Waiting on Wednesday #84 - Uprooted by Naomi Novik

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 

This week the title I am waiting on is Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It's expected to be out May 19, 2015 by Del Rey books. 

Synopsis from Goodreads.com: 

Naomi Novik, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose. 

Why am I waiting on this book? The combination of fairy tale and fantasy tale mentioned in the Publishers' Weekly Review of the title makes it sound interesting, "familiar as a Grimm fairy tale yet fresh, original, and totally irresistible. This will be a must-read for fantasy fans for years to come." And then there is a Dragon who is a man and not a dragon. Why does he need a new girl to serve him every ten years? I wonder what will happen to Agnieszka when she is chosen.

What book are you waiting on this week? Share the title or a link in the comments so we can check it  out! Happy Reading!

Quickie Review: Black Swan, White Raven edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

I read this first in hardcover several years ago. I just read it again in Kindle format. It was just as good the second time through. I liked some stories better than others, which is par for the course in an anthology, but I did like it overall. Even the stories I didn't like so much were interesting to read for their take on the retelling of the tale in question.

I think that one of my favorite picks is "Godmother Death" by Jane Yolen. The language and rhythm go well with the story. It's short, but a pleasure to read and makes you think. Can Death be cheated? Also I liked that for a change Death was personified as a woman. 

I would recommend this book and the others in its series specifically for people who enjoy fantasy and retellings of fairy and folk tales. Datlow and Windling are great editors for this series of anthologies. 

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

The Scholarly Side of Fairy Tales

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Fairy Mushrooms By the Water photo

Many of us love fairy tales. There are scholarly type books devoted to fairy tales and folk tales and their origins and meanings. One of my favorites is The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales by Sheldon Cashdan. I inherited an autographed copy from my grandmother. Makes it sound ancient, but it was published in 2000. It was required reading for a course she was taking at UMass in her golden years. One of the most notable things about the content in the book is that he thinks fairy tales help children deal with their problems. He says that children see the characters struggling with good and evil and identify with the struggle to some extent.

There are other books out there and other web sites. A great web site on fairy tales  is  http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/ From the web site description: SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations. Also discover over 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text Books.

Speaking of books... There are 2 non-fiction books coming out about fairy tales soon; one in October, the other in December. 

The first non-fiction book that's coming out is being released on October 15, 2014. Children into Swans: Fairy Tales and the Pagan Imagination by Jan Beveridge is being published by McGill-Queens University Press. From Goodreads: 

Fairy tales are alive with the supernatural - elves, dwarfs, fairies, giants, and trolls, as well as witches with magic wands and sorcerers who cast spells and enchantments. Children into Swans examines these motifs in a range of ancient stories. Moving from the rich period of nineteenth-century fairy tales back as far as the earliest folk literature of northern Europe, Jan Beveridge shows how long these supernatural features have been a part of storytelling, with ancient tales, many from Celtic and Norse mythology, that offer glimpses into a remote era and a pre-Christian sensibility.

The second book is Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner. It's due out December 1, 2014 from Oxford University Press. From the publisher:

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.

I'm looking forward to checking them both out. Let me know what you think. Do they interest you? Have you read anything like these before? Have you been to the SurLaLune web site before? What did you think of it? Drop me a line in the comments.

Review: Jim Henson's The StoryTeller ed. by Nate Cosby

Jim Henson's The StoryTeller edited by Nate Cosby is a collection of 9 short fairy tales and folk tales in a graphic novel form. It's rated E for everyone - meaning it contains material suitable for all ages and may contain minor violence.

The artwork and author for each story is different. This interrupts the flow a little, but I think ultimately it serves the book. The change in art helps to emphasize the jump to the next story, and the art fits whatever story is being told. Everyone who reads it will have their own favorite or favorites. For me, my favorites are "Old Fire Dragoman" by Jeff Parker illustrated by Tom Fowler which happens to be an Appalachian Jack tale, "Puss in Boots" by Marjorie Liu illustrated by Jennifer L. Meyer, and "The Frog Who Became an Emporer" by Paul Tobin illustrated by Evan Shaner.

If you enjoyed the series The Storyteller when it aired, you will like this book. Or if you just like fairy tales and folk tales, you will like this book. It's a good selection of stories, some shorter than others. Some with a moral, some are just enjoyable tales. I give this book 4 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.