as much as the next reader, but I also enjoy a good story about friendship or a classic mystery in a suburban setting. 

6. LESS: Reading should be about connecting to real life as much as it should be about escapism or daydreaming, and while I'm dreaming about more novels with realistic settings, could we also get a little less Paranormal?  For a while it was just vampires that were overdone but now it seems that werewolves, zombies, angels, demons, psychics, and ghosts have all happily joined the parade.

7. MORE: Someone once explained the supernatural trend in literature in saying that all the good "normal" stories have already been told, but if that truly is the view, I say, why not retell them?  Great stories do stand the test of time and I love the trend of Updating and Reinventing Classics.  I'm not talking about all the "And Zombies" quirk stories that, for me, fall firmly in the LESS category, but rather the young adult novel that focuses on making a classic story accessible to today's audience.  There's a wealth of source material, so really authors, what are you waiting for?

8: LESS: Just don't be one of the countless authors that's writing a Retelling or Sequel to Pride and Prejudice.  Please.  Please, please, please, can we as a literary community agree to finally leave the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys alone?  The original is a masterpiece and some of the new spoofs and homages have been great fun but the market is saturated and I really think we can all survive without another glimpse into the life of Denny's cousin's butler or Georgiana's friend's secret diary.  There are countless other works out there - even plenty other Austen pieces - that haven't had the abuse attention given them that Pride and Prejudice has garnered.

I think I'm going to stop this list at eight today.  As always, I love to hear your thoughts, agreements, and disagreements.  Thanks for stopping by and thanks again to The Broke and the Bookish for always hosting such a fun start to the blogging week! 

Those words may be the most iconic and memorable portion of the story of Rapunzel, but the phrase, though oft repeated, is just a small portion of the original fairy tale.  Since my last entry for Fairy Tale Fridays featured Melisande, an updated long-hair princess story, I thought I would take this week to explore the classic version of Rapunzel.  As is often the case, the story has origins dating to the 1600's but the version that most consider the classic tale is the one recorded by The Brothers Grimm. (Full text of the story is available here.)

In this version, a childless couple lives next to a walled garden owned by a witch.  Seeking to please his wife, the man sneaks into the garden to steal some rampion.  Though successful at first, the man's thievery is discovered by the witch who demands, as payment, "the child [his] wife will shortly bring into the world".  It is unclear in the story whether the wife was expecting before the man went to steal the rampion.  I used to assume the the wife's craving was associated with pregnancy, but an interesting alternative was that the wife was simply looking for things denied to her as part of the frustration of her inability to have children.  With this perspective, it could also be taken to mean that the man's interaction with the witch caused his wife to conceive.  It could be that the only reason the man agreed to the witch's deal was that he did not believe his wife would ever have a child.  Needless to say, the man strikes the bargain, a child is born, and the girl is given over to the witch who promises to care for her as a mother.  (Rampion is a plant similar to lettuce or spinach and is also called rapunzel, giving the girl and the story its name.) 

Rapunzel, of course, is kept in a door-less tower by the witch who comes to see her and climbs into her window by requesting each time the well-known phrase, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!"  In the Grimm story, her hair is golden and it's one of few details preserved from the original story in the Disney film Tangled.  (Loved the film, but for now I'm going to tailor this post towards the original story.)  The witch's method of entry into Rapunzel's tower is then observed by a prince who hears Rapunzel's singing and falls in love with her.  She is frightened by him at first but he wins her over with kind words and compliments.  He pleads for her to escape with him and she instructs him to "bring a skein of silk" every time he comes to see her and plans to construct a ladder to use to climb out of the tower.

This is definitely the portion of the story where the reader could conceive of better plans than the protagonists.  One wonders why the witch would not be suspicious of skeins of silk accumulating in the tower room.  And of all the materials to ask for, why silk for a ladder when hemp rope, linen, or even cotton would be a much better material to work with.  Granted, Rapunzel also could have cut off her own hair and climbed down the tower herself.  I don't know the reason for Rapunzel's instructions, but I like to imagine that she is testing her prince.  Silk would be expensive and rare so she was measuring how much her freedom was worth to the prince, and by instructing him to come every day she was testing his devotion to her.  Rather than just run off with him, he needed to prove himself worthy of her first.

Of course, before the prince's love and determination are witnessed, Rapunzel makes a big blunder.  She reveals her relationship with the prince to the witch.  The witch cuts off Rapunzel's hair and casts her into exile.  Waiting in the tower for the prince, the witch fools him with the hair into climbing the tower before revealing that Rapunzel is gone.  And then the prince throws himself out the window.  I'm not sure why he was so easily upset by the witch.  I would have preferred for him to fight for Rapunzel or demand to know her whereabouts.  I can only assume - or at least hope - that there was some magic involved in the prince's instant turn toward despair.  Though he survives the fall from the tower, he is blinded by thorns which prick out his eyes.

One might expect a Brothers Grimm story to end here.  Rapunzel is cast out, the prince is blind, and the witch is seemingly triumphant.  However, there is something better in store for the ending of this tale.  The prince wanders far and wide, until,

"...he came to the desert place where Rapunzel was living. Of a sudden he heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to him. He walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he was quite close, Rapunzel recognized him and fell on his neck and wept. But two of her tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear again, and he saw as well as he had ever done. Then he led her to his kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily ever after."

I love that this one ends with the classical last three words.   As much as I enjoy when tales take darker turns, I always appreciate it when things finish on a positive note. 

