Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 75

New Book: Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner

Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner is officially released on December 15th, so it wasn't on my radar for posting about quite yet. But a copy of it arrived on my doorstep over the weekend--not a review copy, but one I had preordered and paid for at Amazon--so the book is shipping now from retailers. I imagine this early US release is thanks to the UK release date of 10/23/14: Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (UK edition).

I haven't had the chance to read it yet--it is short at just 226 pages in a small book. It's not much bigger than an ebook reader in size--but I have been busy and traveling the last few days. That small size also translates to a very affordable price. That's a boon since Warner is on my autobuy list along with some other influential names in the field.

Overview:

A lively and engaging exploration of fairy tales and their meaningConsiders fairy tale as both a genre and a literary formExplores an array of classic and contemporary examples including Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty,Looks at the cultural, social, and political influence of fairy talesReveals how fairy tales use the characteristics of fantasy and the imaginationHighlights questions of gender, feminism, and psychoanalysis in the fairy tale traditionConsiders a number of visual interpretations on stage and screen

Book description:

From wicked queens, beautiful princesses, elves, monsters, and goblins to giants, glass slippers, poisoned apples, magic keys, and mirrors, the characters and images of fairy tales have cast a spell over readers and audiences, both adults and children, for centuries. These fantastic stories have travelled across cultural borders, and been passed down from generation to generation, ever-changing, renewed with each re-telling. Few forms of literature have greater power to enchant us and rekindle our imagination than a fairy tale.

But what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What do they try and communicate to us about morality, sexuality, and society? The range of fairy tales stretches across great distances and time; their history is entangled with folklore and myth, and their inspiration draws on ideas about nature and the supernatural, imagination and fantasy, psychoanalysis, and feminism.

Marina Warner has loved fairy tales over her long writing career, and she explores here a multitude of tales through the ages, their different manifestations on the page, the stage, and the screen. From the phenomenal rise of Victorian and Edwardian literature to contemporary children's stories, Warner unfolds a glittering array of examples, from classics such as Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty, the Grimm Brothers' Hansel and Gretel, and Hans Andersen's The Little Mermaid, to modern-day realizations including Walt Disney's Snow White and gothic interpretations such as Pan's Labyrinth.

In ten succinct chapters, Marina Warner digs into a rich collection of fairy tales in their brilliant and fantastical variations, in order to define a genre and evaluate a literary form that keeps shifting through time and history. She makes a persuasive case for fairy tale as a crucial repository of human understanding and culture.

Table of Contents:

Prologue
1. The Worlds of Faery: Far Away and Down Below
2. With a Stroke of Her Wand: Magic and Metamorphosis
3. Voices on the Page: Tales, Tellers, and Translators
4. Potato Soup: True Stories/Real Life
5. Childish Things: Pictures and Conversations
6. On the Couch: House Training the Id
7. In the Dock: Don't Bet on the Prince
8. Double Vision: The Dream of Reason
9. On Stage and Screen: States of Illusion
Epilogue
Index

Warner also wrote two blog posts for Oxford University Press, the publisher:

Once upon a time, part 1, Posted on October 23, 2014

I'm writing from Palermo where I’ve been teaching a course on the legacy of Troy. Myths and fairy tales lie on all sides in this old island. It’s a landscape of stories and the past here runs a live wire into the present day. Within the same hour, I saw an amulet from Egypt from nearly 3000 years ago, and passed a young, passionate balladeer giving full voice in the street to a ballad about a young woman – la baronessa Laura di Carini – who was killed by her father in 1538. He and her husband had come upon her alone with a man whom they suspected to be her lover. As she fell under her father’s stabbing, she clung to the wall, and her hand made a bloody print that can still be seen in the castle at Carini – or so I was told. The cantastorie – the ballad singer – was giving the song his all. He was sincere and funny at the same time as he knelt and frowned, mimed and lamented. Read the full blog post

Once upon a time, part 2, Posted on October 25, 2014

There is a quarrel inside me about fairies, and the form of literature their presence helps to define. I have never tried to see a fairy, or at least not since I was five years old. The interest of Casimiro Piccolo reveals how attitudes to folklore belong to their time: he was affected by the scientific inquiry into the paranormal which flourished – in highly intellectual circles – from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth. But he also presents a test case, I feel, for the questions that hang around fairies and fairy tales in the twenty-first century. What is the point of them? What are the uses of such enchantments today? Read the full blog post

Bargain Ebook: Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick is $2.99

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick is $2.99 for ebook format as part of Amazon's The Big Deal: Kindle Books Up to 85% Off through 11/23/14.

The book won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature and uses folklore themes to tell its story. The Booklist reviewer says "it is about the mutability of folktales."

Book description:

Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined—this is a tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice.

An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood? From award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick comes a book about passion and preservation and ultimately an exploration of the bounds of love.

