THE WORLD'S BEST FAIRY TALES VOLUME 2 by Reader's Digest, Edited by Belle Becker Sideman, illustrated by Fritz Kredel

PUBLISHER: Reader's Digest, 1967, 1977

GENRE: Children's Fiction

ALL IMAGES: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: Volume 2 of a two-volume fairy tale anthology. All the best loved and remembered tales. 

Includes: Jorinda and Joringel, Puss in Boots, The Emperor's New Clothes, Billy Beg and His Bull, Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes and Little Three Eyes, The Red Shoes, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Snegourka, the Snow Maiden, The Three Little Pigs, The Shoemaker and the Elves, Doctor Know-It-All, The Six Swans, Dick Whittington and His Cat, Rapunzel, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, The Three Bears, Rumpelstiltskin, The Golden-Headed Fish, Hansel and Gretel, The Brave Little Tailor, The Gingerbread Man, A Horned Goat, Seven Simons, The Little Match Girl, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Musicians of Bremen, Blue Beard, The Princess on Glass Hill, The Half-Chick, Sleeping Beauty, The Magic Carpet, Jack the Giant Killer, Twelve Dancing Princesses, Little Claus and Big Claus, The Colony of Cats, Sinbad the Sailor.

MY THOUGHTS: This is the second volume to the one I reviewed previously. Each story, some are common fairy tales, some are just stories, has a full color, full page illustration. This volume had a few more stories and weighs slightly less than the first volume. Like I said of the previous one, the stories in here are hit or miss. I'm disappointed in myself for skipping three of the longer stories. They didn't hold my interest and I didn't want to waste time on them. My favorites are: Jorinda and Joringle, Hansel and Gretel, The Gingerbread Man, Bluebeard, which has no business being in a children's book, The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, and The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The most morbid ones are Bluebeard and Little Claus and Big Claus with The Red Shoes runner-up.

See all images from inside the book here.

THE WORLD'S BEST FAIRY TALES VOL. 1 from Reader's Digest, Edited by Belle Becker Sideman, illustrated by Fritz Kredel

PUBLISHER: Reader's Digest, 1967 & 1977

GENRE: Children's Fiction 

ALL IMAGES: link

MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: A Reader's Digest anthology, volume 1 of 2: The best of the world's fairy tales collected together from all over the world.

Featuring the stories: The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Snow White and Rose Red, It's Perfectly True!, Tom Thumb, The Nightingale, Chicken Little, The Frog Prince, Cinderella, The Princess and the Pea, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Golden Goose, Why the Sea is Salt, The Ugly Duckling, Jack and the Beanstalk, Two Frogs, The Snow Queen, Six Sillies, The Hedgehog and the Rabbit, Thumbelina, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid, Five Wise Words, The Goose-Girl, Beauty and the Beast, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Tinderbox, Little Fir Tree, The Bronze Ring, Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Boy Who Kept a Secret, The Magic Kettle. 

MY THOUGHTS: This is a small hardcover without a dust jacket, measuring 8 1/4" x 5 1/2" x 1 1/8" and weighing 1lb. 8 oz. The top of the pages are gold. This was originally published by Random House in 1967 as one huge 800+ page volume with the same illustrations on the dust jacket as this one from 1983 but a different color. The pages of my 1983 edition are thick and of good quality. Each story has one full page, full color illustration. All illustrations were done by Fritz Kredel and can be seen here. There's information in the back of the book about where each story chosen for this anthology came from, which book it was previously published in, and what year. As far as translations go I couldn't tell you if these stories were translated good or not. 

The stories are hit or miss as all fairy tales are. I like the darker ones, so I like the well-known ones in here best, like The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Red Riding Hood and Chicken Little. This has the original Charles Perrault version of Cinderella, not the darker Grimm's version. Most of these stories are very violent and gruesome. very, especially Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, which makes me think of a Beastie Boys song. My least favorite is The Boy Who Kept a Secret because he beats a woman and smacks another one and still wins in the end. Perhaps the saddest one, to me, is The Little Mermaid. It actually made me sad. The cutest one was Two Frogs and made me giggle. I didn't grow up reading fairy tales so as an adult I'm getting into them, so I enjoyed this book, and the illustrations. Illustrations always make stories better, preferably ones in color.

