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

[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.