Bargain Ebook The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall, $1.99 TODAY ONLY

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall is on sale TODAY ONLY for $1.99 in ebook format. This isn't quite a folklore book but it's certainly an adjacent topic. I bought this last time it was on sale but unfortunately it still sits in my long TBR list as life keeps distracting me from my passions.

Book description:

Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but why?

In this delightful and original book, Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems—just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.

Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic?

Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more “truthy” than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler’s ambitions were partly fueled by a story.

But as Gottschall shows in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral—they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us.

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Bargain Ebook: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik for $2.99 TODAY ONLY

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is on sale for $2.99 TODAY ONLY in ebook format. Pretty much everyone has heard of this one if not read it already. So I'll let the description speak for itself below.

Book description:

NEBULA AND HUGO AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Time • Tordotcom • Popsugar • Vox • Vulture • Paste • Bustle • Library Journal

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.

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Bargain Ebook: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid for TODAY ONLY

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid is on sale for $4.99 TODAY ONLY in ebook format. It pulls themes from Jewish folklore for those who find that their catnip.

Book description:

In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut— inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.

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TODAY ONLY: Bargain Ebook: break your glass slippers (You Are Your Own Fairy Tale) by Amanda Lovelace for $1.99

break your glass slippers (You Are Your Own Fairy Tale) by Amanda Lovelace is on sale TODAY ONLY for $1.99 in ebook format. This is a book of poetry and the first in a series. The inspiration here is Cinderella, obviously, with other books in the series drawing from other fairy tales. 

Book description:

"more forgetting time.
more midnight dances with yourself."
amanda lovelace, the bestselling & award-winning author of the “women are some kind of magic” poetry series, presents a new companion series, “you are your own fairy tale” the first installment, break your glass slippers, is about overcoming those who don’t see your worth, even if that person is sometimes yourself. in the epic tale of your life, you are the most important character while everyone is but a forgotten footnote. even the prince.

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TODAY ONLY: Bargain Ebook: Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust for $2.99

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust is on sale TODAY ONLY for $2.99 in ebook format. 

The author's note at the end of the book shares many of the influences for the story, including but not limited to, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Shahneameh (a legendary Persian epic), and much Persian folklore. 

Book description:

Melissa Bashardoust's Girl, Serpent, Thorn is “an alluring feminist fairy tale” (Kirkus) about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse.

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story.

As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison.

Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming...human or demon. Princess or monster.

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Bargain Ebook: Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson for $2.99

 

Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson is bargain priced in ebook format for $2.99. It is a science fiction novel with tropes from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. The description includes a reference to a glass coffin! What fun and the concept of mixing those tales with cryogenic sleep has become a subset of retellings, but still not common. I have a soft spot for science fiction with fairy tale inspirations.

Book Description:

Andra wakes up from a cryogenic sleep 1,000 years later than she was supposed to, forcing her to team up with an exiled prince to navigate an unfamiliar planet in this smart, thrilling sci-fi adventure, perfect for fans of Renegades and Aurora Rising.

When Andra wakes up, she's drowning.

Not only that, but she's in a hot, dirty cave, it's the year 3102, and everyone keeps calling her Goddess. When Andra went into a cryonic sleep for a trip across the galaxy, she expected to wake up in a hundred years, not a thousand. Worst of all, the rest of the colonists--including her family and friends--are dead. They died centuries ago, and for some reason, their descendants think Andra's a deity. She knows she's nothing special, but she'll play along if it means she can figure out why she was left in stasis and how to get back to Earth.

Zhade, the exiled bastard prince of Eerensed, has other plans. Four years ago, the sleeping Goddess's glass coffin disappeared from the palace, and Zhade devoted himself to finding it. Now he's hoping the Goddess will be the key to taking his rightful place on the throne--if he can get her to play her part, that is. Because if his people realize she doesn't actually have the power to save their dying planet, they'll kill her.

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Amazon's Cinderella

 

 

I'm trying to make it back to regular posting, folks. It's been a really difficult three years personally with a pandemic on top of it. So I'm starting with some low hanging fruit here!

So the trailer for Amazon's Cinderella is available for previewing. As you can see above. Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait for you.

Now that's an adventure, isn't it? I've been reading, watching, and listening to versions of Cinderella for almost five decades now. And this one looks like it will be fun just to watch the many ways they try to bend the tropes in one rendition. Since Pierce Brosnan was my first crush many moons ago, I have to admit I'm willing to show up to watch him, too, for old time's sake. A rewatch of Remington Steele last year during shutdown reminded me I had good taste at 12. It's funny how it feels Disneyesque but more ambitious in its trope bending. After a summer with Schmigadoon, these musicals are beginning to feel like their having yet another resurgence. 

I rather wish they had given this a more creative Cinderella title to make it easier to find in future years.

The official information for the film:

Cinderella is a musically-driven bold new take on the traditional story you grew up with. Our heroine (Camila Cabello) is an ambitious young woman whose dreams are bigger than the world will allow, but with the help of her Fab G (Billy Porter), she is able to persevere and make her dreams come true. 

Written for the screen and directed by Kay Cannon with covers of songs written by some of the top-selling musical artists of all time, Cinderella has an all-star cast that includes Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Galitzine, with Billy Porter and Pierce Brosnan. Producers are James Corden, Leo Pearlman, Jonathan Kadin and Shannon McIntosh, and executive producers are Louise Rosner and Josephine Rose.

Go here to add it to your Amazon Watchlist.

And I have to agree, I don't think there is any magic that can make a glass slipper comfortable!

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