Off Topic Bargain Book: The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter is $2.99

 

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter is on sale for $2.99. I wanted to share this one because I read it a few months ago and really enjoyed it. No, no fairy tale tropes in this one per se, but it's an entertaining Christmas adventure. I have read over 215 books this year and this one stands out as a personal favorite for the fun expertise of the story. It can be taken as light and fluffy but it has depths if you want to plumb them. The plotting and the skill Carter uses are admirable, too. I would pause every so often and applaud her mentally at the deft storytelling which I wasn't noticing because I was entertained until I would notice because I'm a writer at heart. She also uses flashbacks really well and I have an aversion to flashbacks. I paid full price at over $10 so $2.99 is about the cheapest treat you will get this holiday season.

Book description from the publisher:

"Full of tongue-in-cheek humor, excellent dialogue, and fantastic characters, this expertly crafted story from Carter (The Blonde Identity) is a heart-melting rivals-to-lovers romance combined with a delightful locked-room mystery." — Library Journal (starred review)

Knives Out gets a holiday rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter.

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room two days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:

She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.

He’s Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.

The laugh out loud holiday "romystery" that you've been waiting for!

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3D Wood Carved Little Red Riding Hood and Frog Prince LED Lights

 

Jimeva 3D Wood Carved Frog Prince Rainbow LED Night Light and Jimeva 3D Wood Carved Little Red Riding Hood USB LED are $5.99 each at Amazon. They light up! Where do I have room for these? I love the details in these, like the prince and princess in the center of the frog and Granny Wolf to the right in Red Riding's hood. 

Here's some images of them illuminated.

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Bargain Ebook: Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles by Taisia Kitaiskaia for $1.99

 

Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles by Taisia Kitaiskaia is on sale for $1.99 in ebook format.

Book description from the publisher:

Dear Baba Yaga,

I think I must crave male attention too much. I fear that, without it, I would feel invisible.

BABA YAGA:

When you seek others this way, you are invisible nonetheless. Yr shawl is covered in mirrors in which others admire themselves; this is why they greet you so passionately. It is good to be seen, but it is better to see. Find a being to look hard into, & you will see yrself and what is more than you.

In age-old Slavic fairy tales, the witch Baba Yaga is sought out by those with a burning need for guidance. In contemporary life, Baba Yaga—a dangerous, slippery oracle—answered earnest questions on The Hairpin for years. These pages collect her most poignant, surreal, and humorous exchanges along with all-new questions and answers for those seeking her mystical advice.

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here. 

Bargain Ebook: Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk & Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes

 

Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk & Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes is on sale for $2.99. This could end at any time since it was a deal for yesterday but it still active as I post this. 

Book description from the publisher:

“Zipes ably demonstrates that moral, political, religious, and other ideologies have shaped these apparently innocent narratives.” —Lore and Language

This revised, expanded, and updated edition of the 1979 landmark Breaking the Magic Spell examines the enduring power of fairy tales and the ways they invade our subjective world. In seven provocative essays, Zipes discusses the importance of investigating oral folk tales in their socio-political context and traces their evolution into literary fairy tales, a metamorphosis that often diminished the ideology of the original narrative. Zipes also looks at how folk tales influence our popular beliefs and the ways they have been exploited by a corporate media network intent on regulating the mystical elements of the stories. He examines a range of authors, including the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Ernst Bloch, Tolkien, Bettelheim, and J.K. Rowling to demonstrate the continuing symbiotic relationship between folklore and literature.

“The name Jack Zipes is synonymous with highly regarded and widely read anthologies and critiques of fairy tales.” —Choice

“Fairy Tales are a highly fashionable study today for literary scholars as well as folklorists, and another new book shows what a range of interest can be evoked by them. This time in Jack Zipes’ interesting and vigorous study.” —Encounter

“Places traditional tales in their socio-political, economic and cultural contexts.” —Teacher Librarian

“Zipes reveals the extraordinary breadth of his acquaintance with both recent and classic literature in the field of folk and fairytale research.” —Fabula

“Zipes manages the impressive trick of communicating both detail and overview without simplifying either . . . the serious folklorist should definitely have this on his bookshelf.” —Fortean Times

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Bargain Ebook: So This is Love: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim for $1.99

 

So This is Love: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth Lim is on sale today only for $1.99. It's a retelling of Disney's version of Cinderella, part of the Twisted Tale series.

Book description from the publisher:

What if Cinderella never tried on the glass slipper? Unable to prove that she's the missing princess, and unable to bear life under Lady Tremaine any longer, Cinderella attempts a fresh start, looking for work at the palace as a seamstress. But when the Grand Duke appoints her to serve under the king's visiting sister, Cinderella becomes witness to a grand conspiracy to take the king—and the prince—out of power, as well as a longstanding prejudice against fairies, including Cinderella's own Fairy Godmother. Faced with questions of love and loyalty to the kingdom, Cinderella must find a way to stop the villains of past and present . . . before it's too late.

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New Book Release: The Brothers Grimm: A Biography by Ann Schmiesing

 

The Brothers Grimm: A Biography by Ann Schmiesing was released this fall. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. However, I did get to visit the GRIMMWELT Kassel this past October and feel an even greater affection for the Grimms than I ever have--and that's saying a lot. The museum in Kassel focuses more on the Grimms' German dictionary with the fairy tale work relegated more to exhibits for children. I fangirled throughout the museum.

I plan to write more about my recent experiences on Germany's Fairy Tale Road next year. But for now, this book sounds like a great way to learn more about the Brothers Grimm without having to travel. And to learn in smaller bites because the museum was like trying to feast on a year's worth of food in a single afternoon.

Book description from the publisher:

The first English-language biography in over fifty years to tell the full, vibrant story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, known to history as the Brothers Grimm

 A New Yorker “Best Book of 2024” Selection

 “Ann Schmiesing . . . has brought the brothers to life in their fullness.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

 “Magisterial.”—Kirkus Reviews

 More than two hundred years ago, the German brothers Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) published a collection of fairy tales that remains famous the world over. It has been translated into some 170 languages—more than any other German book—and the Brothers Grimm are among the top dozen most translated authors in the world. In addition to collecting tales, the Grimms were mythographers, linguists, librarians, civil servants, and above all the closest of brothers, but until now, the full story of their lifelong endeavor to preserve and articulate a German cultural identity has not been well known.

 Drawing on deep archival research and decades of scholarship, Ann Schmiesing tells the affecting story of how the Grimms’ ambitious projects gave the brothers a sense of self-preservation through the atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars and a series of personal losses. They produced a vast corpus of work on mythology and medieval literature, embarked on a monumental German dictionary project, and broke scholarly ground with Jacob’s linguistic discovery known as Grimm’s Law. Setting their story against a rich historical backdrop, Schmiesing offers a fresh consideration of the profound and yet complicated legacy of the Brothers Grimm.

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