Bargain Ebook: Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree for $1.99

 

Below is my post from two years ago about Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree which is currently on sale in ebook edition for $1.99.

From 2014:

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury: I wanted to recommend it as a great book that shares Halloween traditions with readers young and old. The folkloric content is of interest to the usual SurLaLune reader which is why I am sharing here. A dear friend loves the book and has written a much better post about the book and how it has become an annual part of her Halloween celebration at this post: The Halloween Tree. I missed recommending it here last year because it was too late when I thought of it. Why torture you with what you couldn't order in time to use for the holiday?

Book description:

Special indeed are holiday stories with the right mix of high spirits and subtle mystery to please both adults and children--Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," for example. Or Ray Bradbury's classic The Halloween Tree. Eight boys set out on a Halloween night and are led into the depths of the past by a tall, mysterious character named Moundshroud. They ride on a black wind to autumn scenes in distant lands and times, where they witness other ways of celebrating this holiday about the dark time of year. Bradbury's lyrical prose whooshes along with the pell-mell rhythms of children running at night, screaming and laughing, and the reader is carried along by its sheer exuberance.

Bradbury's stories about children are always attended by dread--of change, adulthood, death. The Halloween Tree, while sweeter than his adult literature, is also touched at moments by the cold specter of loss--which is only fitting, of course, for a holiday in honor of the waning of the sun.

This is a superb book for adults to read to children, a way to teach them, quite painlessly, about customs and imagery related to Halloween from ancient Egypt, Mediterranean cultures, Celtic Druidism, Mexico, and even a cathedral in Paris. (One caveat, though: Bradbury unfortunately perpetuates a couple of misconceptions about Samhain, or summer's end, the Halloween of ancient Celts and contemporary pagans.) This beautiful reprint edition has the original black-and-white illustrations and a new color painting on the dust jacket. --Fiona Webster

Bargain Ebook: The Book Lover's Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature, and the Passages That Feature Them

The Book Lover's Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature, and the Passages That Feature Them by Shaunda Kennedy Wenger and Janet Jensen is on sale for 99 cents in ebook format. No, there are not any fairy tales inside, but there are books that draw from fairy tales, like Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This has been on my wishlist for a while so I was thrilled to add the ebook version to my library for a buck. There is a treasure trove of books I love saluted within.

Book description:

Wake up to a perfect breakfast with Mrs. Dalby's Buttermilk Scones, courtesy of James Herriot's All Things Bright and Beautiful and Ichabod's Slapjacks, as featured in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. There's homey comfort food like Connie May's Tomato Pie, created with and inspired by Connie May Fowler (Remembering Blue); Thanksgiving Spinach Casserole (Elizabeth Berg's Open House); and Amish Chicken and Dumplings (Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth) . . . Sample salads, breads, and such soul-warming soups as Nearly-a-Meal Potato Soup (Terry Kay's Shadow Song); Mr. Casaubon' s Chicken Noodle Soup (George Eliot's Middlemarch); and Mrs. Leibowitz's Lentil-Vegetable Soup (Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes) . . . After relishing appetizers and entrees, there's a dazzling array of desserts, including Carrot Pudding (Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol); Effie Belle's Coconut Cake (Olive Ann Burns's Cold Sassy Tree); and the kids will love C.S. Lewis's Turkish Delight from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Sprinkled throughout with marvelous anecdotes about writers and writing, The Book Lover's Cookbook is a culinary and literary delight, a browser's cornucopia of reading pleasure, and a true inspiration in the kitchen.

Shaunda Kennedy Wenger is author of two YA/MG novels: The Ghost in Me and Reality Bites, Tales of a Half-Vampire (2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist, ForeWord Reviews), as well as an award-winning chapter book: Little Red Riding Hood, Into the Forest Again. Her newest cookbook, From Rivets and Rails, Recipes of a Railroad Boarding House Cookbook, is based on the cookery journal of her great-grandmother. Her work has been published in Babybug, Ladybug, Wonder Years, ByLine, and Short-Short Stories for Reading Aloud (The Education Center, 2000). She regards her monthly book club meeting as one life's essential ingredients.

Janet Kay Jensen is author of Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys (Cedar Fort) and the upcoming Gabriel's Daughter's (Jolly Fish Press). She has received numerous awards for essays, poetry, and short stories, including three ByLine Magazine honorable mentions. A speech-language pathologist, she holds degrees from Utah State University and Northwestern University. She is writing a novel, teaches poetry classes to jail inmates, and is a literacy tutor. Married and the mother of three sons, she is a consultant at Utah State University.