 

THE CLASSIC HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN FAIRY TALES, edited by Sheila Black

PUBLISHER: Courage Press, 1991
IMAGES: link 

GOODREADS: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: For generations of readers, Hans Christian Andersen's stories have opened a world of unforgettable enchantment. This beautiful edition brings nine of Andersen's most beloved tales to life through rich, full color artwork by some of America's most gifted illustrators.

Contains the stories The Emperor's New Clothes, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Fir Tree, The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling.

MY THOUGHTS: This contains nine stories and is just 56 pages. This is a taller than average book, which is disappointing because it won't fit on my shelf. It measures 13 1/4" x  10 1/8" x 1/2". The full color illustrations are absolutely beautiful and very colorful.

The stories are retold by author and poet Sheila Black and illustrated by seven people. Each story contains more than two full color images. I didn't compare the stories to the originals so I can't tell you if they're practically the same or not, but I think they are, from what I can remember of the originals. Most of these stories aren't really fit for children, but you likely already knew that. The Little Mermaid is far too deep and dark for children and I really like it. It's very sad. The Little Match Girl and The Ugly Duckling definitely aren't for children. But I like dark stories so I liked all of these, even the light ones. Truthfully I bought this for the illustrations and they didn't disappoint.

DUCHESS IF YOU DARE by Anabelle Bryant

PUBLISHER: Zebra, 3/2021

GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance

SETTING: England, 1817

MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Scarlett Wynn's tragic childhood taught her that life can be cruel to women with little power. So when a local seamstress disappears, Scarlett vows to find out why. Armed with a weapon and her courage, Scarlett scours London for clues—and crosses the unlikely path of Ambrose Cross, the Duke of Aylesford, at an unlikely place: an upscale brothel. The Duke is trying to solve a mystery of his own, and Scarlett is sure they can help each other—if she can resist the attraction that draws them together...

As Duke, Ambrose is duty-bound to protect his family name from scandal, no matter the cost. But Scarlett's fearless spirit forces him to look beyond his world of privilege. Scarlett is as intoxicating as she is dangerous, igniting a fire in him like no other. But when the pair learn both mysteries they're trying to solve are tied to a string of missing women, the tangled scheme they uncover may put their lives, and their growing love, in mortal danger—and lead them to search their hearts like never before...

MY THOUGHTS: What started out as 4 stars turned into a 3-star read. The mystery was the only thing interesting but even that turned very dull. Scarlett's out to find out what happened to her missing friend and seamstress/prostitute Linie/Daisy. In the process she meets twenty-eight-year-old Ambrose at a brothel called The Scarlet Rose while he's there to see his younger brother Martin, who frequents the place. Ambrose is trying to find out who's been lending Martin money.

Both main characters were severely underdeveloped, as was their quick-blooming relationship, which was very surface. One knows nothing about the other. I didn't feel any chemistry between them despite two sex scenes, the first of which felt out of place and too soon. Both characters were very bland to me.

Other than the time period, Regency, being given, the exact year wasn't until the last few pages, 1817. Scarlett's age was given, sort of, by saying she'd been on her own for almost twenty years and that at "barely" five years old she'd stopped wishing on stars. I assume that's when her prostitute mother was murdered by a lover, and I assume Scarlett's 24 but the author couldn't tell us outright.

I think this book failed (me) because of it being too condensed at only 250 pages and just not good writing. The subject matter is very dark (dead body washing ashore, missing brothel workers, possible abuse in a room in the brothel, sex trafficking) but it just wasn't handled well.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

BRAT: AN '80S STORY by Andrew McCarthy

PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing, 5/2021
GENRE: Nonfiction/Memoir
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Most people know Andrew McCarthy from his movie roles in Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend at Bernie's, and Less than Zero, and as a charter member of Hollywood's Brat Pack. That iconic group of ingenues and heartthrobs included Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore, and has come to represent both a genre of film and an era of pop culture.

