Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 156

Fairy Tales Interpreted by Rowan Stocks-Moore

My husband has been working on a fairy tale project--yes, he has more time for fairy tales right now than I do, at least creatively--and he discovered these to share with you. These posters, part of a series of Disney interpretations by Rowan Stocks-Moore are available on Etsy for purchase. The other posters--not fairy tale related--are interesting, too. I always enjoy these clever, minimalist interpretations.

Bargain Ebook: Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Book One) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

I have a few--well more than a few--of books on my ebook wishlist, books I adore and want in any format I choose to read, ones I don't mind the price even if I already own a paper copy because having it available on my Kindle, phone, computer, anywhere I fancy is a comfort and joy. One of those books I just discovered was released in ebook format in May. And I think from looking at the date that the last time I checked for it was just a few weeks prior and I have again personal proof how crazy my summer (year!) has been that it took me a few months to discover it.

Anyway, it's no new revelation to many readers here, but the even better news is that today and for a short while it is marked down to $2.99! The book is Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Book One) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.

Back when I sponsored a book club, this is the ONLY book which almost everyone in the group actually read from beginning to end and then enjoyed discussing. I don't know about your book clubs, but my experience is that almost all of them spend ten minutes on the book, another 15 choosing the next title and then the rest discussing jobs, family, etc. instead of the book because no one really enjoyed the book or "had the time" to finish it. And that group was not a heavy fantasy or historical fiction reading group which are the genres this book most comfortably fits within.

It's one of the books I searched high and low for back in the day before it was reprinted since it had reached epic recommendation levels and battered paperback editions sold for $75. I was blessed with my first copy by a SurLaLune reader (early, early days of SurLaLune) sending me her used paperback and then I bought the hardcover when it was rereleased a few years later.

There are sequels, too, which I enjoy. I have them all. But the first is the best, of course. And it makes perfect light summer reading, too. Combined with the story of how the book came to be written--the ebook includes new extras that cover that--this is a great choice to read or reread this month.

Not everyone loves it since it is lighter reading than they want, but most people thoroughly enjoy it for what it is. I hope you do, too. Here's the two sequels while we're here, but they are regular priced $7.99 for now.

 
Book description for Sorcery and Cecelia:

Two girls contend with sorcery in England’s Regency age

Since they were children, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart. As Cecelia fights boredom in her small country town, Kate visits London to mingle with the brightest lights of English society.

At the initiation of a powerful magician into the Royal College of Wizards, Kate finds herself alone with a mysterious witch who offers her a sip from a chocolate pot. When Kate refuses the drink, the chocolate burns through her dress and the witch disappears. It seems that strange forces are convening to destroy a beloved wizard, and only Kate and Cecelia can stop the plot. But for two girls who have to contend with the pressures of choosing dresses and beaux for their debuts, deadly magic is only one of their concerns.

This ebook features illustrated biographies of Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the authors’ personal collections.

Grimm Season 1 on DVD Today

Just a reminder that Grimm Season 1 was released on DVD and Blu-Ray today in the US. Amazon has dropped the price on the sets by 50% the last few days and I doubt the price will last that long. Its sales ranks show that it is selling pretty well, which is always a good thing since all revenue keeps the show in production. I've seen one commercial during the Olympics coverage so hopefully the show will find a bigger audience when season two starts next week.

DVD description:

The classic Grimms' fairytales come to life like never before in this "dark and imaginative" (Mike Ayers, CNN.com Entertainment) series from the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Portland homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) discovers he's descended from a long line of "Grimms," who are charged with keeping balance between humanity and the creatures of myth. With newly awoken abilities to detect the evil lurking among us, Nick struggles to keep his old life separate and safe as he becomes ever more entrenched in the ancient rivalries of the Grimm world. Now, watch back-to-back and uninterrupted all 22 Season One episodes of this uniquely evocative series that critics rave "offers genuine scares" (Michelle Tauber, People).

Bargain Book: Darkwood by M. E. Breen

Darkwood by M. E. Breen has bargain pricing temporarily in both its paper and ebook formats. The ebook is $4.99 and the hardcover is $6.81.

Book description:

Darkness falls so quickly in Howland that the people there have no word for evening. One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black. But darkness comes in other forms, too, and for thirteen-year-old Annie, the misery she endures in her Uncle’s household makes the black of night seem almost soothing. When Annie escapes, her route takes her first to a dangerous mine where a precious stone is being stolen by an enemy of the king, and later to the king’s own halls, where a figure from Annie’s past makes a startling appearance. All the while, reported sightings of kinderstalk— mysterious, wolf-like creatures that prowl Howland’s dark forests—grow more frequent. Eloquent, suspenseful, and imbued with fairy-tale motifs found in The Brothers Grimm, this is a riveting coming-of-age story of a girl who must learn to trust her instincts if she’s to lead the people she is destined to rule.

