Into the Forest discussion

Melanti wrote: "Going to the bookstore at midnight to pick up your copy. Running straight home and reading it straight through without stopping. Speculating endlessly for the year it takes for the next book to come out about what's going to happen next. There can be a huge sense of community about it that you miss out on when you read them years later."

Oh so true. I posted on Facebook last year about how I still miss getting up every morning to check the latest on HPANA - were you a member of that site? I was SiriusFan on HPANA. It was the first fan site JK Rowling ever visited and she awarded it one of her official badges. It's kinda sad how much I miss the conversations I had in the forums there. Never really connected with people in the "real" world who understood why I was so in love with HP, but everyone (or everyone minus the trolls) on HPANA did.

We (my daughter, my mom and I) even made a special trip to Chicago for the release of Order of the Phoenix with other members of the HPANA community. If you've read OotP and you note the double entendre of my screen name on that website, you can probably figure out how devastated I was at the events in OttP.

I'm currently reading The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan, an ARC I won through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers, as well as my who-knows-what-number re-read of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

I was never on any of the HP fan sites, though I can see the appeal. I've always felt too shy to go on forums...goodreads was my first foray into online group discussions! Now I feel fine about it, and have no issues contributing:)

But I express my fandom in other ways. I regularly dress up as either Hermione or Bellatrix LeStrange for Halloween; I made my Bellatrix outfit last year and it's my fav:) And I have a small HP bookshelf...

I'm currently reading both Middlemarch by George Eliot and Possession by A.S. Byatt. I didn't intend it to be this way, but they're actually great books to read simultaneously. Possession makes many references to Middlemarch, and the research the main characters are doing in it are of fictional authors of the same time period as George Eliot (one of the fictional authors is a fairytale poet, for those who haven't read it). I'm almost done with Middlemarch, and once I finish I'll read the group read Impossible. And when I'm finished with Possession I'll read The King of Elfland's Daughter, the other group read, though I have a lot more left on Possession, so it will probably be a week before I get started on Elfland.

Leah wrote: "Oh so true. I posted on Facebook last year about how I still miss getting up every morning to check the latest on HPANA - were you a member of that site? ..."

I never really did any of the fan forums. I did all my speculation via fanfiction. Reading, not writing... I am a lurker at heart. You could probably fill a decent sized library with print outs of the HP fanfiction I read over the years.

Fiction Alley and Sugar Quill, were my main sites. I also really liked Potions & Snitches - though that one came later - after the Severitus challenge.

And, yes, I can imagine how devastated you were at the end of OotP.

Well you've all made me want to read the rest of the Harry Potter series. It's been awhile and I have forgotten a lot. I do remember I liked the third, which was the last I read the best. Is there a site where you can re-read the summaries of each book so I don't have to re-read the ones I've already read?

I am reading Dreamer's Pool. Back when it was tying with by The King of Elfland's Daughter I ordered both from the library, but Dreamers Pool arrived first. I'm not liking it as much as the other Juliet Marillier I've read, but I am not sure why, if it's the characters or the atmosphere. Her Wildwood series is my favourite. Finally I am glad that The King of Elfland's Daughter won because I have been wanting to read it for a long time.

Depends on how in depth you want, Jalilah.

Here's a Wikisummaries page. It's a really high-level summary with just a few paragraphs per book. (All books on the same page, so don't scroll down too far).

http://www.wikisummaries.org/Harry_Po...

And here's the HP Wiki, with a chapter-by-chapter summary:
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Cat...

If you liked the 3rd book best, as encouragement, I can say that as the series progressed, each book was written for a progressively older audience and they got correspondingly more complex. It was possible to "grow up" with the books... i.e. Read book 1 at 11, book 2 at 12, book 3 at 13, etc, and each book would be age appropriate when you were about as old as Harry was in the book. It was a neat trick - and something that I think was key to the series' success.

I completely agree that the books grew up with the readers (although she didn't manage to stick to her original one a year plan, so I started the same age as Harry and thought I would 'grow up' with him but by the time they finished, my younger sister who is 4 years younger commented that she was the same age as Harry and had 'grown up' with him :) ). My difficulty is that now that I have a child of my own I don't know what I'm going to do when she gets to 8 or 9 or 10 and wants to start reading the HP books. Book 1 would be great but what do I do then? Tell her she can't read the rest until she's older? Tricky!

Oh and I'm currently rereading The Lunar Chronicles so I can do full justice to Winter :)

Lacey wrote: "I think prejudiced people often find justification in their religion for their biases, rather than learn those biases from religion. "

Great point.