A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013

Bargain Ebook: Wild Magic by Cat Weatherill is $1.99

Wild Magic by Cat Weatherill is $1.99 for ebook format as part of Amazon's The Big Deal: Kindle Books Up to 85% Off through 11/23/14.

This book is the most recent in the genre of retellings of the Pied Piper of Hamelin story. Other novels in this small group include After Hamelin by Bill Richardson and the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix that starts with Mister Monday (Keys to the Kingdom, Book 1).

Book description:

When the Pied Piper enchanted the children of Hamelin and led them away, Mari and her brother, Jakob, followed his song. Now they are trapped in a beautiful but cruel world inhabited by a horrid Beast. Finding a way to escape will require some wild magic, in this powerful story of a family torn apart by tragedy, and the magical adventure that heals them.

New Book: Becoming Beauty by Sarah E. Boucher

(US / UK Covers with links)
Becoming Beauty by Sarah E. Boucher is released this week. This will be simultaneously released on the same date in the UK. Yippee!

And, yes, it's a Beauty and the Beast title, with a different take on Beauty this time.

Book description:

Claws. Long, filthy, and dangerously sharp.

They're the first thing Bella sees after what has easily been the worst day of her life. Careful not to alert her captor to her conscious state, she glances past the matted fur-covered arms and expanse of chest to the face. If something surrounded by tangled black rattails can be called a face.

Perhaps if Bella were the quintessential Beauty--gorgeous, kindhearted, and self-sacrificing--she might have a fighting chance in transforming this monster into a man. But she's never been the toad-kissing kind. Obsessed with landing a wealthy nobleman and escaping her humdrum life, she will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. Which is precisely what landed her here, at the mercy of the Beast.

In this imaginative retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Bella's strong sense of entitlement stresses her family's meager finances and as punishment she's sent into the Beast's service. As Bella improves circumstances in her new life, she also finds herself changing for the better. Bella must choose whether to follow the path she's always dreamed of--or risk it all for something even greater.

About the Author

Sarah E. Boucher spends her days instilling young children with the same love of literature she has known since childhood. After hours, she pens her own stories and nurses an unhealthy obsession for handbags, high heels, and British television. Sarah is a graduate of Brigham Young University. She lives and teaches in Ogden, Utah. Becoming Beauty is her first novel.

Finally! Robin McKinley Backlist Available in Ebook Format

Hello, I'm Heidi and I'm a bookaholic. Which means I have a very long wishlist of books for my ebook devices. Much of that list has been honored by publishers releasing backlists but there are some major authors missing on my list. One of them is Robin McKinley. Yes, I own her oeuvre in paper but I want it in the much more portable ebook edition. These days I don't feel relaxed unless I have a 1,000+ books at my fingertips at any given moment.

So imagine my glee when I saw that much of McKinley's backlist will finally be available in ebook for my rereading convenience near or far and to share with the nieces who get to read books on my account. One niece is at the perfect McKinley reading age and I really wanted those books for her this past year but now is just fine, too.

So the following titles will be released to ebook format on 11/18/14 in the US. And there was much rejoicing! For some odd reason, The Blue Sword is missing from the releases list. I don't know why. Hari needs to be digitized, too. But I won't beg too much since I am getting these now. Well, I won't beg too much.

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast

The Hero and the Crown (no fairy tales but an important book of my youth)

Sunshine (Beauty and the Beast)

Deerskin (Donkeyskin)

The Outlaws of Sherwood (Robin Hood)

A Knot in the Grain: and Other Stories


Rose Daughter (Beauty and the Beast)

The Door in the Hedge: and Other Stories (My first exposure to Twelve Dancing Princesses)
Description:

So begins “The Stolen Princess,” the first story of this collection, about the meeting between the human princess Linadel and the faerie prince Donathor. “The Princess and the Frog” concerns Rana and her unexpected alliance with a small, green, flipper-footed denizen of a pond in the palace gardens. “The Hunting of the Hind” tells of a princess who has bewitched her beloved brother, hoping to beg some magic of cure, for her brother is dying, and the last tale is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses in which an old soldier discovers, with a little help from a lavender-eyed witch, the surprising truth about where the princesses dance their shoes to tatters every night.

Some Bargain Ebooks by Patrick Ness and Erika Johansen

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is $1.99 for ebook format. Ness is the author of The Crane Wife, which is NOT on sale for a bargain price right now, but he uses folklore elements in many of his novels. He is also very popular right now so I thought I would share some of this books that are on sale at deep discounts right now. These books are all usually between $7-10. This is one of his highest acclaimed books and I own it but haven't read it yet. I bought it when it was on sale almost two years ago for $3.49. This price is even lower.

Book description:

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting— he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd— whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself— Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

More Than This by Patrick Ness is $1,99, too.

Book description:

From two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick Ness comes an enthralling and provocative new novel chronicling the life — or perhaps afterlife — of a teen trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world. A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking Book 1) by Patrick Ness is also $1.99.