This post is part of my 2011 Fairy Tale Challenge (6 out of 12) inspired by Tif of Tif Talks Books.  What do you think about the original version of Rapunzel?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section here or link up with your own post about this tale or any fairy tale you feel like reading this month!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is an urban fantasy alternate version of US history in which the sixteenth president of the United States embarked upon a hidden career as a slayer of bloodsucking fiends. Seth Grahame-Smith - creator of the instant cult-classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - returns to his form of incorporating humorous yet violent warfare against the undead into an otherwise well-known story. In this case, the book still represents a fairly accurate biography of Lincoln, granted the addition of vampires as a primary cause of the US civil war keeps the book in the fiction section, despite Grahame-Smith's prologue relating why the book is true and should be taken seriously.

I suppose I would have enjoyed this work more had it not tried for the pretense of conspiracy theory. I was highly entertained by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and was expecting a similar lighthearted spirit to this book. The opening of the story, in which Abe as a young boy discovers that the same axe he splits logs with can be used to decapitate vamps, maintained the classic-meets-paranormal feel. However, once the book progressed and Lincoln's political career began, the mash-up did not work as well. As much as I enjoy suspension of disbelief in alternate history, to suppose that Lincoln supported the abolishing of slavery to remove a vampire food source rather than because it was an abhorrent institution didn't sit well with me.

There was still plenty in this book that was entertaining, and the Photoshopped images were well done and captioned perfectly. For fans of Seth Grahame-Smith and those who want a based-in-truth but quite twisted biography of Lincoln, it is a worthwhile read, but I still find myself wishing it hadn't taken itself quite so seriously. Rather than paint a darker portrait of not-so-honest Abe I think the book could have succeeded even more by creating an exaggerated hero out of the sixteenth president.

Usually when I think of a book being described as "epic", that book is a lengthy piece of fantasy or a nonfictional history tome. However, I think "epic" is great word to describe Juliet by Anne Fortier.

The main story is set in modern day with heroine Julie Jacobs discovering secrets about her ancestors after the death of her dear Aunt Rose. Julie learns that her real name is Guilietta Tolomei and several generations ago a relative bearing the same name was a real star-crossed lover whose life became legend and eventually inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Set in Siena, Italy - rather than Verona - Julie's story alternates with that of the Guilietta Tolomei in the 1340's. The history and culture of this story-within-the-story are brought to life in beautiful detail. The tale that is unraveled is presented as historical fact, bearing only faint resemblance to the popular play it evolved into.

As Julie unravels clues to her family's ancient past, she finds that the parts of the story Shakespeare got right may have huge implications for her future. Along with a "plague" that seems to have cursed her family for several generations, Julie wonders if she is destined to fall for a Romeo of her own. She can only hope that this time the tale will have a happier ending.

I really enjoyed this story and found the rich landscape of Italy to be enchanting in both the present and past portions of the book. Though there were a few spells when the narrative seemed to drag, for the most part I found the story intriguing and enjoyable. Fortier did a great job of creating a precursor to Romeo and Juliet and tying it nicely to a modern story. Even with such well-known, frequently reinvented source material, Fortier managed to take a new spin on Shakespeare, and Juliet is a book to be enjoyed by fans of the bard as well as those looking for a freshly original work.

In Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher, Lenore Hart weaves historical fiction and gentle romance into Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with the caveat that the heroine, Becky Thatcher, is not the sniveling girl Twain portrayed her to be. The story begins with a grown up Thatcher, married to Tom's cousin Sid Hopkins caring for two children with Hannibal, Missouri facing the effects of a country on the brink of civil war. Though satisfied with her life, Becky has fond recollections of her childhood days – in flashback scenes the reader is brought to a fun alternate narration of Tom Sawyer - and still nurses secret affections for her first sweetheart.

Hart’s novel plunges into adventure as the grown up Becky tries to save her husband from the war and convinces her family to follow the gold rush out to the Wild West. Along the way Samuel Clemens (the writer who adopts the pen name Mark Twain), Huck Finn, Jesse James, and, of course, Tom Sawyer make their way into Becky’s tale enhancing the feeling that the book is a true account of a fictional character’s life. Hart writes a believable story while maintaining a sort of southern charm that keeps it true to the spirit Twain’s novels.

I really enjoyed this book.  As a fan of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Becky seemed to me the book that could’ve been written if Mark Twain was a woman. I was enamored with the characters by the very first page and would recommend the book to those that love Twain’s writing as well as any fans of historical romance. At times sweet, funny, tender, sad, poignant and exciting, Becky:The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher earns a rightful place on a shelf near classics that inspired it.

Recently I received a paperback copy of Jane Eyre (I read it originally on my Kindle) with the following cover:

This is the movie tie-in cover from the most recent film adaptation, but I actually really like the stylized form of the very plain looking Jane superimposed with the profile of Mr. Rochester.  A while back I did a cover survey of Emma by Jane Austen after I noticed a reader with a very contemporary-styled dust jacket on the book and I thought it would be interesting to do a similar broad scoped comparison of covers for Jane Eyre.

Check out even more covers here.  Quite the variety and stylistic approach.  I'm always amazed at the marketing that goes into redesigning a classic and I often wonder if these new approaches really draw new readers in.  I'm sort of of the impression that most people reading Jane Eyre are reading it for a purpose (such as, "I have to write a five page English Lit paper on Jane Eyre, I should probably read it" or "Gee, I'm thirty years old and I've never read Jane Eyre, I should remedy that situation"), but it's fully possible that there are casual readers that wander into their local bookstore and think that Charlotte Bronte is some hot new author and want to check out her latest work.

Do you have a favorite Jane Eyre cover?  Do you prefer the more modern or the more classic styles?  Which covers most evoke the story to you?

A Weekend to ReCOVER is a meme hosted by Her Book Self that is dedicated to analyzing, comparing and discussing cover art.  Feel free to share your thoughts on the Jane Eyre covers here or link up with your own post to talk about these covers or any book art that strikes your fancy!