Melanti wrote: "I'm half done with Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer..."

Love that collection. Some really clever, unusual and interesting reimaginings of classic fairy tales there.

My husband and I are both HP fans. We were midnight-purchasers of the last HP book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We were leaving for Ireland three days later and we knew we didn't have time to both read it before we left, so instead we did a marathon read-aloud so we could get through it together. Near the end we were trading off the reading responsibilities about every page and a half so the other person could sniffle and wipe their eyes :)

Both of us now go back and re-read the whole series periodically. I even (sshhhhh...) I write HP fanfic :)

Just finished Joyce Carol Oates A Fair Maiden. Definitely has some fairy tale elements, but is of course unnerving, as all her work is.

Michele wrote: "Just finished Joyce Carol Oates A Fair Maiden. Definitely has some fairy tale elements, but is of course unnerving, as all her work is."
Joyce Carol Oates is an author I've always wanted to read, but haven't yet. Often I prefer more "realistic" novels with a fairy tale or myth theme to actually retellings, I am putting this book on my "to read" list!

Katie wrote: "I'm re-reading The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I read it ages ago, but I hardly remember what happens in it, so I'm reading it again."

A wonderful and powerful book! We did a group read for it sometime ago.
Because you've already read it I am just pasting the link to the thread with spoilers: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I just finished Dreamer's Pool which is definitely my least favorite Juliet Marillier book yet. I usually like her. It had a slow start got better, then the most annoying and disturbing end!

Bleh. I give up on Word Puppets... It's an eARC from Netgalley and they didn't make it available for the Kindles. I could have used a locked epub file too, without much trouble, but all they offered was the locked PDF. I fiddled with it and got it to work (finally) but it screwed up the formatting and it's hard to read. So, I give up...

I did take the time to read the one that seemed to be fairy tale related ("Rampion") which had an interesting twist, but it was so short that it was more of an idea than a story.

So, now on to other things...
I know I said I'd read The King of Elfland's Daughter next. but I just found out that Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is already out, so that's up next instead. Yay! I love the Vorkosigan saga!

I love Vorkosigan too! Can't wait to read the newest.

Currently reading The Hobbit (or actually a reread)

Kathy wrote: "Currently reading The Hobbit (or actually a reread)"

Ah, so good :)

Finally got my greedy little hands on a copy of Career of Evil. On page 103 and loving every word.

Have to rearrange my reading queue a bit because of library books with no renewals left and ARCs I need to review. So today I hope to read The Hero and the Crown and The Drowning Girl. After those two, I'll read When the Elephants Dance, which I nominated for our Asian theme but have been unable to get to until now, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and then our Ireland winner, Impossible. Schedule permitting, I'll have those three done by Wednesday. So many good books, so little time!

Leah wrote: Schedule permitting, I'll have those three done by Wednesday. So many good books, so little time! "

Three books in four days -- reading must be your superpower!

Today, I finished The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, which combines a contemporary setting with jinn mythology. I imagine a lot of people here would like it. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I should also finish today or tomorrow Possession by A.S. Byatt. This is one I've had on my shelf for a long time, unread. For those who haven't read it, it's about two scholars obsessed with two fictional Victorian poets. Then one of them finds a letter suggesting a possible unknown connection between the poets, and the two scholars join up on a quest to uncover the truth behind their obsessions. The fairy tale connection is that both, but particularly the female poet, write fairy tale poems, and there's even one prose fairy tale. It's very meta, with excepts from scholarly works on the poets, their poetry, letters, diary entries, etc. I can't imagine the amount of time it must've taken A.S. Byatt to write it! It's quite good though.

I also just picked up Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies by Cristina Bacchilega. I'm writing a paper about fairy tales for a conference in March, so I have to start researching. I have to say, I've considered going back to school for a PhD, but reading this dense material (plus Possession) makes me realize that path is not for me. I admire everyone who manages it, though!

I'll start reading The King of Elfland's Daughter once I've finished Possession.

Michele wrote: "Three books in four days -- reading must be your superpower!"

LOL nah, I'm just one of those people that once I'm in a book, I read faster and faster. It's only when I'm distracted by things like work and having to eat that I lose my pace and have to get back in the zone.

The book itself also dictates my pace: modern works are faster for me than "the classics" and certain authors, like Isabel Allende (with her neverending paragraphs), take me longer. For instance, in December, it took me three days to read The House of the Spirits (488 pages) but only took me three hours to re-read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (341 pages).

Of course, today I wasn't able to read anything because all I can think about is The X-Files new season premiere tonight. EEEEE! I'm so excited!