TASTY RECIPES AND THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THEM

Jo's Best Omelette . . . Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
No Dieter's Delight Chicken Neapolitan . . . Thinner by Stephen King
Extra-Special Rhubarb Pie . . . The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
Grand Feast Crab Meat Casserole . . . At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
Persian Cucumber and Yogurt . . . House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
Tamales . . . Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Bev's No-Fuss Crab Cakes . . . Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell
Macaroni and Cheese . . . The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Veteran Split Pea Soup . . . The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Alternative Carrot-Raisin-Pineapple Salad . . . Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
Summer's Day Cucumber-Tomato Sandwiches . . .
Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
Refreshing Black Cows . . . The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
Dump Punch . . . Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Not Violet, But Blueberry Pie
. . . Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Innocent Sweet Bread . . . The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Daddy's Rich Chocolate Cake . . . Fatherhood by Bill Cosby


. . . and many other delectable dishes for the literary palate!

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury is $3.63 in paperbook at Amazon and I wanted to recommend it as a great book that shares Halloween traditions with readers young and old. The folkloric content is of interest to the usual SurLaLune reader which is why I am sharing here. A dear friend loves the book and has written a much better post about the book and how it has become an annual part of her Halloween celebration at this post: The Halloween Tree. I missed recommending it here last year because it was too late when I thought of it. Why torture you with what you couldn't order in time to use for the holiday?

Book description:

Special indeed are holiday stories with the right mix of high spirits and subtle mystery to please both adults and children--Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," for example. Or Ray Bradbury's classic The Halloween Tree. Eight boys set out on a Halloween night and are led into the depths of the past by a tall, mysterious character named Moundshroud. They ride on a black wind to autumn scenes in distant lands and times, where they witness other ways of celebrating this holiday about the dark time of year. Bradbury's lyrical prose whooshes along with the pell-mell rhythms of children running at night, screaming and laughing, and the reader is carried along by its sheer exuberance.

Bradbury's stories about children are always attended by dread--of change, adulthood, death. The Halloween Tree, while sweeter than his adult literature, is also touched at moments by the cold specter of loss--which is only fitting, of course, for a holiday in honor of the waning of the sun.

This is a superb book for adults to read to children, a way to teach them, quite painlessly, about customs and imagery related to Halloween from ancient Egypt, Mediterranean cultures, Celtic Druidism, Mexico, and even a cathedral in Paris. (One caveat, though: Bradbury unfortunately perpetuates a couple of misconceptions about Samhain, or summer's end, the Halloween of ancient Celts and contemporary pagans.) This beautiful reprint edition has the original black-and-white illustrations and a new color painting on the dust jacket. --Fiona Webster

Fairy Tale Highlights of the American Folklore Society's 2014 Annual Meeting

The American Folklore Society's Annual Meeting is coming soon and the deadline to register at a discounted rate is August 31st. The Society's 2014 annual meeting will be held November 5-8 at the Santa Fe Convention Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My own attendance is still undecided but I highly recommend attending as well as becoming a member of AFS if you are not already.

I've pulled the fairy tale related papers from the 56 page program. There is always plenty to hear and see at the meeting but highlighting fairy tale discussions is SurLaLune's purpose. Looking through the papers, you can see a definite influence of ABC's Once Upon a Time and others on the current scholarship. I REALLY want to hear these papers, too, so now I get to see if the personal budget and schedule will accommodate me!

01-05
Channeling Wonder I: Televising Fairy-Tale Genders
Sponsored by the Folk Narrative Section and the Women's Section
See also 02-05

Claudia M. Schwabe (Utah State University), chair
8:00 Kirstian Lezubski (University of Winnipeg), The Power to Revolutionize the World, or
Absolute Gender Apocalypse? Queering the New Fairy-Tale Feminine in Revolutionary Girl Utena
8:30 Shuli Barzilai (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Catherine Breillat's Rescripting of
Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard"
9:00 Brittany Warman (The Ohio State University), Hearing Her Song: Examining (Feminist?)
Messages in the "Briar Rose" Episode of the Japanese Anime Grimms' Fairy Tale Classics
9:30 Patricia Sawin (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Things Walt Disney Didn't Tell
Us (But at Which Rodgers and Hammerstein at Least Hinted): The 1965 Made-for-TV Musical
Cinderella

02-05
Channeling Wonder II: Fairy-Tale (Un)Realities on Television
Sponsored by the Folk Narrative Section
See also 01-05

Pauline Greenhill (University of Winnipeg), chair
10:15 Jodi McDavid (Cape Breton University), Worlds Within Worlds: Depicting Fairy-tale
Superheroes in Children's Television
10:45 John Rieder (University of Hawai‘i, Manoa), The Fairy Tale and the Commercial:
Fractured Fairy Tales
11:15 Claudia M. Schwabe (Utah State University), Magic Realism in Grimm and Once Upon a
Time
11:45 Cristina Bacchilega (University of Hawai‘i, Manoa), The Fairy Tale and the Commercial:
The Italian Carosello

