Children’s Lit Class Updated: Classic Fairy Tales

The Classic Fairy Tales (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)I am so enjoying this class!!  Re-reading fairy tales has been such an interesting experience as the tales are often dark, reflect few choices for women and, in the tales of HC Anderson have a lot of religious undertones.  I don’t think that I noticed any of that when I was a child.

Yesterday we spent a lot of time talking about Hansel and Gretel.  They were described as tricksters; they used their wits in order to survive and trick the witch.  An interesting note provided by the professor was that in the original folk tales many of the wicked parents were the children’s biological mothers.  However, as time passed, tale tellers did not want to condemn mothers and so we began to read about the many wicked stepmothers.  Also pointed out from H and G was the importance of food and how food was scarce for many at the time that the tale was first told.  An additional take was that there was more danger for children who were without their mothers.

We also began a discussion of The Little Mermaid which is not very much like the Disney movie.  It was noted that Anderson wrote his stories and that they did not come from folklore.  Anderson had greater powers of description and gave more of the character’s inner thoughts than earlier writers.  Religion was very present in the story.

Try rereading some fairy tales and let me know what you think.  i have been fascinated.  Next week we move to Alice in Wonderland.  I am excited.

E-book bargains: Moyes and Mackintosh

Windfallen by [Moyes, Jojo]Jojo Moyes is best known for writing Me Before You, her breakout book.  However, she wrote quite a few books before that one.  Windfallen is one of them and it is an e-book bargain today at $1.99.

From Publishers Weekly

Moyes, a young Brit, again proves herself a worthy successor to Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher with her second novel (after Sheltering Rain), a warmhearted drama. A magnificent art deco house called Arcadia, built on a seaside cliff in the stuffy English village of Merham, stands at the center of her tale. Lottie Swift was born in London’s East End but evacuated during WWII to Merham as a child; she’s eventually taken in permanently by the Holden family and brought up in their bustling household just down the road from Arcadia. When Lottie is in her late teens, an exotic clan of bohemians move into Arcadia, and Lottie takes to visiting, sometimes with Celia Holden, her best friend, but more often on her own. Then Celia goes away to school in London and comes back with a fiance-a man Lottie believes is her destiny. Her love is doomed, but Arcadia provides unexpected solace. Half a century later, interior designer Daisy Parsons comes to Arcadia, hired by a successful but prickly London developer who has bought the house with plans for making it into a fashionable tourist destination. Daisy’s longtime lover and design partner has just departed after their baby is born, but she conquers self-pity and determines to honor the contract by herself. She’s befriended by Lottie, now an acerbic matron who scorns her village contemporaries but is charmed by the baby and volunteers to act as nanny. Moyes deftly handles her involved plot, skillfully exploring the different family dynamics; her thoughtful tone and light touch make this a delightful read.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

 

I Let You Go $1.99 today.  I enjoyed this moody thriller and you might too.

One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Crime Novels of 2016!

The next blockbuster thriller for those who loved The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl...“a finely crafted novel with a killer twist.”(#1 New York Times bestselling author Paula Hawkins)
 

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of British author Mackintosh’s accomplished debut, five-year-old Jacob Jordan lets go of his mother’s hand for an instant on a rainy evening in Bristol, England, and darts into the road, only to be struck and killed by a hit-and-run. The investigation lands on the desk of Det. Insp. Ray Stevens and his eager new detective constable, Kate Evans. Mackintosh alternates between the slow, but fruitless, police work and the movements of artist Jenna Gray, who’s haunted by Jacob’s death and relocates to an isolated Welsh village, where she keeps to herself, warming slightly to the local vet after finding an abandoned puppy, and even then keeping the details of her previous life a secret. Back in Bristol, Ray and Kate work the case to the ground, despite a lack of leads; predictable sparks fly, even though Ray is happily married with two children. Mackintosh easily shifts points of view and keeps readers on their toes, slowly upping the suspense, so that when she does reveal her twists they—mostly—work. (May)

Sarum by Rutherford

Sarum: The Novel of England by [Rutherfurd, Edward]$1.99 today.  I bought, but have not as yet, read this.  Edward Rutherford is an author who can most easily be described as a British James Michener.  He writes long, detailed historical novels that follow families and places over many centuries.  This one takes place on the Salisbury Plain, home of Stonehenge.  At 1,059 pages, it is a commitment but I have been informed that it is worth the time.

From Library Journal

A first novel, Rutherfurd’s sweeping saga of the area surrounding Stonehenge and Salisbury, England, covers 10,000 years and includes many generations of five families. Each family has one or more characteristic types who appear in successive centuries: the round-headed balding man who is good with his hands; the blue-eyed blonde woman who insists on having her independence; the dark, narrow-faced fisher of river waters and secrets. Their fortunes rise and fall both economically and politically, but the land triumphs over the passage of time and the ravages of humans. Rutherfurd has told the story of the land he was born in and has told it well. The verbosity of a Michener is missing, but all the other elements are present, from geology and archaeology to a rich story of human life. Highly recommended. BOMC alternate. Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Poirot: Christie and Hannah

The Mysterious Affair At Styles: (Illustrated) by [Christie, Agatha]

$1.99 today.  Many of you have probably already read this book but, if you have not, here is your chance.   A summary from my local library:

“Who doesn’t love a good mystery novel? Curl up with The mysterious affair at Styles, a tale from the pen of Agatha Christie, a writer who is regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the masters of the form. This classic manor-house mystery introduces Christie’s much beloved character, the detective Hercule Poirot.”