Bargain Ebooks: Two Titles

Entwined by Heather Dixon has dropped temporarily to $.99 in ebook format. This has been discounted before but was back up to $7.99 or $9.99 (I don't remember) for the last several months.

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.

The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost.

The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

And while we are here, there is a free book which features the Grim Reaper as a character. Since some day I will release a collection of Grateful Dead tales, this one is of interest to me.


Embrace the Grim Reaper: A Grim Reaper Mystery (Grim Reaper Series) by Judy Clemens.

Casey Maldonado’s life is over—at least as she knows it. In one brief moment of fire and wrenching metal, everything important was gone. The car manufacturer was generous with its settlement, but it can never be enough. Her family and friends—not to mention her lawyers—want her to go for more. More money. More publicity. More everything. But Casey is done. No financial gain or courtroom retribution will bring back what really matters. So she packs up, puts her house on the market, and leaves town. Her only companion: Death, who won’t take her, but won’t leave her alone.

She stops on a whim in tragedy-stricken Clymer, a small blue-collar town in the midst of Ohio farmland. Not only is HomeMaker, the town’s appliance factory and main employer, moving to Mexico, but the town has been rocked by the suicide of a beloved single mother.

Casey is drawn to the town, and soon realizes that many of the citizens don’t believe the verdict of suicide at all. Death encourages her to investigate, and she uncovers information that points to the factory. Was the victim’s death a cover-up? Did she truly have the means—as she claimed—to keep the factory from leaving town?

When Casey begins to receive messages that she should leave well enough alone, she decides she’d be better off back on the road, but the murderer can’t let her go with everything she knows….

Grimm (and you) in Lisbon Conference Mini Recap

I posted about the "Grimm (and you) in Lisbon" conference when it was announced and one regular reader here was able to attend. I am sharing a slightly edited version of her email to me as well as a link to the program online. Be quick if you are interested for many of the papers presented are downloadable as PDFs but apparently will not be online much longer.

I was happy to participate in the "Grimm (and you) in Lisbon" conference--see the Program here--which took part from 21st till 23rd of June. It was a great experience--to meet remarkable people, to hear so many different approaches to brothers Grimms' heritage, to admire beautiful Lisbon (and Sintra!)... In my paper "Interpreting Grimms' Tales on Puppet Theatre Stage" I shared my experience in working upon "The Sleeping beauty", "Rapunzel" and "Hansel and Gretel". I mentioned your wonderful site "SurLaLune Fairy Tales" where I found material for my dramatization of "Rapunzel"... If you are interested, you can read some of the papers in the site of the conference, which is going to be closed by the end of the month. Sorry for writing you so late, but in the last few weeks I was busy with another projects here, in Bulgaria.

Wishing you to be always full of energy and to have a wonderful summer, with lots of joy and some peaceful moments for yourself!

Thank you for your wonderful blog!

Most sincerely: Rossichka

You can read and see some pictures of her trip on her blog, too.

Thank you for sharing, Rossichka! I'm happy you were able to attend the conference. There are still two more Grimm conferences in Europe this year, one in September and one in December.

New Book: Some Kind of Fairy Tale: A Novel by Graham Joyce

 
Some Kind of Fairy Tale: A Novel by Graham Joyce was released in July here in the US and in the UK in June. Which country's cover do you prefer, by the way?

US Book description:

Acclaimed author Graham Joyce's mesmerizing new novel centers around the disappearance of a young girl from a small town in the heart of England. Her sudden return twenty years later, and the mind-bending tale of where she's been, will challenge our very perception of truth.

For twenty years after Tara Martin disappeared from her small English town, her parents and her brother, Peter, have lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. And then suddenly, on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents' home and there, disheveled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It's a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara's story just does not add up. And, incredibly, she barely looks a day older than when she vanished.

Award-winning author Graham Joyce is a master of exploring new realms of understanding that exist between dreams and reality, between the known and unknown. Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a unique journey every bit as magical as its title implies, and as real and unsentimental as the world around us.

And the UK book description (I love to compare marketing):

Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a very English story. A story of woods and clearings, a story of folk tales and family histories. It is as if Neil Gaiman and Joanne Harris had written a Fairy Tale together.

