Top Ten Tuesday: When You’re In the Mood for Folk and Fairytales

TTTTop Ten Tuesday is a Weekly Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is about finding books to fit our moods. Recently I read a post about some fairytales with a new twist, and it made me think of a few that I’m excited about. I’ve posted a list of books based on Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and stories about Merlin before, because I LOVE folk tales and fairytales retold. But this will be a fresh new list. Most of these books I’ve already read and reviewed, but there are a few I haven’t gotten to yet but am super excited to read.

Top Ten Folk or Fairytales Re-imagined

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Review: You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

You Were Here by Cori McCarthyYou Were Here
Cori McCarthy
Sourcebooks Fire

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Jaycee intends to spend the anniversary of her brother Jake’s death the same way she spent the last one: exploring an abandoned building with her brother’s best friend. Jake’s death fractured Jaycee’s entire community, and even though it’s been five years since his death, her relationships remain in the same ruined condition as the broken mental institution she visits.

Her friends are determined to reach her, though. Even Mik, with whom Jaycee feels a powerful if wordless connection. As grief pushes Jaycee closer and closer to the edge, her friends realize the only way to save her is to join … Continue reading

Review: Across a Star-swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund

Across a Star-swept Sea by Diana PeterfreundAcross a Star-swept Sea (For Darkness Shows the Stars #2)
Diana Peterfreund
Balzer + Bray

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Persis Blake has two lives. In one, she’s the center of high society and the Albion queen’s best friend. In the other, she’s the Wild Poppy, rescuing prisoners of the neighboring kingdom’s revolution. When a refugee connected to the head of the Galatean revolution shows up seeking asylum, Persis can’t help but suspect his motives. Justen, a Galatean medic and scientist, carries a secret with him into exile. One that could provide the Galatean Revolutionaries with an even more powerful weapon. Persis and Justen begin to fall for one another, but there’s just … Continue reading

Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Part-Time Diary of an Indian
Sherman Alexie
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

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About The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

After a school incident provokes a teacher to challenge fifteen year-old Junior, he leaves the school on the Spokane Indian Reservation for an all-white school in a nearby town with better resources. At first, Junior’s new schoolmates shun him for being different, and at home, his friends shun him for being a traitor and leaving the reservation. Through cartoon drawings and frank narrative, Junior wrestles with his own sense of value and the value of his people.

My … Continue reading

Top Ten Diverse Reads

TTTTop Ten Tuesday is a Weekly Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is top ten books which are outside the normal scope of what we read. I am pretty territorial about my reading time, so I pretty much stick to young adult and middle grade fiction with a few nonfiction books thrown in for sanity sake. This made the topic was a little tough for me. One of the things I’ve realized over the last year or so is that sometimes I need to be purposeful about choosing books with narrators who are different than me. Whether that means different in terms of race, gender, identity, or experience. Here are ten books that I really enjoyed … Continue reading

Review: Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day GeorgeTuesdays at the Castle
Jessica Day George
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

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Castle Glower isn’t like any other fairy tale castle. Every Tuesday, new room appear, existing rooms may find themselves located in entirely new parts of the castle. Guests may even discover their rooms becoming more or less luxurious depending on their behavior toward the king. The youngest in her family, Princess Celie catalogs the castle’s changes in an atlas. When her parents go missing, leaving Celie, her brother and sister behind, the three siblings must work together to thwart nefarious plans by the council and visiting princes, and with the Castle as their ally, they just might … Continue reading