Once you’ve read this first Poirot, you may just want to keep going.  There are approximately 36 more.  You will enjoy them all.

More recently, Sophie Hannah, was asked by the Christie estate to write additional novels in the series.  She has written three books so far.

The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) by [Hannah, Sophie]On the first in the series: “We Agatha Christie fans read her stories–and particularly her Poirot novels–because the mysteries are invariably equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging. Sophie Hannah had a massive challenge in reviving the beloved Poirot, and she met it with heart and no small amount of little grey cells. I was thrilled to see the Belgian detective in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home.”
— Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

The Mystery of Three Quarters, pictured above,  is the latest release.  The book is a fun cozy/traditional mystery.  Clearly Hannah has read her Christie because her portrait of Poirot with his personality and idiosyncrasies, as well as his genius, comes through.  There are death, multiple suspects, country house and school settings.  Find out why church window cake can be important in a novel. Find out how the characters connect.  Watch {oirot’s “little grey cells” do their job.  All in all, a fun mystery to read.

Some praise:

“A puzzle worthy of the skills of legendary detective Hercule Poirot…. Hannah once again nails the style and substance of her beloved predecessor, producing another treat for Christie fans.” (Booklist (starred review))

“Another ingeniously deceptive puzzle…. The gratifying reveal is a neat variation on one of Christie’s own solutions and demonstrates Hannah’s facility at combining her own plotting gifts with another author’s creation.” (Publishers Weekly)

“[Hannah] supplies boundless ingenuity… adding a divinely inspired denouement.” (Kirkus Reviews)

ENJOY!

An adorable bedtime early reader: Good Night Kitty Kitty by Ponnay

I loved this book!  It is an early reader with simple language and appealing illustrations.  Adults and children who love cats will enjoy watching the unnamed child and Kitty Kitty as they settle down for the night.  This is a very cute read!

#GoodNightKittyKitty #NetGalley

E-book bargains: Vincenzi, Winspear and Lippman

The Best of TimesPenny Vincenzi writes those books that are called door stoppers because of their length.  They can be fun to read though.  About The Best of Times:

On an ordinary London afternoon, a truck swerves across five lanes of traffic and creates a tangle of chaos and confusion. As loved ones wait to hear news and the hospital prepares to receive the injured, a dozen lives hang in the balance. A doctor is torn between helping the injured and hiding his young mistress; a bridegroom hopes to get to the church on time; a widow waiting to reunite with a lost love ponders whether she’ll ever see him again; and the mysterious hitchhiker, the only person who knows what really happened, is nowhere to be found.

Filled with suspense, romance, and more twists than a country highway, The Best of Times proves once again why Penny Vincenzi is the queen of happy endings.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Baltimore Blues is the first in the Tess Monahan mystery series.  She is a Baltimore reporter.

From Publishers Weekly

Downsized ex-reporter Tess Monaghan spends her days working part-time at the bookstore owned by sexy Aunt Kitty and trying not to fall into the disgustingly polluted Patapsco from her city-owned boat. When rowing buddy Rocky pays her what looks like a fortune to follow his fiance, the trail leads to murder with Rocky the prime suspect. “Uneven” is the word for this first novel-hometown and newspaper backgrounds are alive from page one, but characters are cartoons until chapter 15 (out of 30) when Tess investigates the victim. Suddenly the story perks up to a believable pageturner. If Lippman continues the promise of the second half of Baltimore Blues while adhering to advice attributed to Elmore Leonard to cut out the
parts people won’t read, mystery fans can anticipate an engrossing series.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Among the Mad is part of the excellent Maisie Dobbs series.  Best started from the beginning but definitely all worth reading.
The author on the book:
From the time I realized that in Maisie Dobbs I had a series character, I’ve wanted to explore further the phenomenon of the range of war neuroses known to the layperson as “shell shock,” and how we see those whose behavior isn’t always within the bounds of what we consider “normal.” I also wanted to look again, through the lens of story and history, at the manner in which society treats wounded veterans, especially those whose wounds cannot be seen, but are of the mind and spirit. To do this, I drew as much upon personal experience as my research.

As many of my readers know, my grandfather suffered both physical wounds and shell shock in the Great War, and as a child I remember having to be quiet around him, so as not to excite or trouble an elderly man with terrible memories. Later, in my mid-teens, I attended a school where we were required to undertake community service one afternoon each week (and we had to attend school on Saturday mornings to make up for it!). So, on Wednesday afternoons, I joined a small group who visited a psychiatric hospital–to talk to the patients, make the tea, read to them and generally offer kindness and companionship. I can recall many of the patients, some who were obviously not able to live outside an institution, and others who inspired one to wonder why they were there at all–and when you found out, the reason was often shocking. I remember one patient I talked with each week, an astoundingly sharp, intelligent man. He had been a top-ranking surgeon, one who was regarded as almost without peer. He was also a madman, a murderer. I thought of him often while writing Among the Mad.