04-02
At the Crossroads of Folk Narrative, TV, and Gender

Jeana S. Jorgensen (Butler University), chair
8:00 Kim Snowden (University of British Columbia), "What's In the Basket Little Girl?":
Reading Buffy as Little Red Riding Hood
8:30 Linda Lee (University of Pennsylvania), Rehabilitating the Child-Stealing Witch:
Motherhood and Magic in ABC's Once Upon a Time
9:00 Jeana S. Jorgensen (Butler University), Gendering Lost Girl: Transforming Fairy-Tale and
Legend Intertexts in TV
9:30 Cristina Bacchilega (University of Hawai‘i), discussant

04-06
Theory II

Shandi Lynne Wagner (Wayne State University), chair
8:00 Anne Arundel Locker-Thaddeus (Texas A&M University), Comparison in a Crowded
Field: Choosing a Folk Narrative Analysis Technique
8:30 John Laudun (University of Louisiana), Counting Tales: Towards a Computational Model
of Narrative
9:00 Valdimar Tr. Hafstein (University of Iceland), Andersen and the Grimms: Authors,
Editors, Folk
9:30 Shandi Lynne Wagner (Wayne State University), The Intersection of Folklore and Fairy
Tale in the Ghostly Little Red Riding Hood of Elizabeth Gaskell's "Curious, If True" (1860)

06-07
New Scholarship on German and Russian Folk-Tale Studies

Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby (University of Kentucky) and Linda Worley (University of
Kentucky), chairs
2:00 Ann Schmiesing (University of Colorado, Boulder), Disability and Able-Bodiedness in the
Grimms' Fairy Tales
2:20 Veronica Muskheli (University of Washington, Seattle), Unsettling Representation of the
Forest in Northern Russian Memorates
2:40 Zora Kadyrbekova (McGill University), Human-Animal Relationships in Russian Fairy
Tales
3:00 Qinna Shen (Miami University of Ohio), Little "Red" Riding Hood and Soviet Influence on
DEFA Fairy-Tale Films
3:20 Izabela Zdun (McGill University), The Fairy Tale Genre in Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's
Works: The Interplay between Literature and Folklore

06-13
Shakespeare and Spenser: Early Modern Adaptations of Folklore
Sponsored by the Medieval and Early Modern Folklore Section

Kerry Kaleba (independent), chair
2:00 Charlotte Artese (Agnes Scott College), "Like the Old Tale": Shakespeare as Folktale
Adapter
2:30 Sara Cleto (The Ohio State University), "Love, and Be Silent": Fairy Tale Conventions in
Shakespeare's King Lear
3:00 Joshua Commander (California State University, Stanislaus), The Hollow Christ, His
Brittle Glory, and His Sour Cross : An Examination of The Hollow Crown's Representation of
Shakespeare's Richard of Bordeaux as a Counterfeit of Christ
3:30 Amber N. Slaven (University of Louisiana, Lafayette), Continually at the Crossroads? The
Overlapping Liminality of Redcrosse Knight as a Fairy Changeling

08-17
Remapping 19th-Century Fairy Tales

Jennifer Schacker (University of Guelph), chair
10:15 Nancy Canepa (Dartmouth College), The Many Lives of Giambattista Basile's Neapolitan
Cunto
10:45 Christine A. Jones (University of Utah), Victorian Perrault, or the Birth of a Fairy
Godfather
11:15 Molly Clark Hillard (University of Seattle), Fairy Tales and Revolutions: Charles
Dickens's Bleak House
11:45 Jennifer Schacker (University of Guelph), Stage Folk: T. Crofton Croker's "Daniel O'
Rourke" at the Crossroads of Scholarship and Popular Culture

09-06
Diamond Session: At the Crossroads of Tales and Computers: Visualizing Fairy-Tale
Wonder through Filmographies and Computational Folkloristics

Jill T. Rudy (Brigham Young University), chair
2:00 Pauline Greenhill (University of Winnipeg), The International Fairy-Tale Filmography
(IFTF): Collaborating to Create a Digital Humanities Research Resource
2:10 Kendra Magnus-Johnston (University of Manitoba), Fairy Tales on TV: Archival
Methodologies for a Fairy-tale Teleography
2:20 Jill T. Rudy (Brigham Young University), Visualizing Fairy Tales on Television, or,
Everything Old is ATU Again
2:30 Madeleine Dresden (Brigham Young University), Glass Slippers and Small Screens: Rags
to Riches and the American Dream
2:40 discussion
3:00 Megan Armknecht (Brigham Young University), "Fractured Fairy Tales" and Rocky and
Bullwinkle for a Cold War Generation
3:10 Jessie Riddle (Brigham Young University), Red Hoods and Gold Locks: Motifs and Mash
Ups in Fairy-Tale Land
3:20 Kristy Stewart (Brigham Young University), Lost in the Genres: Hansel and Gretel across
TV Production Types