In his memoir Brat: An '80s Story, McCarthy focuses his gaze on that singular moment in time. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction, and masculinity. New York City of the 1980s is brought to vivid life in these pages, from scoring loose joints in Washington Square Park to skipping school in favor of the dark revival houses of the Village where he fell in love with the movies that would change his life. Filled with personal revelations of innocence lost to heady days in Hollywood with John Hughes and an iconic cast of characters, Brat is a surprising and intimate story of an outsider caught up in a most unwitting success.

MY THOUGHTS: I'm giving this 3 stars because of a complete lack of depth. It feels very incomplete and I honestly don't know why it was written if he didn't want to share much. I'm sure there's a lot about his life that he could have said but chose to say not a whole lot of anything. The title is correct-it's about his life in the 80s and not much past it, except for the death of his father in the 2000s and brief mention of his children. He never mentioned why his father always borrowed and never paid back money from him, or if he even knows himself what the money was for. I'm guessing he was into gambling and owed people money, and that's why he'd tell his family not to answer the phone sometimes. He was in the hospital room when his father was dying yet he never once said what he was dying/died from.

What I learned about Andrew is that he's a deeply insecure person and a pushover. He doesn't seem to have much of a relationship with his mother and three brothers or if he does he kept it to himself. I definitely would have liked to know more about those relationships. I'm assuming his deep insecurities with his appearance (he said he was scrawny and didn't have much body hair as a youth) lead him to abuse drugs and alcohol though he never actually said so. Overall, this was a big disappointment.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ONE FAIRY STORY TOO MANY: THE BROTHERS GRIMM AND THEIR TALES by John M. Ellis

PUBLISHER: University of Chicago Press, 1983

GENRE: Nonfiction

MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: One Fairy Story Too Many unmasks one of the most successfully perpetuated literary frauds in centuries. When the brothers Grimm presented their now beloved fairy tales to the world, they claimed to have tapped an oral tradition of folk story-telling in Germany. Supposedly, the tales were written down as the Grimms heard them told by peasants and other simple, uneducated folk.

But John Ellis argues in this book that the tales have little to do with German folklore-and that the brothers clearly knew it. Ellis shows that the Grimms deliberately made false claims for their tales and suppressed the evidence of their actual origin. In fact, their sources in many cases were not even German-the celebrated Märchenfrau of Niederzwehren was educated, middle-class, and French. Moreover the Grimms, while claiming to be utterly true to their sources, altered the tales radically before publication, changing their plots, characters, style, and moral tone, and continued to make revisions throughout the seven editions.

Woven like a secondary plot through Ellis's account is the strange history surrounding the evidence the he uses. That the Grimms had committed a fraud should have been clear to Grimm scholars from easily available evidence years ago. But the irresistible fairy tale of the two brothers going among the simple folk, carefully gathering their tales, had so beguiled even the most knowledgeable that they could not face the reality that the brothers had deliberately deceived their public. German scholars, Ellis shows, were especially reluctant to question the authenticity of what had become a national monument. This book, then, seriously calls into question the long-held notion that the Grimms are the fathers of folklore research.

One Fairy Story Too Many is a provocative, highly readable account of the text and history of a work that has achieved enormous importance in Western culture. Quotations from German sources are given in both English and German, and sample texts of three famous tales-The Frog Prince, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel-are provided in their original form and as later versions reworked by the Grimms.

MY THOUGHTS: This is pretty short, 209 pages. The first 110 pages discuss where the author thinks the stories really came from. A lot of those pages include German and English excerpts, comparisons and discussions of certain stories and how those stories were changing slightly as each new edition was published. Pages 111-194 contain manuscripts from 1810, two years before the first volume of their book was published, and different versions/reworkings, in German and English, for Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and The Frog King, that were put in different editions, showing how the stories kept changing over the years.

