Tag Archives: Easy Reading

The Princess in the Tower by Elizabeth A. Lynn

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: The Princess in the Tower
Author: Elizabeth A. Lynn
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fairy tales, Food
Date read: 28th January 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: After the examination, he told Margherita to go outside, where she was instantly encircled by a small crowd of delighted urchins, who speculated aloud about the fatal, wasting disease she had obviously contracted.

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Synopsis

Margherita can’t seem to put on the weight that characterises the rest of her family. So they decide to put her in a tower to save her from her madness. Luckily for her, a nice young gentleman comes along and loves her… just the way she is.

Thoughts

This is the second Rapunzel story in the Snow White, Blood Red collection. And it is far more light-hearted and entertaining than the first. Where the previous story was a little dark and twisted, this one was fun, happy and had me smiling throughout. It also made me a little hungry with the constant mentions of pasta and food.

This short story really turns the idea of beauty on its head. Instead of being beautiful for her slenderness, Margherita is thought to be sick and mad. It makes those who are large and curvy beautiful, and those who are slender somehow “wrong”. A great way to flip current societal norms on its head. I also love that in the happily-ever-after a gain in weight and a lot of food feature. Again, something that wouldn’t normally involve a happily-ever-after and one that I really loved.

 <- The Root of the Matter ReviewPersimmon Review ->
Image source: Amazon

Run, Rabbit by Angela Slatter

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for mad hatters and march hares ellen datlow book cover

Title: Run, Rabbit
Author: Angela Slatter
In: Mad Hatters and March Hares (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fantasy
Dates read: 27th January 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: He knows what to look for in newcomers

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Synopsis

Rabbit is on the run from the Queen. But it isn’t until he is caught that he realises what a twisted trap he has laid for himself.

Thoughts

Sometimes it is fun to imagine what happens to the characters after you turn the last page of the story. Especially when you are dealing with characters such as Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s not a story that has a clear beginning and ending. And it’s one that leaves a lot of imaginative license – there aren’t a lot of very specific plot lines and it gives a lot of fluidity and manoeuvrability to the storyline.

This short story takes the idea of “what happens after” and creates a whole new narrative. One in which the Rabbit is something a little more evil. A little more twisted, and even Alice is turned into a darker and more sinister version. Which, on rereading the original storylines, I can completely understand the dark and twisty storyline and feeling.

 <- All the King’s Men ReviewIn Memory of a Summer’s Day Review ->
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The Silver Horse by Kate Forsyth

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for the silver horse kate forsyth book cover

Title: The Silver Horse
Author: Kate Forsyth
Series: The Chain of Charms #2
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Easy reading,
Gypsies, Historical fiction
Dates read: 17th – 21st January 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Macmillan
Year: 2006
5th sentence, 74th page: You think that’s why she never strays?

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Synopsis

It is the fifth year of the Lord Protector’s rule and while life has always been hard for the gypsies, since Oliver Cromwell has seized control of England, life has become harder than ever.

Emilila and Luka Finch’s family have been accused of vagrancy and murder, and thrown into gaol with only three weeks to live. Emilia and Luka’s grandmother believes that only the collection of six ancient gypsy charms will see them escape the hangman’s noose.

Emilia and Luka are now on a dangerous quest to find all six charms and with a little bit of luck – or, as Emilia believes, magice – save their family from the gallows. They have the first, an old gold coin, but now they seek the second precious charm.

The charm, they believe, lies with the horse-trading Hearne family. But the Hearnes are reluctant to help, let alone give up their treasured talisman. With Coldham close on their heels, Emilia and Luka must race against time to win the support of the Hearnes – all the while trying to keep a grumpy old brown bear out of sight and out of trouble.

The second book in this exciting six-book series about the adventures of two daring children, a monkey, a dog and a dancing bear in search of the chain of charms.

Thoughts

I found this story kind of sad. Emilia and Luka are on the next step of their journey to try and find help for their family. And yet, the people who are supposed to be closer than kin are the very ones who turn their backs on the children. And also decide to take advantage of them. No matter that it is a family trying to take care of themselves, my heart broke a little for both gypsy children the further the story unfolds.

This is a reread of the Chain of Charms series, and although it has been over a year between rereading the first story, The Gypsy Crown, and this, the second, I still get that same great joy of the tale. And, as I’ve gotten older and revisited this story, I am realising more and more how amazing Forsyth’s talent is at mixing historical fact with imaginative fiction. The blending of the two, and the notes at the end of the story which highlight the facts and fiction intertwine beautifully.

As a child, there was something intriguing and alluring about being a gypsy. Probably for me, the no shoes and no permanent abode. I’ve mostly lost that intrigue (I can’t have a library like mine if I lived on the road). But, there is still something of that childish and innocent desire to explore the world. That nostalgia for a time and peoples that I’ve never met or experienced. It makes me incredibly excited to pick up the next in this story and continue my very enjoyable journey down nostalgia-lane.