Book description:

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is. Includes “The New World,” a short story by Patrick Ness.

And while we are here, another book is also on sale for $1.99 that will probably interest some SurLaLune readers: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen has received a lot of buzz since its release this past summer.

Book description:

Magic, adventure, mystery, and romance combine in this epic debut in which a young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler—and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her.

On her nineteenth birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa. But though she may be inexperienced and sheltered, Kelsea is not defenseless: Around her neck hangs the Tearling sapphire, a jewel of immense magical power; and accompanying her is the Queen’s Guard, a cadre of brave knights led by the enigmatic and dedicated Lazarus. Kelsea will need them all to survive a cabal of enemies who will use every weapon—from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic—to prevent her from wearing the crown.

Despite her royal blood, Kelsea feels like nothing so much as an insecure girl, a child called upon to lead a people and a kingdom about which she knows almost nothing. But what she discovers in the capital will change everything, confronting her with horrors she never imagined. An act of singular daring will throw Kelsea’s kingdom into tumult, unleashing the vengeance of the tyrannical ruler of neighboring Mortmesne: the Red Queen, a sorceress possessed of the darkest magic. Now Kelsea will begin to discover whom among the servants, aristocracy, and her own guard she can trust.

But the quest to save her kingdom and meet her destiny has only just begun—a wondrous journey of self-discovery and a trial by fire that will make her a legend . . . if she can survive.

Fairy Tales in Advertising: Toyota Foundation: Little Red Riding Hood

Toyota Foundation: Little Red Riding Hood
Without nature, there are no stories.Save them by applying for one of our environmental grants for non-profit organizations.Toyota Foundation
Okay, I never expected to see Little Red Riding Hood and Napoleon used for the same ad campaign. But I really love the Red Riding image and message--for me since I am biased anyway--it's much more powerful than Napoleon. Besides, one is fiction and one is history so the Napoleon seems to be playing fast and loose with what was a real war, a real tragedy for many, just lessened in emotional impact thanks to time. Ick. How about using Hansel and Gretel instead? Or Jack and the Beanstalk? Or almost anything else from fiction? Not Waterloo. A battle that would have likely happened whatever the natural landscape anyway.

Campaign info from Ads of the World:

Advertising Agency: Badillo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Creative Directors: Juan Camilo Valdivieso, Pedro Pérez
Art Directors: Cristina Burckhart, Fernando Suárez, Cristo Oviedo
Copywriters: Pedro Pérez, Juan C. Valdivieso
Photographer: Ale Burset
Illustrator: Diego Speroni / F16 Producciones

Toyota Foundation: Napoleon

New Release: The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson

The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson is a another new release this week. This is the fifth book in Dickerson's inspirational fairy tale series. It is also the most unusual offering to date in the series. Previously we've had the usual suspects with Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. The Princess Spy is an interpretation of the Frog Prince which is very unusual, especially in a novel.

Book Description:

Margaretha has always been a romantic, and hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true love. But then an injured man is brought to Hagenheim Castle, claiming to be an English lord who was attacked by Claybrook and left for dead. And only Margaretha—one of the few who speaks his language—understands the wild story.

Margaretha finds herself unable to pass Colin’s message along to her father, the duke, and convinces herself “Lord Colin” is just an addled stranger. Then Colin retrieves an heirloom she lost in a well, and asks her to spy on Claybrook as repayment. Margaretha knows she could never be a spy—not only is she unable to keep anything secret, she’s sure Colin is completely wrong about her potential betrothed. Though when Margaretha overhears Claybrook one day, she discovers her romantic notions may have been clouding her judgment about not only Colin but Claybrook as well. It is up to her to save her father and Hagenheim itself from Claybrook’s wicked plot.

New Release of Original Into the Woods to DVD and Blu-ray

Into the Woods: Stephen Sondheim (DVD) is not technically a new release but it is a re-release of the original Tony Awarding winning Broadway cast to DVD, new design and disc released next month. The Into the Woods: Stephen Sondheim [Blu-ray] will be released on December 2. None of this is surprising since we are quickly approaching the new Disney version of the musical for its Christmas Day release to movie theatres this holiday season.

Description:

A baker and his wife journey into the woods in search of a cow, a red cape, a pair of golden slippers and some magic beans to lift a curse that has kept them childless. Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason and the rest of the original Broadway cast weave their magic spell over you in Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece, directed by James Lapine, a seamless fusion of fairy tale characters and what happens after "happily ever after." With oft-recorded songs such as "Children Will Listen" and "No One Is Alone," Into the Woods is a music lover's delight from start to finish--and will forever cement Stephen Sondheim's unparalleled position as the giant of the American musical theater.

Twelve Dancing Princesses Tales From Around the World Now $1.99

Twelve Dancing Princesses Tales From Around the World is now $1.99 and will stay at that price for 29+ more hours when it will be $2.99!