Last year, during my book tour, a military chaplain came to one of my events and stayed behind afterwards to talk to me. He told me that he recommended my books to the families of those who have suffered loss during the Iraq war, and especially to people who are trying to accommodate the special needs of a soldier suffering from what we today call Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). He added that in reading a story where such losses are suffered in a time of war, yet separated by history, it facilitates a deeper understanding of what the returning veteran might be experiencing, and challenges involved in coming home from war.

The recent news that servicemen and woman wounded by PTSD will not be eligible for the Military Order of the Purple Heart–awarded to US military personnel who have been wounded or killed in a war zone–struck a chord. In Britain during and following the Great War there was much controversy about war neuroses, and many soldiers were denied a pension as a result of a clampdown on the diagnosis of shell shock. In my second novel, Birds of a Feather, one of the characters says, “That’s the trouble with war, it’s never over when it’s over, it lives on inside the living.” Such a sentiment is never more true than in the case of the man or woman who has served their country in a time of war, but who has to live with that war reverberating in their mind every single day for the rest of their lives. Maisie Dobbs is such a person, as is the person she is in a race to find in Among the Mad.

Friendship for the nursery school set: Alycat and the Friendship Friday

This book is a good one for a nursery or pre-k library. In this story, Alycat is looking forward to a school field trip. When she does not get to sit with her best friend on the bus, she at first is sad. However, Alycat figures out a way to have two good friends! In addition, this book has some health information because the field trip involves meeting with Dr. Katz. A bonus is that this book has instructions for making a simple friendship bracelet at the end.

#AlycatAndTheFriendshipFriday #NetGalley

Now in paperback: A Hundred Small Lessons by Hay

This is the first novel that I have read by this Australian author…and I am glad that I did! The story of a home and the people who lived in it is told with warmth and insight. We follow the elderly seller of the house as she is moved to assisted living. She has her memories though and we experience her earlier life and relationships. In the present, a young mom tries to understand her life and parenthood. A warm and lovely book! Thanks Net Galley.

So many good reads ahead! Debut fiction sampler

A look through this title shows that there will be lots of good reading this fall.  Nine novels are excerpted in this volume.  Here they are:

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Sight by Jessie Greengrass

The Adults by Caroline Hulse

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher

Tell Me You’re Mine by Elisabeth Noreback

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

One Day in December by Josie Silver

Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent

There is an incredible range within these titles; some are dark, some are suspenseful, some have romance and one is based upon a real person.  There are mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, men and women; a wide array of fictional choices.  It was a pleasure to read the excerpts and now I look forward to reading some of these books.  You will too!

 

Pub Day!! Mortals & Immortals of Greek Mythology, Time for bed, Mikyuki and Dark Tide Rising

Mortals and Immortals of Greek MythologyMany books have been written for children retelling the stories of the great Greek myths. This book deserves a welcome place on that shelf. Each God or Goddess is introduced with a paragraph stating their Latin name, their parents, their appearance, character traits and role. The stories are told in a lively manner that demonstrates the human qualities of the gods; they can be jealous, have affairs, go to war, fight with their siblings, etc. The illustrations are lovely and have a painterly quality. If you or your child wants to know more about mythology, take a look at this appealing book.

Miyuki takes her time as she puts off going to bed. Her grandfather lovingly and patiently waits for Miyuki to complete her tasks and be ready. Finally, Miyuki is tucked in, hears a bedtime story and falls asleep.

This is an absolutely gorgeous book! The illustrations are of such high quality with their whimsy, imagination and bright colors. The text is sweet and repeats, something that is quite appealing to young children. This book will be a welcome addition for those looking for gentle bedtime stories. Highly recommended!

A new Anne Perry novel is always most welcome! Dark Tide Rising is in the William Monk series, following last year’s excellent An Echo of Murder. This new case hits very close to home for Monk, in terms of his feelings for Hester and, at work, where he fears that one of his men has betrayed the team. Some plot…Monk works for the River Police where he is a Commander. He is contacted when Kate Exeter is kidnapped and her husband wants assistance in releasing her once he has paid the (exorbitant) ransom. He and Monk’s team accompany him to a very dank, dreary spot known as Jacob’s Island for the transfer. But something goes very wrong…no spoilers, so I won’t say more. It will be well worth your reading the book to find out for yourself.

In this novel, there is back story that will please long time readers of the series. We learn much more about Monk’s second in command, Hooper, and watch him fall in love. There is a trial with Oliver Rathbone defending and Inspector Runcorn also makes an appearance. If you are new to the series, you will be able to catch up and know who’s who quickly.

Dark Tide Rising is another very good entry in an already strong series. You will feel the iciness and fog on the Thames, care about the characters and await the resolution of the case. Enjoy!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.