New Book: Spellbound: The Fairy Tale and the Victorians by Molly Clark Hillard

Spellbound: The Fairy Tale and the Victorians by Molly Clark Hillard was released a few weeks ago. I haven't seen a copy to review it yet, but it looks very interesting. The sections devoted to Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood are especially compelling for me as well as the conclusion about Andrew Lang. Table of contents is listed below the book description.

Book description:

“In her promising new book, Molly Clark Hillard clearly shows how seemingly authorless fairy tales affected the way many Victorians saw the world. She argues that, though nostalgia for a world that probably never existed played a part in the Victorian reception of fairy tales, they were also intricately bound up in Victorian ways of thinking about politics, finance, and manufacturing.” —Elizabeth Wanning Harries, Helen and Laura Shedd Professor Emerita of Modern Languages, Smith College

“As Molly Clark Hillard convincingly reveals, the Victorians managed to make the fairy tale central to their understanding of their own progressive modernity by asserting its antiquated qualities, all while celebrating their modern distance from such things as fairy tales. I predict her book will have a broad relevance in fields from children’s literature studies and the emerging field of interdisciplinary childhood studies to nineteenth-century and comparative literature.” —Troy Boone, University of Pittsburgh

In examining the relationship between fairy tales and Victorian culture, Molly Clark Hillard concludes that the Victorians were “spellbound”: novelists, poets, and playwrights were self-avowedly enchanted by the fairy tale, and, at the same time, literary genres were bound to the fairy tale, dependent upon its forms and figures to make meaning. But these “spellbound” literary artists also feared that fairy tales exuded an originative power that pervaded and precluded authored work. Victorians resolved this tension by treating the form as a nostalgic refuge from an industrial age, a quaint remnant of the pre-literacy of childhood and peasantry. However, Spellbound: The Fairy Tale and the Victorians demonstrates that fairy stories, rather than operating outside of progressive modernity, significantly contributed to the language and images of industrial, material England. Hillard challenges the common critical and cultural misconception (originating with the Victorians themselves) that the fairy tale was a quaint and quiescent form.

Through close readings of the novels of Dickens, Eliot, and Charlotte Brontë; the poetry of Tennyson and Christina Rossetti; the visual artistry of Burne-Jones and Punch; and the popular theatricals of dramatists like Planché and Buckingham, Spellbound opens fresh territory into well-traversed titles of the Victorian canon. Hillard reveals that these literary forms were all cross-pollinated by the fairy tale and that their authors were—however reluctantly—purveyors of disruptive fairy tale matter over which they had but imperfect control.

Molly Clark Hillard is assistant professor of English at Seattle University.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Nostalgia, Literacy, and the Fairy Tale 1

Part 1. Matter
1 The Novelist and the Collector 23
2 Pickwick Papers and the End of Miscellany 38
3 The Natural History of Thornfield 50
4 Antiquity, Novelty, and The Key to All Mythologies 61

Part 2. Spell
5 Sleeping Beauty and Victorian Temporality 77
6 Keats on Sleep and Beauty 82
7 “A Perfect Form in Perfect Rest”: Tennyson’s “Day Dream” 92
8 Burne-Jones and the Poetic Frame 108

Part 3. Produce
9 Fairy Footsteps and Goblin Economies 131
10 The Great Exhibition: Fairy Palace, Goblin Market 138
11 Rossetti’s Homeopathy 154

Part 4. Paraphrase
12 Little Red Riding Hood Arrives in London 173
13 Little Red Riding Hood’s Progress 179
14 Little Red Riding Hood and Other Waterside Characters 197

Conclusion: Andrew Lang, Collaboration, and Fairy Tale Methodologies 217

Notes 225

Bibliography 253

Index 266

Recent Book: Puss in Books by Catherine Britton

(US / UK Links)

Puss in Books by Catherine Britton was released last year in the US and in late 2012 in the UK. So it's not exactly new but it's not well known either. Since two chapters are devoted to Puss in Boots and Dick Whittington’s Cat as well as another chapter on The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership (the Grimms story), I thought it merited mention here.

Sidenote: And it reminds me that I am still considering a "Cats" title for the SurLaLune book series. Would there be interest in that here? I am not a cat lover, per se, but I do find their appearance in folklore fascinating. And I have a healthy collection of cat tales.