It is Christmas afternoon and Peter Martin gets an unexpected phonecall from his parents, asking him to come round. It pulls him away from his wife and children and into a bewildering mystery.

He arrives at his parents house and discovers that they have a visitor. His sister Tara. Not so unusual you might think, this is Christmas after all, a time when families get together. But twenty years ago Tara took a walk into the woods and never came back and as the years have gone by with no word from her the family have, unspoken, assumed that she was dead. Now she's back, tired, dirty, dishevelled, but happy and full of stories about twenty years spent travelling the world, an epic odyssey taken on a whim.

But her stories don't quite hang together and once she has cleaned herself up and got some sleep it becomes apparent that the intervening years have been very kind to Tara. She really does look no different from the young women who walked out the door twenty years ago. Peter's parents are just delighted to have their little girl back, but Peter and his best friend Richie, Tara's one time boyfriend, are not so sure. Tara seems happy enough but there is something about her. A haunted, otherworldly quality. Some would say it's as if she's off with the fairies. And as the months go by Peter begins to suspect that the woods around their homes are not finished with Tara and his family...

If it gives you any concept of how overfull my brain is these days--when I saw an excellent review for the book on i09 I thought that the book had been released much earlier. No, it's just been on my alert list for a long time, I guess. Anyway, here is the article that reminded me to post about the book in the first place.

The Most Brilliant Fairy Tale Novel We’ve Read in Years by Charlie Jane Anders:

We're in the middle of a pretty huge fairy-tale renaissance in pop culture lately — but a book that brings this kind of thoughtful, character-based approach to the fairy-tale archetypes is rare indeed. Graham Joyce has obviously steeped himself in fairy-tale lore, and his attention to detail (and to the significance of those details) is pretty astonishing. But what really makes Some Kind of Fairy Tale stand head and shoulders above most other fantasy novels I've read lately is the strong focus on the characters. Joyce's slow, careful narrative style draws you in to a story that's as much a family drama as it is a magical adventure.

In Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Tara Martin returns after having vanished 20 years earlier. During that time, everybody decided she was dead — and in fact, the police were convinced that Tara's boyfriend Richie had murdered her. The return of Tara, alive and well, brings out a lot of conflicting emotions in her family and Richie — including some anger at the notion that all this time they thought she was dead, and she was just gallivanting around.

New Month, New Bargain Books

It's August and Amazon has updated its 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less for the new month. There are a few titles of interest for SurLaLuners.


Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George is $1.99, a great choice for those who love East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

Book description:

Blessed-or cursed-with an ability to understand animals, the Lass (as she’s known to her family) has always been an oddball. And when an isbjorn (polar bear) seeks her out, and promises that her family will become rich if only the Lass will accompany him to his castle, she doesn’t hesitate. But the bear is not what he seems, nor is his castle, which is made of ice and inhabited by a silent staff of servants. Only a grueling journey on the backs of the four winds will reveal the truth: the bear is really a prince who’s been enchanted by a troll queen, and the Lass must come up with a way to free him before he’s forced to marry a troll princess.

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen has been on my wishlist for a while, so I am thrilled to see this one drop temporarily to $2.99. While I am weary of Arthurian retellings, I still haven't tired of Robin Hood, which this one is. It sounds reminiscent of Robin McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood, so I am happy I get to add it to my TBR books.

Book description:

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the evil Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only Big John and Robin Hood know the truth-that the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. It’s getting harder to hide as Gisbourne’s camp seeks to find Scarlet and drive Robin Hood out of Nottinghamshire.

But Scarlet’s instinct for self-preservation is at war with a strong sense of responsibility to the people who took her in when she was on the run, and she finds it’s not so easy to turn her back on her band and townspeople. As Gisbourne draws closer to Scarlet and puts innocent lives at risk, she must decide how much the people of Nottinghamshire mean to her, especially John Little, a flirtatious fellow outlaw, and Robin, whose quick smiles and temper have the rare power to unsettle Scarlet. Full of exciting action, secrets, and romance, this imaginative retelling of the classic tale will have readers following every move of Robin Hood and band of thieves.

And while we are here, Enclave by Ann Aguirre is also temporarily $2.99. It's dystopian (I'm weary but most of you aren't) and it's been compared to Hunger Games too many times, but it also just won the 2012 RITA Winner for Young Adult Romance which is another recommendation for some. I've read enough about it to just be plain fascinated, especially if it only lightens my purse for a few dollars.

