Top 5 Sunday: Re-Told Fairytales

 

Hello! This week on Larissa's Bookish Life, they picked a theme I suggested! Re-Told Fairytales. :) I really, really love re-told fairytales. They make me very happy. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, a re-telling of the Wild Swans, my favorite fairytale of all time. This book is just beautifully written wonderful in so many ways.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley, a re-telling of Allerleirauh, another one of my favorite fairytales, and also one of the less common ones. This is a really dark story, but also very beautiful.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, a re-telling of, shocker, the Goose Girl, another more obscure fairytale. This one's more kid-friendly than the previous two books on my list, and a lot of fun.

The Once Upon a Time series of YA books published by Simon & Shuster. These are short and sweet re-tellings of a variety of fairytales and legends, including Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey (the Ballad of Hua Mulan), The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey (Scheherezade), Water Song by Suzanne Weyn (the Frog Prince), etc.

Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Ok, so this one is not technically a fairytale re-telling, or at least, it isn't advertised as such. Still, I am convinced that the author was thinking of both Beauty and the Beast and the tale of Eros and Psyche when she wrote it. Really. Read the two stories, then read the novel and tell me you don't see the similarities.

Aaaaand....Because I read so many fairytales, I can't stop at 5. I must add more, such as:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer & Sequels. Cyberpunk fairytales = awesome.

Five Hundred Kingdoms series by Mercedes Lackey; a fantasy world where the characters are forced to live by fairytale rules and sometimes twist them to their advantage.

Entwined by Heather Dixon, a lovely re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy. This is a folktale rather than fairytale, but I love it so much that I'm counting it anyway.

Everything by Alex Flinn (loved Beastly) Jane Nickerson, Melanie Dickerson, Jessica Day George...I could keep going, but I'm already cheating enough as it is. :)

                      Lieder Madchen

Top 5 Sundays: Best Evil Villains

 

Hello! Today I thought I would join in on the Top 5 Sundays meme from Larissa & Friends' Bookish Life. I'm nearly a week late and it isn't Sunday, but oh well, it's fun anyway. :) The theme today is:

Best Evil Villains

Don't you just love it when you come across a really spectacular villain? One who manages to actually creep you out every once in a while? Here's my list, in no particular order. Also, these are just my top 5 off the top of my head, not necessarily my favorites of all time. There are so many good bad guys...

Sebastian from The Mortal Instruments. I like all of the bad guys in that series, but he's the only one who made me shiver sometimes.

Guy of Gisborne & the Sheriff of Nottingham from nearly all Robin Hood stories. Yes, I'm a Robin Hood geek. These two aren't creepy, but they are definitely favorites.

Tohon and the Skeleton King from Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder. Tohon has been kind of creepy through the whole Healer series and the Skeleton King is downright shudder-inducing.

Hugh d'Ambray from the Kate Daniels series. He's not particularly scary, but I really loved him as a main villain in Magic Rises.

Chauvelin from The Scarlet Pimpernel. OK, so he's not scary at all, but he's so much fun. He always has this complicated, nefarious plan to defeat the hero, and Sir Percy just saunters in and makes a fool out of him.

                              Lieder Madchen