About the book:

Puss in Books is a celebration of feline wit, intelligence, aloofness and charm as presented through cats in books. Examples are taken from literature, folklore and popular culture. Feline references in books and manuscripts date from before 2000 BC in ancient Egypt, and since the introduction of cats to western households they have often inspired writers and artists - from the scribe of the Lindisfarne Gospels working in the 8th century to poets of the present day.

This selection includes cats in nursery rhymes (Hey Diddle Diddle and Ding Dong Bell); poetry by Thomas Gray (Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes) and T S Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats); cats in fiction by Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens; current characters such as Splat the Cat, and of course the ubiquitous Puss in Boots himself.

Wonderfully illustrated in colour throughout, this is an ideal gift for every cat lover.

About the author

Catherine Britton was a Senior Editor at the British Library and is the author of Dogs in Books (British Library, 2012).

Reviews

`Puss in Books tracks beloved cat characters like Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat as illustrated by Sir John Tenniel, to Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat... Britton takes the reader on a journey spanning famous felines throughout art and literature history.` Dorri Olds, Petside

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Egyptian Cats
The Lindisfarne Gospels Cat
Siamese Cats
Medieval Cats
Witches’ Cats
The Cat and the Fiddle from Hey Diddle Diddle
Ding Dong Bell
Christopher Smart’s cat Jeoffry from Jubilate Agno (Rejoice in the Lamb)
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes
Cats and Royalty
Dick Whittington’s Cat
The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership
Puss in Boots
Lady Jane from Bleak House
Simpkin from The Tailor of Gloucester
The Owl and the Pussycat
The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland
The Black Cat
The Cat That Walked by Himself
The Boy Who Drew Cats
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
Orlando the Marmalade Cat
Fat Freddy’s Cat
Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle
101 Uses of a Dead Cat
Simon’s Cat
Splat the Cat

Index
Picture Sources
Acknowledgements

New Book: Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling is released today. Looks like a few stories might have a fairy tale spin to them, too, but won't know until I read it myself!

Book description:

“Gaslamp Fantasy,” or historical fantasy set in a magical version of the nineteenth century, has long been popular with readers and writers alike. A number of wonderful fantasy novels, including Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Prestige by Christopher Priest, owe their inspiration to works by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Brontës, and George Meredith to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Morris. And, of course, the entire steampunk genre and subculture owes more than a little to literature inspired by this period.

Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy. The result is eighteen stories by experts from the fantasy, horror, mainstream, and young adult fields, including both bestselling writers and exciting new talents such as Elizabeth Bear, James Blaylock, Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Gregory Maguire, Delia Sherman, and Catherynne M. Valente, who present a bewitching vision of a nineteenth century invested (or cursed!) with magic.

And Table of Contents:

Preface Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Introduction Terri Windling
The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford
From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine
The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells by Delia Sherman
La Reine D’Enfer by Kathe Koja
For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein
The Governess by Elizabeth Bear
Smithfield by James P. Blaylock
The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren
Charged by Leanna Renee Hieber
Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey
Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes
We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherynne M. Valente
The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown by Jane Yolen
A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire
Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee
Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss

Lots of Bargain Ebooks

I think we've established that my relaxation time involves lots and lots of reading. So does my work time. Hmmm... Anyway, this time of year offers lots of ebook bargains and I thought I'd share some previously discussed on the blog or by known favorite authors. There's probably at least one here you want--there were several for me...

Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Castle) by Diane Wynne Jones is $1.99. On my ebook wishlist.

Book description:

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett is $2.99. Pratchett!

Book description:

A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's . . . Dodger.

Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl—not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.

From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.

Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a complex and fascinating world.

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days) by Susan Ee is $1.66.

Book description:

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with Raffe, an injured enemy angel. Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco, where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr is $1.99.

Book description:

In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures—if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

All Mallory knows of The City is that her father—and every other witch there—fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable.
While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.

From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series and Graveminder, comes a brand-new tale of lush secrets, dark love, and the struggle to forge one's own destiny.

 

Wildwood by Colin Meloy is $1.99.

Book description:

Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows. And then things get really weird.
You see, on every map of Portland, Oregon, there is a big splotch of green on the edge of the city labeled “I.W.” This stands for “Impassable Wilderness.” No one’s ever gone in—or at least returned to tell of it.

And this is where the crows take her brother.

So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval, a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness.

A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

Wildwood is a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel that could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of the Decemberists. With dozens of intricate and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Carson Ellis, Wildwood is truly a new classic for the twenty-first century.

Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger is $1.99.

Book description:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is $2.99.