 <- The Gypsy Crown ReviewThe Herb of Grace Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

Castle Othello by Nancy Farmer

Book Review, ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Castle Othello
Author: Nancy Farmer
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fairy tales
Dates read: 17th February 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: His skin –

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Synopsis

When a strange man comes to town, one sister thinks that she’s found the answer to her happily ever after. But, all is not as it seems and it may take the gumption of her sister to help her escape the trap she has set for herself.

Thoughts

I haven’t yet had the chance to read the original Bluebeard fairy tale (I don’t think). But I did thoroughly enjoy Angela Carter’s retelling. So it was kind of fun to read a far more innocent and simpler retelling. One in which the villain suddenly becomes something completely different and offers an entirely new perspective to an otherwise dark and twisted tale.

Where Carter’s retelling is about the woman triumphing in a way that she wasn’t able to in the original, Farmer’s is about retelling the story from an entirely different point of view. She almost Disney-fied the tale. And sometimes that just frustrates me, yet this worked kind of beautifully. Not only by intertwining historical facts, but also in keeping to many of the key themes that seem to run through these two stories.

Castle Othello is a completely innocent story. One that, surprisingly, instead of frustrating me was thoroughly enjoyable. And I was actually quite sad to turn the last page on such a sweet, happy ending.

 <- Troll Review‘Skin Review ->
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Up the Down Beanstalk by Peter S. Beagle

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Up the Down Beanstalk: A Wife Remembers
Author: Peter S. Beagle
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Comedy, Easy reading, Fairy tales
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: The things they believe about us down there!

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Synopsis

We all know about Jack’s journey up the beanstalk – but what really happened up there? The giant’s wife reveals all!

Thoughts

I love different points of view on fairy tales. And Jack and the Beanstalk is an incredibly well-known tale. The fact that this story is told with him as a kind of villain made this thoroughly enjoyable. After all, if you think about it… how does the good guy end up killing someone and stealing things? There is nothing very virtuous and “good” about this at all.

Although Jack is mildly cast in the role of villain… he is also looked upon with favour by the giant’s wife. After all, it is all from her point of view, and the frustrated affection she feels towards her husband (ew, who is called Harvey?) highlights her independence and intelligence. The fact that Jack is as quick-witted and quick-footed as the giantess and an equal match for her just made everything all the more entertaining. Especially when you consider the brilliant ending of this story.

 <- Rags and Riches ReviewThe Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces Review ->
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Conjoined by Jane Yolen

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for mad hatters and march hares ellen datlow book cover

Title: Conjoined
Author: Jane Yolen
In: Mad Hatters and March Hares (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Animagus, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: “The value,” he used to say, “is not what a thing is worth intrinsically but what someone is willing to pay for it.”

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Synopsis

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are constantly fighting, but that isn’t what makes their ape friend travel to Wonderland. Rather, a cheshire cat, a battle with the Jabber Wocky and a series of rather interesting events send him forth.

Thoughts

I thought that this story was going to be about Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Until I slowly realised that it is about an orangutan in the circus… which Tweedledee and Tweedledum are part of. Talk about a rapid change of direction!

Tweedledee and Tweedledum are both such humorous characters, but it wasn’t until I read this story that I really wondered how such human-like creatures could be in Wonderland. And then it really wasn’t until the very end that I felt like this was a great beginnings story. How the Tweedles made it to Wonderland, where the idea of “off with your head” came from… and so many other things.

The connectivity between modern-day circus performers and acts, the Cheshire Cat and the world of Wonderland was incredibly fun. And I was mostly just disappointed that the story was over so quickly… after all, I wanted to know more about the man-ape that took centre stage.

 <- Lily-White & the Thief of Lesser Night ReviewMercury Review ->
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The Frog Prince by Gahan Wilson

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: The Frog Prince
Author: Gahan Wilson
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Comedy, Easy reading, Fairy tales
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: Sometimes, lying there, he wondered if he was making visible rivulets and pools beneath himself on the surface of the couch.

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Synopsis

Everyone needs a shrink sometimes… even a frog prince.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this story – it took the well-known trope of a frog prince and turned it around a little. For starters… the frog is still a frog… for another thing, his entire story is told in a weird, dream-like state.

There’s something about therapy offices that have a very distinctive feel. The couch that the characters lie on (I never did this in therapy, but it always seems to be in the media…), the stress…. And in the case of the frog prince, the constant sweating. It added an extra sense of realism and an increase in the stakes of the storyline as the amphibian royalty unfolds his latest dream.