So I've finished and loved The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk and Someplace to Be Flying.

Then I read The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was interesting, but not fun. And then Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I hope will be one of those rare books where the movie is better. I've just started Sirens, which is set in 1925 in Manhattan.

Julia wrote: "So I've finished and loved The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk and Someplace to Be Flying.

Then I read [book:The Plot: The Secret Story of th..."

I'd like to read that! I was actually living in SF as a teen during the time of Harvey Milk and I remember hearing about how he and the major got shot.

Just curious Julia did you like Someplace to be Flying as much the second time around? I've been wanting to re-read it for sometime now.

Julia wrote: "And then Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I hope will be one of those rare books where the movie is better."

Just going off the trailer, I think it will be. After I finished the book (gave it 3/5) I thought it rather silly, but I was glad I had finally satisfied my curiosity.

I agree with you Leah, I'm glad I got Pride and Prejudice and Zombies off of my TBR shelf after nearly seven years, but I didn't love it either. In the movie I'm really looking forward to seeing Matt Smith (the eleventh Doctor Who) as Mr. Collins.

Jalilah, I strongly recommend you read Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. I'm a little older than you, and I moved to San Francisco after Milk and Moscone were shot, but I too read Randy Shilts' work in the San Francisco Chronicle. It's an impressive book.

As for Someplace to Be Flying, it was at least the third time I've read it. I love being with Charles de Lint's characters, especially the Crow Girls! My RL book club is discussing it this week. I wonder what my friends will think of it-- sometimes my friends do not like the books I suggest. They really didn't like Wild Seed, for instance.

Finished Career of Evil (excellent) and am now happily in the midst of a re-read of Gone with the Wind. Yay for perennial favorites!

Though for the first time I really noticed the ages mentioned and was a bit taken aback. Gerald O'Hara is 43 when he marries Ellen Robillard, who is only 15. Suellen O'Hara's "beau" Frank Kennedy is 40 and she's 14. And Rhett Butler is mentioned as being 30 or 35 at the beginning of the novel and Scarlett is only 16. For some reason this never struck me before, but even for the 1860s this seems quite a wide disparity.

Yuck! Michele, on the ages of the men and girls in GwtW, which I didn't catch when I read it about 100 years ago, either.

I've just finished Reluctantly Charmed, the almost YA Irish story that didn't make the cut for the group read. Ellie O'Neill is a great writer and the book is quirky, lively and funny. I had a couple of issues, but it's highly recommended. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Yes, that's disturbing. I loved Sense and Sensibility when I was teen, but as an adult I realized that Colonel Brandon is really quite a bit older than Marianne, and that's not okay. Still love that one, however! Middlemarch critiques that marriage type by having a twenty-year-old choosing to marry a man in his fifties because she thinks he'll be a great father figure, and she'll learn so much from him, but that backfires!

Michele wrote: "Though for the first time I really noticed the ages mentioned and was a bit taken aback. ..."

Well, my 2 cents on it is that Margaret Mitchell's views of the antebellum South are extremely romanticized. I think her research on the era consisted of listening to her grandparent's generation talk about the "good old days".

So, someone probably mentioned that it used to be more common for a younger woman to marry an older man, and she just ran with that description and interpreted it as 14/15 rather than 18/19 and all relationships rather than a handful.

Margaret wrote: "Yes, that's disturbing. I loved Sense and Sensibility when I was teen, but as an adult I realized that Colonel Brandon is really quite a bit older than Marianne, and that's not okay. Still love tha..."

I find it creepy too, but has happened a lot world wide thoughout history.

Virginia wrote: "I've just finished Reluctantly Charmed, the almost YA Irish story that didn't make the cut for the group read. Ellie O'Neill is a great writer and the book is quirky, lively and fun..."

That's good to know Virginia! I'll check it out! YA books have really been hit and miss with me lately.

Julia wrote: ".Jalilah, I strongly recommend you read Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. I'm a little older than you, and I moved to San Francisco after Milk and Moscone were shot, but I too read Randy Shilts' work in the San Francisco Chronicle. It's an impressive book.
As for Someplace to Be Flying, it was at least the third time I've read it. I love being with Charles de Lint's characters, especially the Crow Girls! My RL book club is discussing it this week. I wonder what my friends will think of it-- sometimes my friends do not like the books I suggest. They really didn't like Wild Seed, for instance"

Yes, Id like to read it as it will definitely bring back memories.