Book description:

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed-and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign-and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions-and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers-one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful-and utterly unforgettable.

Scary Tales: The Silk Nightcap

Here is today's scary tale, excerpted from Bluebeard Tales From Around the World (Surlalune Fairy Tale Series).

The Silk Nightcap

The following is excerpted from Charles Dickens’s “The Holly Tree” originally published in 1855 in his Christmas Stories. This excerpt contains two brief stories and the second is a Robber Bridegroom tale.

MY FIRST impressions of an Inn dated from the Nursery; consequently I went back to the Nursery for a starting-point, and found myself at the knee of a sallow woman with a fishy eye, an aquiline nose, and a green gown, whose specialty was a dismal narrative of a landlord by the roadside, whose visitors unaccountably disappeared for many years, until it was discovered that the pursuit of his life had been to convert them into pies. For the better devotion of himself to this branch of industry, he had constructed a secret door behind the head of the bed; and when the visitor (oppressed with pie) had fallen asleep, this wicked landlord would look softly in with a lamp in one hand and a knife in the other, would cut his throat, and would make him into pies—for which purpose he had coppers, underneath a trap-door, always boiling—and rolled out his pastry in the dead of the night. Yet even he was not insensible to the stings of conscience, for he never went to sleep without being heard to mutter, “Too much pepper!” which was eventually the cause of his being brought to justice.

I had no sooner disposed of this criminal than there started up another of the same period, whose profession was originally housebreaking; in the pursuit of which art he had had his right ear chopped off one night, as he was burglariously getting in at a window, by a brave and lovely servant-maid (whom the aquiline-nosed woman, though not at all answering the description, always mysteriously implied to be herself). After several years, this brave and lovely servant-maid was married to the landlord of a country Inn; which landlord had this remarkable characteristic, that he always wore a silk nightcap, and never would on any consideration take it off. At last, one night, when he was fast asleep, the brave and lovely woman lifted up his silk nightcap on the right side, and found that he had no ear there; upon which she sagaciously perceived that he was the clipped housebreaker, who had married her with the intention of putting her to death. She immediately heated the poker and terminated his career, for which she was taken to King George upon his throne, and received the compliments of royalty on her great discretion and valour.

Source:

Dickens, Charles. “The Holly-Tree Inn.” Household Words: Christmas Stories 1851-1858. London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, n.d.

Around the World: Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions by John Bierhorst

Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library) by John Bierhorst is one of the best collections of Latin American folktales and is still available in print and also in ebook format. This one also has a Register of Tale Types and Selected Motifs in its appendices which is a boon to those looking for similar tale types.

Book description from the publisher:

The wisdom and artistry of Latin America's storytellers preserve one of the world's richest folktale traditions--combining the lore of medieval Europe, the ancient Near East, and pre-Columbian America. Among the essential characters are the quiet man's wife who knew the Devil's secrets, the tree daughters who robbed their father's grave, and the wife in disguise who married her own husband--not to mention the Bear's son, the tricksters Fox and Monkey, the two compadres, and the classic rogue Pedro de Urdemalas.

Gathered from twenty countries, including the United States, the stories are here brought together in a core collection of one hundred tales arranged in the form of a velorio, or wake, the most frequent occasion for public storytelling. The tales are preceded by a selection of early Colonial legends foreshadowing the themes of Latino folklore and are followed by a carefully chosen group of modern Indian myths that replay the basic stories in a contrasting key. Riddles, chain riddles, and folk prayers, part and parcel of the velorio along with folktales, are introduced at appropriate junctures.

The collection is unprecedented in size and scope, and most of the tales have not been translated into English before. The result is the first panoramic anthology of Hispano-American folk narratives in any language--meant to be dipped into at random or read straight through from "Once and twice makes thrice upon a time" to "They were happy as the dickens and ate chickens."

About the Author

John Bierhorst's books on Latin American lore include The Mythology of South America and The Mythology of Mexico and Central America. A specialist in the language and literature of the Aztecs, he is the translator of the Cantares Mexicanos and the author of a Nahuatl-English dictionary. He currently serves as an editor of The Norton Anthology of World Literature an has received grants and fellowships from the Americas Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Table of Contents