The author, and apparently some who came before him, thinks the stories originated with the Grimms themselves and a group of women, some sisters, one the future wife of Wilhelm Grimm, Dortchen Wild, and their elderly housekeeper they had growing up, "old Marie" and a woman named Dorothea Viehmann, who's of French descent and who may have provided her take on Frenchmen Charles Perrault's tales published over 100 years before. Neither brother ever said who, exactly, the peasants were who supposedly told them all of these tales. If these tales were indeed told to them and written down, as they claim, there wouldn't be a reason to keep tampering with them. You'd write down what they said verbatim and keep it that way. They appear to have kept reworking their own stories or those told to them by the group of women, until they liked the new versions. I believe there's a good chance that's what they did but I don't understand why they'd lie about the origin and pretend the stories came from others when they could have just taken credit for them themselves.

WHISPER TO ME OF LOVE by Shirlee Busbee

PUBLISHER: Avon, 4/1991
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1815

STEPBACK: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: She was a raven-haired waif from the streets of London-- a wild innocent to be rescued... and tamed. A spirited beauty, she would captivate Royce Manchester's jaded heart-- while resisting the smoldering desire she felt for her virile protector.

In Royce's glittering world of money and privilege, young Morgana discovered the shocking secret of her true identity-- entangling the wealthy American planter in a deadly skein of aristocratic family intrigue. But grave peril would only feed the flames of a love that knew no bounds... and a glorious rapture that would not be denied.

MY THOUGHTS: I couldn't gauge the timespan on this but it felt very short, maybe a couple months and takes place in England. Like a lot of historical romances, this had a mystery running throughout that I thoroughly enjoyed. Shirlee created a few evil villains that were introduced in the prologue so that hooked me from the start.

Morgana is 19 and goes by the name 'Pip.' She had black curly hair and gray eyes. She's dirt-poor and lives with her two older brothers, Jacko and Ben. She dresses like a boy and is a pickpocket like her brothers. It's what they do to get by in life. She stands up to Royce and I really like her. 

Royce is a 33-year-old American. He's 6'3" with tawny hair and topaz eyes. He first meets Morgana when she attempts to steal from him. She ends up staying at his house when he learns she's female and what her living situation is like. They don't get along and bicker, which I like. Some of Royce's terms of endearment for her are, greedy little strumpet, scheming baggage, delectable little slut, conniving little slut, conniving little bitch, wretched grasping little hussy, grasping little harlot. Of course she's none of those things. We weren't really given any background on him, which was disappointing.

A servant helps Royce uncover the mystery of Morgana's parentage, which she doesn't even know isn't what is seems. This part of the plot involves three villains, two of which are working together, and I like all three. The mystery is essentially what keeps the story moving. I never guessed who the "one-eyed man" was and don't see how anyone could have.

Dominic Slade, from the previous book in this series, Midnight Masquerade, is in this one briefly, along with his wife Melissa. I haven't read it so I don't know if Royce is in it but I assume he is. Melissa is the sister of Royce's twenty-year-old cousin Zachary, who's in this book but he doesn't serve much purpose.

FACE THE MUSIC: A LIFE EXPOSED by Paul Stanley

PUBLISHER: HarperOne, 4/2014
GENRE: Nonfiction/Memoir

WEBSITE: link
MY GRADE: A

 
SYNOPSIS: In Face the Music, Paul Stanley—the co-founder and famous “Starchild” frontman of KISS—reveals for the first time the incredible highs and equally incredible lows in his life both inside and outside the band. Face the Music is the shocking, funny, smart, inspirational story of one of rock’s most enduring icons and the group he helped create, define, and immortalize.

Stanley mixes compelling personal revelations and gripping, gritty war stories that will surprise even the most steadfast member of the KISS Army. He takes us back to his childhood in the 1950s and ’60s, a traumatic time made more painful thanks to a physical deformity. Born with a condition called microtia, he grew up partially deaf, with only one ear. But this instilled in him an inner drive to succeed in the most unlikely of pursuits: music.

With never-before-seen photos and images throughout, Stanley’s memoir is a fully realized and unflinching portrait of a rock star, a chronicle of the stories behind the famous anthems, the many brawls and betrayals, and all the drama and pyrotechnics on and off the stage. Raw and confessional, Stanley offers candid insights into his personal relationships, and the turbulent dynamics with his bandmates over the past four decades. And no one comes out unscathed—including Stanley himself.

