Ex Libris Bitsy

I first started reading modern takes on classic fairy tales in Junior High when I stumbled across Terri Windling for the first time in the adult fantasy section. Terri Windling is a fantasy writer and editor who has contributed to a lot of great projects including quite a few that involve rewritten fairy tales!

My favorite works, that both Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow collaborated as editors on, would be the six volumes of short stories that are all made up of re-told fairy tales, or as they call it, “our series of fairy tales for adults.” They have gone out of print, half were republished, and those are now slowly going out of print again but I simply love this series and am determined to get a full set one day!

The books in the series are:

• Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears
• Black Thorn, White Rose
• Silver Birch, Blood Moon
• Black Heart, Ivory Bones
• Snow White, Blood Red
• Black Swan, White Raven

I reviewed one of the books, Black Heart, Ivory Bones, a while ago and it was just as wonderful as I had remembered it! I really wish they would come out with a matching set so that I can collect all six in the same binding. (I have three, two paperback and one in library binding from the first printing).

I did read all six when the library near where I grew up had them. They completely changed how I viewed fairy tales and are probably responsible for kindling the spark that grew into my life long love affair with them. If you can get a hold of a copy of any of these at the library or see one at a used book store, snag it! You won’t regret that you did.

See? I can write a short Fairy Tale Friday after all! As an aside I also recommend any and all of the books on my blog with the fairy tale tag. Yes, I read so many they require their own tag!

[openbook booknumber=”0439023491″][rating:5/5]

This was a very worthy sequel to The Hunger Games. It was just as action packed as the first, with all of the same favorite characters brought back to vivid life, only this time we get to journey to new places as Katniss and Peeta do their Victory Tour and get to see all of the other districts and the unrest that is stirring in each of them.

Not a lot of links this week. Spent most of it getting ready for Easter and then the read-a-thon! So there are some links related to that and a lot of links about YA and, of course, my new found love for graphic novels that I am exploring a bit more nowadays. It looks like there are going to be way more links next week as I get caught up with my Google Reader so stay tuned for that! Hopefully will even update on time on Saturday, won’t that be a novel experience?

I tweeted a little about this before, but this kind of expands on that, and covers a lot more books if you want recommendations for angel books to read!

April at Good Books and Good Wine has made a great list of the Top 100 YA books! (According to the book blogging community anyway, but hey, we matter too!) She has a series of posts with a list of synopsises (synopsisees? synopsisaii?) for each book. Check out the full list of the Top 100 YA Novels!

A great list of upcoming Graphic Novels! I think I’m ready to branch out from solely manga to some graphic novels as well and this list is definitely got my interest piqued!

I was so stoked to find Seaward by Susan Cooper after years of remembering the story and wanting to read it again but figuring there was no chance with what little I remembered. To find the exact book with the help of some serious Google-Fu on the part of my husband was way awesome. I have got to check this book out of the library and read it again. So many fond memories! I have a typo-laden rave on it during Hour 15 of the Read-a-Thon.

[openbook booknumber=”0312288476″][rating:4/5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved the setting, I loved the characters, I loved how the storyline pulled me in and didn’t let me go until the last page was turned. It had unique characters, well researched back story, and of course a killer on the loose to help spice things up as the death toll keeps climbing. Between the mystery and suspense surrounding this small baby abandoned on a church door step, to the believable relationship and build up between Reverend Clare and Chief Alystyne (will they? won’t they?) it ended up being quite a page turner and I was up late into the night on several occasions because I could not put this book down.

I’m the only person up right now and I’m trying to be vewy vewy quiet. We’re hunting books today! Or at least I am. It’s almost 7AM and I’m reading to kick off by starting with Volume 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist. You may have heard me rave about this series in my upcoming read-a-thon post. I am stoked and so ready to go. I’ve been leafing through these babies all week!

Let’s get this party started!