. Preface. .
. Introduction. 3.
. Prologue: Early Colonial Legends. 19.
1. Montezuma / Nahua (Mexico). 22.
I. The Talking Stone. 22.
II. Montezuma's Wound. 25.
III. Eight Omens. 26.
IV. The Return of Quetzalcoatl. 28.
V. Is It You?. 32.
2. Legends of the Inca Kings / Quechua (Peru). 34.
I. Mayta Capac. 34.
II. The Storm. 36.
III. The Vanishing Bride. 38.
IV. A Messenger in Black. 40.
V. The Oracle at Huamachuco. 41.
3. Bringing Out the Holy Word / Mexico (Nahua). 42.
. Folktales: A Twentieth-Century Wake. 45.
4. In the City of Benjamin / Ecuador. 49.
5. Antuco's Luck / Chile. 51.
6. Don Dinero and Dona Fortuna / Dominican Republic. 56.
7. Mistress Lucia / Mexico. 57.
8. St. Peter's Wishes / Cuba. 63.
9. The Coyote Teodora / Honduras. 64.
10. Buried Alive / California. 65.
11. The Three Gowns / Puerto Rico. 67.
12. The Horse of Seven Colors / Venezuela. 72.
13. The Cow / New Mexico. 78.
14. Death and the Doctor / Dominican Republic. 81.
15. What the Owls Said / Mexico (Mazatec). 82.
16. Aunt Misery / Puerto Rico. 84.
17. Palm-tree Story / Colombia. 85.
18. Pedro de Urdemalas. 88.
I. The Letter Carrier from the Other World / Chile. 88.
II. The King's Pigs / Guatemala. 89.
III. The Sack / Chile. 89.
IV. Pedro Goes to Heaven / Argentina. 92.
19. A Voyage to Eternity / Bolivia. 94.
20. Mother and Daughter / Colombia. 98.
21. The Bird Sweet Magic / Costa Rica. 98.
22. Death Comes as a Rooster / Cuba. 103.
23. The Twelve Truths of the World / New Mexico. 104.
. Folk Prayers. 107.
24. The Mouse and the Dung Beetle / Colorado. 111.
25. The Canon and the King's False Friend / New Mexico. 113.
26. The Story That Became a Dream / Chile. 115.
27. St. Theresa and the Lord / Mexico. 118.
28. Rice from Ashes / Argentina. 120.
29. Juan Maria and Juana Maria / Guatemala. 124.
30. The Witch Wife / Colombia. 126.
31. O Wicked World / Argentina. 129.
32. The Three Sisters / Colombia. 130.
33. The Count and the Queen / Colorado. 134.
34. Crystal the Wise / Chile. 137.
35. Love Like Salt / Mexico. 141.
36. The Pongo's Dream / Peru (Quechua). 144.
37. The Fox and the Monkey / Bolivia (Aymara). 147.
38. The Miser's Jar / Guatemala (Kekchi Maya). 149.
39. Tup and the Ants / Mexico (Yucatec Maya). 152.
40. A Master and His Pupil / Guatemala. 155.
41. The Louse-Drum / Panama. 157.
42. The Three Dreams / Guatemala. 159.
43. The Clump of Basil / Puerto Rico. 161.
. Riddles. 164.
44. The Charcoal Peddler's Chicken / Puerto Rico. 173.
45. The Three Counsels / New Mexico. 174.
46. Seven Blind Queens / Chile. 176.
47. The Mad King / Florida. 181.
48. A Mother's Curse / Puerto Rico. 183.
49. The Hermit and the Drunkard / Ecuador. 184.
50. The Noblewoman's Daughter and the Charcoal Woman's Son / Cuba. 185.
51. The Enchanted Cow / Chile. 188.
52. Judas's Ear / New Mexico. 192.
53. Good Is Repaid with Evil / Venezuela. 195.
54. The Fisherman's Daughter / Colombia. 196.
55. In the Beginning / Mexico (Mazatec). 201.
56. How the First People Were Made / Mexico (Zapotec). 202.
57. Adam's Rib / Mexico (Popoluca). 203.
58. Adam and Eve and Their Children / New Mexico (Isleta). 203.
59. God's Letter to Noeh / Mexico (Zapotec). 204.
60. God Chooses Noah / Mexico (Mixe). 205.
61. The Flood / Mixe (Mexico). 207.
62. A Prophetic Dream / Mexico (Mazatec). 208.
63. The White Lily / Ecuador (Quichua). 209.
64. The Night in the Stable / Guatemala (Quiche Maya). 209.
65. When Morning Came. 210.
I. Why Did It Dawn? / Mexico (Nahua). 210.
II. That Was the Principal Day / Mexico (Tzotzil Maya). 211.
66. Three Kings / New Mexico (Isleta). 211.
67. The Christ Child as Trickster / Ecuador (Quichua). 212.
68. Christ Saved by the Firefly / Cakchiquel Maya (Guatemala). 213.
69. Christ Betrayed by Snails / Belize (Kekchi Maya). 214.
70. Christ Betrayed by the Magpie-jay / Mexico (Tzotzil Maya). 214.
71. The Blind Man at the Cross / Mexico (Mazatec). 214.
72. The Cricket, the Mole, and the Mouse / Mexico (Mazatec). 216.
73. As If with Wings / Mexico (Mazatec). 218.
74. Slowpoke Slaughtered Four / Puerto Rico. 219.
75. The Price of Heaven and the Rain of Caramels / Mexico. 221.
76. Pine Cone the Astrologer / Panama. 224.
77. The Dragon Slayer / Mexico. 225.
78. Johnny-boy / Nicaragua. 229.
79. The Rarest Thing / Guatemala. 230.
80. Prince Simpleheart / Costa Rica. 232.
81. The Flower of Lily-Lo / Mexico. 236.
82. My Garden Is Better Than Ever / Mexico (Popoluca). 238.
83. Juan Bobo and the Pig / Puerto Rico. 239.
84. The Parrot Prince / Chile. 240.
. Chain Riddles. 245.
85. A Dead Man Speaks / Texas. 251.
86. The Bear's Son / Honduras (Lenca). 252.
87. Charity / Argentina. 259.
88. Riches Without Working / Mexico (Nahua). 260.
89. Let Somebody Buy You Who Doesn't Know You / Guatemala. 262.
90. The Mouse King / Bolivia. 264.
91. Mariquita Grim and Mariquita Fair / Cuba. 266.
92. The Compadre's Dinner / Dominican Republic. 270.
93. The Hog / Colorado. 272.
94. Two Sisters / Puerto Rico. 272.
95. The Ghosts' Reales / Dominican Republic. 274.
96. The Bad Compadre / Guatemala (Cakchiquel Maya). 277.
97. Black Chickens / Mexico (Tepecano). 283.
98. Doublehead / El Salvador (Pipil). 286.
99. Littlebit / Chile. 288.
100. Rosalie / Mexico (Yucatec Maya). 293.
101. A Day Laborer Goes to Work / Mexico (Otomi). 297.
102. The Moth / Peru (Quechua). 303.
103. The Earth Ate Them / Argentina. 304.
. Epilogue: Twentieth-Century Myths. 307.
104. Why Tobacco Grows Close to Houses / Kogi (Colombia). 310.
105. The Buzzard Husband / Tzotzil Maya (Mexico). 310.
106. The Dead Wife / Miskito (Nicaragua). 314.
107. Romi Kumu Makes the World / Barasana (Colombia). 315.
108. She Was Thought and Memory / Kogi (Colombia). 316.
109. Was It Not an Illusion? / Witoto (Colombia). 317.
110. The Beginning Life of the Hummingbird / Mbya Guarani (Paraguay). 318.
111. Ibis Story / Yamana (Chile). 319.
112. The Condor Seeks a Wife / Quechua (Bolivia). 320.
113. The Priest's Son Becomes an Eagle / Zuni (New Mexico). 322.
114. The Revolt of the Utensils / Tacana (Bolivia). 325.
115. The Origin of Permanent Death / Shuar (Ecuador). 326.
. Notes. 329.
. Register of Tale Types and Selected Motifs. 363.
. Glossary of Native Cultures. 369.
. Bibliography. 373.
. Permissions Acknowledgments. 385