I am looking forward to re-reading Someplace to Be Flying. I have the impression everyone who is already a Charles De Lint fan ends up loving it and thinking it's one of his best. However people aren't fans of his anyway don't like it. It's so quintessentially De Lint! So all his typical characteristics are in it which are what make some people his fans and others find annoying. When it was read in Endicott group a few months ago the two people who were reading it actually didn't even finish it! But I think both of these people said they didn't like De Lint much anyway.

The one friend I spoke with about it who has finished it, liked it. She didn't like the villains, but then you're not supposed to.

I finished reading Sirens by Janet Fox today. I gave it three stars, it wasn't exactly to my tastes, but I know it will be to some people's.

I think The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith is up next.

I've never read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (though I have read P&P many times). Since a couple people have said they're hoping the movie will be better than the book (a rare event but it does happen!), I was wondering if you think it would be worth going to see the movie if I haven't read the book? (And I'm not particularly planning to read it.)

Melanie wrote: "I've never read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (though I have read P&P many times). Since a couple people have said they're hoping the movie will be better than the book (a rare event but it does ..."

I was wondering the same thing! I never was interested in the book, but might watch the movie.

wow i've just caught up on this thread! have i already come out as a HP hater? maybe i should have stayed in the closet haha...

currently reading the immense monument (or multiment?) Daughters of Africa

recently I read Jambusters: The Women's Institute at War 1939-1945 which was really awesome and recommended for anyone who likes social history

Zanna wrote: "wow i've just caught up on this thread! have i already come out as a HP hater? maybe i should have stayed in the closet haha...."

What!!!! ;)

Zanna wrote: "wow i've just caught up on this thread! have i already come out as a HP hater? maybe i should have stayed in the closet haha...

currently reading the immense monument (or multiment?) [book:Daughte..."

No worries Zanna! While I don't hate it, I obviously did not love it like others did. Otherwise I would have continued even after my son wanted to stop!
I am not the first person to mention this, but many people started reading fantasy for the first time with HP and were unaware that there were many writers before who wrote about similar things before her, but never became as famous.

I recently discovered a series that I totally missed as a child and only started reading; Anne of Green Gables. It is absolutely delightful! I just finished the second one Anne of Avonlea.

Just in time for the remake of the series. I envy you Jalilah. I would love to meet Anne for the first time again.

Me too! I love Anne! I only just heard about the series remake and I don't know if I'm more excited or nervous. The old series is pretty great :)

Melanie wrote: "Me too! I love Anne! I only just heard about the series remake and I don't know if I'm more excited or nervous. The old series is pretty great :)"

I think everyone feels that way.

Melanie wrote: "Me too! I love Anne! I only just heard about the series remake and I don't know if I'm more excited or nervous. The old series is pretty great :)"

I wanted to see the old series but it's not on Netflix. All the video stores, except a few that specialize in art and foreign language films have shut down. Does anyone know where I found find it?

Also Chris and Melanie have you read all the books in the series?

Just ordered the Anne of Green Gables DVD series from my library and I can't believe it, I am 172 in line! How long could that take?

Jalilah wrote: "Just ordered the Anne of Green Gables DVD series from my library and I can't believe it, I am 172 in line! How long could that take?"

Wow!!!

I also came to that book series as an adult, maybe 5 years ago?, and loved it.

I've read most, if not all.

Hmm, that's tricky! It's getting harder and harder to get old movies but it's definitely one worth watching. I don't know about where you live but I often see it for sale pretty cheaply in Australia... (Note: the original two - Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel are golden. They're quite different from the books because they condense a lot but they're just as good in my opinion. However, Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story should be avoided like the plague! It was made a long time after the first two and changes the story completely in every way as well as the actors being way too old!)

I've read the whole series and liked them all. I particularly liked the last one, Rilla of Ingleside, which is very sad (it takes place during the War) but really good. (Apparently she was pressured into writing another Anne book when she didn't want to so she chose to focus it on Anne's daughter, Rilla.)

I really enjoyed Beauty too. It reminded me a lot of the Disney version and then I was looking up some reviews here on Goodreads and saw someone commenting that the book was actually published well before the Disney movie came out and that there were so many similarities, it feels like they should have been paying McKinley royalties. And I agree! (Hers follows the more traditional telling with Beauty having two sisters, etc but so many other aspects are similar!)

You might Rose Daughter which is anyone retelling of the story and is also by McKinley.

Katie wrote: "I'm about halfway through Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. I love it so far. It's not so much a re-telling as a telling. It ..."

I loved Beauty! Imo it's one of the best retellings ever. I often like prefer myths or fairy tale influenced literature to retellings, but McKinley does such a beautiful job of it!