Books for September, 2005

[pegkerr]

Beauty by Sherri Tepper. Re-read. I picked this up after several years away to refresh my recollection to see whether it would be suitable for Fiona, since she likes fairytale retellings. At first I thought yes, and then I thought maybe she could wait on it, given the brutal rape. I have mixed feelings about this one. Parts are effective, but parts are extremely polemic; Tepper really does have certain hobby horses that she rides very hard.

The Dubious Hills by Pamela Dean (pameladean). Re-read.

The Little Country by Charles DeLint. First time read.

Short list this month. Very busy with various things, and it has gotten in the way of my reading rather more than usual.

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Rah, rah, Dubious Hills!

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

I actually started Beauty this summer, because I'd read The Gate to Women's Country and liked it. I ended up moving back to school before I could finish it, but if it'd been that gripping, I would have made time to finish it. It did seem decidely preachy.

[kishmish.livejournal.com]

I didn't like Beauty at all, it seemed too harsh and not meaningful enough. There was lots of meaning injected into it, but none of seemed worth it, if that makes sense.
Did you like the ending? I found it too sad.

Re: friends

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You are certainly welcome to add me as a friend. In order to do so, go to my user profile page (which is here) while you are logged in, and click the small button at the top which has the little head on it, with the plus sign. That adds me as one of your friends. Welcome to my LiveJournal, and I hope you will continue to comment.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I hated Tepper's Beauty and what I hated most about it was saying that homeless people were time travellers. It seemed to be trivialising a real problem, or to be doing exactly the wrong thing with the thing one can do with magic illuminating the essence of real things. I also hated the preachiness. It's a good book though, memorable, vivid, but I do not like it and will not re-read it.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

What do you think of Meghan Lindholm's book Wizard of the Pigeons, out of curiosity?

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

beauty is... a little hardhitting. i read it in HS, and i'm not sure i was ready then.

i adore charles de lint. have you read any of his other work? (i like the little country, but i think it's not that typical of his writing.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I've read perhaps six or eight of his novels, and I'll probably continue to read more.

Afterthought

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

He liked Swans a lot, which was gratifying.

[aimeempayne.livejournal.com]

Beauty was the first Tepper novel I ever read, and I have fond memories of it. She does have a Message, though.

You are probably right not to pass it on to Fiona. I read it when I was seventeen or eighteen and the rape and its consequences were tough going for me.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Tepper Beauty, although her True Game books and GRASS are wonderful. How about Robin McKinley's first Beauty now, and her other one later?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I really adore R. McKinley's Beauty (it's on my list of frequent re-read comfort books) and I read both it and her Rose Daughter out loud to the girls, who loved them both, too. Fiona has gone on to read and re-read every one of R. McKinley's fairytale retellings that she can find, although she has remained indifferent to trying her non-fairy tale books; i.e. The Outlaws of Sherwood Forest or The Blue Sword or The Hero and the Crown.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Fiona has gone on to read and re-read every one of R. McKinley's fairytale retellings that she can find, although she has remained indifferent to trying her non-fairy tale books; i.e. The Outlaws of Sherwood Forest or The Blue Sword or The Hero and the Crown.

I hope she'll reconsider about The Blue Sword or The Hero and the Crown--they are definitely lovely books, and TBS has been a comfort book in the past. I had trouble with Outlaws the first time through, didn't finish it--but it may have been due to life issues. I was just thinking I should try it again.

[kerryp.livejournal.com]

Hello, I saw this post. There is at least one scene in "The Little Country" that may be inappropriate for younger children. I love Charles DeLint, however, and thought you may want to consider Jack the Giantkiller, now packaged with Drink Down the Moon as Jack of Kilrowan (Jack is a girl in this story). Charles deLint has two young adult books out also, "The Dreaming Place" and "The Blue Girl". Also, the retelling of Beauty and the Beast that I enjoyed the most was "The Fire Rose" by Mercedes Lackey. Good Luck, and thanks for letting me jump in and comment.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Huh, I hadn't heard of Lackey's The Fire Rose. I'll have to look that one up. Thanks for the tip. I had read Jack the Giantkiller at its first printing; haven't read Drink Down the Moon that's packaged with it now. Nor have I read the other two DeLints you have mentioned. He has a big oeuvre; I'll get around to more of it eventually.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

The Fire Rose was a nice one of Lackey's, a proto-tale of her Elemental Mages concept. I especially liked that the "Beast" is half man, half beast (the head, mostly) and this is not totally corrected--the Beauty loves him for himself, not what magic has done to him. I don't remember anything standing out as not appropriate for younger readers, but it's been a few years since I read it.

Misty has done several books with fairy tale cores, but the only one I've read is Serpent's Shadow, her riff on Snow White--set in Edwardian England, a young half-caste doctor and her late mother's unusual "pets" who are much more than they seem. I enjoyed it enough to re-read it. It does have scary bad guys, tho--the thuggee cult and one of Kali's priestesses.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

I love Sheri Tepper and most of her books, but Beauty, while it intrigued me and I liked parts, was disturbing to me in ways I can't quite put my finger on.

[kristenj.livejournal.com]

I hooked on one aspect of this post, that is thinking of books for Fiona. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks My thought is that most, if not all, are books you are already well aware of. But, one never knows.

I'm not remembering how old Fiona is, so some of these might be a step or two beyond where she is right now.


3 from the Fairy Tale series edited by Terri Windling:
The Nightingale, by Kara Dalkey
Snow White and Rose Red, by Patricia C. Wrede
Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen

Also by Jane Yolen:
Sister Light, Sister Dark
White Jenna

And edited by Jane Yolen:
Favorite Folktales from around the World (a marvelous collection, by the way)

Invoking Fairy Tale themes and motifs:
The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
Tamsin, by Peter S. Beagle
The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany
The Tower at Stony Wood, by Patricia A. McKillip
The Sorceress and the Cygnet, by Patricia A. McKillip
The Cygnet and the Firebird, by Patricia A. McKillip
The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende

Fantasy, close kin to Fairy Tale:
A Wizaed of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. LeGuin (I know that she's written others continuing this serios, but my personal opinion is that these original three are the strongest.)
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L'Engle (Again, I know that there are 2 others in this series, but I've always, even as a young reader, thought that these 2 were the strongest.)
Mairelon the Magician, by Patricia C. Wrede
The Isle of Glass, by Judith Tarr
The Golden Horn, by Judith Tarr
The Hounds of God, by Judish Tarr (A gorgeous trilogy, but I gave them to my youngest brother too young, and it was over a decade before he was able to try them again and be ready for them. So maybe too old for Fiona? Still, I couldn't resist including them.)
The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
The Hollow Hills, by Mary Stewart
The Last Enchantment, by Mary Stewart (another trilogy, this one focusing on Merlin)


Hope you don't mind the list. It's just so much fun to share book recommendations!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! Thank you so much. Yes, she has already discovered and loved some of these, so your recommendations are probably spot on.

[kristenj.livejournal.com]

Oh good! Out of curiosity, which are the ones she's already read?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

We are reading another Kara Dalkey together right now (Little Sister). She has read Snow White and Rose Red, Briar Rose, A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door (as well as later sequels). She has read a whole host of Wrede's other work, although she hasn't gotten around to Mairelon yet (or its sequel, Magician's Ward--I actually critiqued that one in manuscript in my writing group with Pat. She had a hell of a time writing that one.)

We have copies of some of the rest of these, so I will point her in that direction. Thanks!

[kristenj.livejournal.com]

Well then, if I may be so bold ... I'd suggest The Nightingale and Tamsin and Mairelon the Magician as very confident recommendations. :-)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I've read all of them, and I agree.