Grimm Legacies 2012: External Reports

Yes, I am behind on recapping the Grimm Legacies--I also felt that my many posts devoted to Dickens yesterday were more than enough for anyone's reading yesterday. So the recap will go on for a few weeks and one paper is spawning a brief series on SurLaLune--more about that later.

For now, I wanted to share a link to The Harvard Crimson's coverage of the event at Folk and Myth Talks Grimm By Melanie A. Guzman:

University of Minnesota professor Jack D. Zipes, who has authored numerous books on the Grimms’ tales, delivered the keynote address Friday on the pair’s legacy. “The Brothers Grimm have [had] a very unusual reception in Germany and a lot of their fairy tales have been sanitized and infantilized and really not been acknowledged as profound contributions to German culture,” Zipes said. “I showed, however, that there is another level in Germany where they take these stories extremely seriously and produce great illustrations based on their work.”

Folklore and Mythology Chair Maria Tatar delivered Saturday’s welcome address, entitled “Magic and Mythical: 200 Years of Brothers Grimm.”

“I wanted to show how [the tales’] magic has a mythical quality to it,” said Tatar, who teaches Folklore and Mythology 90i: “Fairy Tales and Fantasy Literature.” “They take us to the great existential mysteries, questions about death, reproduction, love, romance, power, all of these fundamental matters,” Tatar said.

And Gypsy over at Once Upon a Blog has archived the tweets from Twitter about the symposium on her blog, too. Thanks for taking the time to do that, Gypsy!