Book description:

New York City has been decimated by war and plague, and most of civilization has migrated to underground enclaves, where life expectancy is no more than the early 20's. When Deuce turns 15, she takes on her role as a Huntress, and is paired with Fade, a teenage Hunter who lived Topside as a young boy. When she and Fade discover that the neighboring enclave has been decimated by the tunnel monsters—or Freaks—who seem to be growing more organized, the elders refuse to listen to warnings. And when Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave, the girl born in darkness must survive in daylight, in the ruins of a city whose population has dwindled to a few dangerous gangs. As the two are guided by Fade’s long-ago memories, they face dangers, and feelings, unlike any they’ve ever known.

Mermaids in the Media

This commercial--and program--has made quite a stir this summer. Mermaids: The Body Found: Mermaid Sightings Throughout History originally aired in Australia and premiered here in the US in May. I was aware of it from the commercials--my husband adores Deadliest Catch and somehow I always walked in the room when a commercial for this was airing. It is very spooky, very convincing even in the commercial and I, of course, thought of Orson Wells and his War of the Worlds in passing and then didn't think much about it all due to life's demands. Mermaids, alas, haven't been high on my radar the last several months. However, they loomed large in my brain last summer when I released my Mermaid and Other Water Spirit Tales From Around the World, so I have more than a passing interest all the same.

The unsurprising result of a science fiction piece shot and shown like a documentary is that a small but vocal portion of viewers are convinced that mermaids are real and that government conspiracies have hidden the evidence a la Roswell.

The hoopla--which erupted again when the program reaired in mid-July--even caused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a press release earlier this summer, No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found:

Mermaids — those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea — are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial. The ancient Greek epic poet Homer wrote of them in The Odyssey. In the ancient Far East, mermaids were the wives of powerful sea-dragons, and served as trusted messengers between their spouses and the emperors on land. The aboriginal people of Australia call mermaids yawkyawks – a name that may refer to their mesmerizing songs.

The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. Magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 30,000 years ago, when modern humans gained dominion over the land and, presumably, began to sail the seas. Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology — in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few.

But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.

Articles in the media have abounded from NPR to CNN to USAToday. It's fascinating to read and watch the hype. I'm not surprised. After all, I once knew a girl who was convinced dinosaurs were back after she saw Jurassic Park. Cleverly made film can spark our imaginations and convince us of things that fight our internal logic.

After all of my mermaid research and studies a few years ago, I have to admit I am firmly convinced that mermaids do not exist in our reality. But they are magical, wondrous beings along with their many related iterations across cultures. And why are they so pervasive across those cultures? I don't have answers, only theories, but they boil down to our need for the magical, even the numinous, to explain things we cannot comprehend through our limited perceptions of our world. My book contains many articles about the history of mermaids from mythology to Victorian times which espouse a similar theory overall.

I haven't seen the mocumentary yet but from my reading, it appears to pull many of the same stories, even imagery, to tell about the history of mermaid folklore. That is is presented as scientific theory disguised as fact is unfortunate for while it gets the sensation and press, it also weakens the integrity of the work as a whole for it appears to be a decent visual history of mermaid stories and theories. But then the makers probably don't care as they get to increase their bank accounts.

You can see more clips of the Mermaids "event" at Animal Planet here. It doesn't appear to have a slated DVD release yet.

 

Geek Charming: Film and Novel

Geek Charming, the movie from the Disney Channel, is based on Robin Palmer's novel of the same name. I mentioned it in today's other post, so I wanted to share the trailer here since I failed to discover it last year. (Despite all efforts, I miss so much here!) And, yes, it is inspired by the Frog Prince. The book is also bargain priced right now in paperback, so if these type of retellings are some of your favorites, don't miss this one!


 
Book description while we're here:

Dylan Shoenfield is the princess of L.A.'s posh Castle Heights High. She has the coolest boyfriend, the most popular friends, and a brand-new "it" bag that everyone covets. But when she accidentally tosses her bag into a fountain, this princess comes face-to-face with her own personal frog: self-professed film geek Josh Rosen. In return for rescuing Dylan's bag, Josh convinces Dylan to let him film her for his documentary on high school popularity. Reluctantly, Dylan lets F-list Josh into her A-list world, and is shocked to realize that sometimes nerds can be pretty cool. But when Dylan's so-called prince charming of a boyfriend dumps her flat, her life - and her social status - comes to a crashing halt. Can Dylan - with Josh's help - pull the pieces together to create her own happily-ever-after?