Originally I thought that this short story was about the frog prince’s happily ever after going a little skewy, but, as it turns out, it is more about a loss of hope and trying to find one’s dream…

 <- The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep ReviewStalking Beans Review ->
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The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for word cloud classics jungle book book cover

Title: The Jungle Book
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Series: Word Cloud Classics
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Slow
Format: Novel
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1894
5th sentence, 74th page: What’s that?” said Sea Vitch, and he struck the next walrus a blow with his tusks and waked him up, and the next struck the next, and so on till they were all awake and staring in every direction but the right one.

Synopsis

Penned by English Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling in 1894, The Jungle Book is a collection of allegorical stories that take place in the Indian jungle. The most famous stories of The Jungle Book are those featuring a young boy named Mowgli who was raised by wolves, is friends with a panther, and was educated by the animals of the jungle. Also popular in this collection is “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” about a mongoose who protects his human family against cobras. This edition also features tales from Kipling’s Just So Stories. These origin fables answer many questions about why things are the way they are, and readers will delight in tales like “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin,” “The Beginning of the Armadillos,” and “How the First Letter Was Written.” A treasure trove of children’s literature, The Jungle Book and Other Stories from the Word Cloud Classics series is a chic and affordable addition to any library.

Thoughts

I had no idea what to expect from The Jungle Book. I’d honestly only ever watched the Disney movie and hadn’t read any blurbs attached to Kipling’s writing. It was just one of my many impulsive moments where I picked up the book, ready to read it and unsure of what to expect. Which was nice, because I also didn’t have any huge expectations placed upon the words. My main expectation was just that it would be about Mowgli, which was wrong.

I did wonder how an entire book about a man cub would turn out, and I’m actually really glad that this wasn’t the case in any way, shape or form. I loved that there were only about half a dozen short stories (or chapters) devoted to Mowgli, and the rest were a series of stories and poems based all across the Indian countryside. It made me feel like I was transported to a different place and a different time. Learning about how things were in a fantastical land that is part fact, and part fiction.

This is definitely going to be one of those classics that I’ll pick up again and again and again, and I’ll probably find something new and interesting to say about it each time. A new story or meaning that I wasn’t able to pick up on before.

<- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other StoriesThe Phantom of the Opera ->

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Wizard’s Apprentice by Delia Sherman

Book Review, , , , ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Wizard’s Apprentice
Author: Delia Sherman
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fairy tales, Villains, Wizards
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: And leave your boots by the door.

Synopsis

The evil wizard in the bookshop is about to take on a new apprentice, but their relationship is not all as it seems.

Thoughts

This short story made me smile. It’s a great start to a collection of villain-based rewritings of fairy tales. For starters, the evil wizard that is a pretty common standpoint of many fairy tales and modern retellings is not at all what you would expect. The apprentice (who I thought was going to be eaten or turned into a toad) is from the background that I was anticipating, but the actual apprentice himself wasn’t even remotely who I thought he would be.

This is the second short story that I have read by Delia Sherman, and something about her writing manages to infuse a subtle, cheeky sense of humour into her tale telling. Wizard’s Apprentice is a little less subtle than the other stories I’ve read by her, but it still has that great twisting joy that I’m beginning to associate with her name. It’s especially joyful and obvious at the conclusion of the short stories, there is a fun and entertaining twist that leaves a happy little smile lingering across my lips.

<- Troll’s-Eye ViewAn Unwelcome Guest ->

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Jimmy Krinklepot and the White Rebels of Hayberry by Quincy J. Allen

Book Review, , ,
Overview
A Fantastic Holiday Season

Title: Jimmy Krinklepot and the White Rebels of Hayberry
Author: Quincy J. Allen
In: A Fantastic Holiday Season (Kevin J. Anderson & Keith J. Olexa)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Easy reading
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: World Fire Press
Year: 2014
5th sentence, 74th page: The handle plugged into a brass housing adorned by thick coils of wire on each side.

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Synopsis

Jimmy Krinklepot is a young man with some big ideas. Ideas that tend to get him in trouble with the law… but, they could also save his town and his future too.

Thoughts

It took me a little while to get into this story – actually, I basically skim read the entire tale. Not because it was bad, but it just wasn’t my style. And it didn’t feel as Christmasy as I was expecting. Yes, it is based around Christmas, and has some of the hallmarks of a Christmas-time story, but it wasn’t filled with the intensity of the spirit like many of the other stories in this collection.

I really enjoyed the fact that the lead in this short story was a young boy – one that is an inventor and immensely smart. I especially love the constant comments about the ways in which he uses his “grey matter” whenever a problem comes up. It’s a reminder that being intelligent isn’t always a bad thing, and, ultimately, it’s what saves the day.

 <- The Longest Night ReviewMidnight Trains Review ->
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