MY THOUGHTS: This was a well-written, entertaining, honest and heartfelt tell-all and I enjoyed every minute of it. There are 16 full-color pages of photos and a handful of small black and white photos throughout. Paul grew up in an unloving household in New York with a mentally ill sister, Julia, who's two years older than he and was prone to violence. He was made fun of as a child due to his lack of a right ear and deafness in it. Both of those things left him feeling inadequate and those feelings chased him throughout this adulthood. He never once mentioned if there was anything that could have been done about the deafness. I wish at the end of the book he'd mentioned how his sister was doing.

Some negatives are that he's quite boastful and likes to tell of all his good deeds and is superficial when it comes to women. I'm sure that stems from his own insecurities about his looks though he's never said that. I like that he isn't shy about expressing his opinions of Ace and Peter, who appear to suck at playing their instruments, especially Peter. Him and Gene's first mistake was not firing them during the recording of their first album and cutting ties permanently. Paul is 100% the driving force behind KISS. 

You can watch the 1978 NBC made for TV movie staring KISS, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Opera, here.

A PIRATE'S LOVE by Johanna Lindsey

PUBLISHER: Avon, 10/1978

GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: France/Caribbean, 1667

RAPE: Yes
MY GRADE: A-

SYNOPSIS: With languid tropical breezes caressing her breathtakingly beautiful face, Bettina Verlaine stood before the mast, sailing westward to fulfill a promise her heart never made - marriage to a Count her eyes had never beheld.

Then in a moment of swashbuckling courage, the pirate Tristan swept her away and the spell of his passion was cast over her heart forever.

But many days - and fiery nights - must pass before their love could flower into that fragile blossom a woman gives to only one man.

MY THOUGHTS: This is set in France and the Caribbean during 1667 and spans about one year. It's the author's second novel.

Bettina Verlaine is 19 with white-blonde hair and color-changing dark green and dark blue eyes. She's angry because she's being shipped off to the Caribbean, Saint Martin, to marry a man she doesn't know, Comte Pierre de Lambert. 

Captain Tristan Matisse is 26 with light brown hair and pale blue eyes. He's French but passes himself off as English. He's on his way home to the Caribbean on his ship "Spirited Lady", somehow spies Bettina on her ship "Windsong" and seizes it because he just has to have her. He forces her to submit to his repeated rapes in exchange for the lives of the men on her ship. She's captive on his ship for about two weeks so I assume she's raped every night though only eight are mentioned. She hates his guts and plans to murder him and even tries once. As a child Tristan witnessed a woman be gang raped so you have to assume that messed his mind up and is why he had no qualms about raping Bettina. I really needed to see some groveling from him but didn't get to. He's on a mission to murder the rapist too which is odd since he's a rapist himself. His mission comes to a head at the end.

I like most things about this book except that her mother's in it for the duration. The woman is sickening. She thinks Bettina should be grateful for being alive and really doesn't seem to care that her daughter's raped all the time. She has her own happily ever after with a man from her past.

Bettina's feisty as hell and I like her a lot. She holds her own. She even punched Tristan twice. Right before she leaves for Saint Martin she learns a secret from her mother regarding her father. That secret comes back around near the very end of the story and frankly I could have done without it as it did nothing for the storyline. It was put in the story just to give her mother a bit of storyline. There's a throwaway character in the last part named Gabby Drayton who makes an appearance then is gone as quickly as she came. Her purpose was to make Bettina jealous.

THE ART OF THE ENGLISH MURDER by Lucy Worsley

PUBLISHER: Pegasus, 10/2014

ORIGINAL TITLE: A Very British Murder, 2013, BBC Books

GENRE: Nonfiction/Crime

MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: Murder -- a dark, shameful deed, the last resort of the desperate or a vile tool of the greedy. And a very strange, very English obsession. But where did this fixation develop? And what does it tell us about ourselves?

In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early nineteenth century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria's lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism. At a point during the birth of modern England, murder entered our national psyche, and it's been a part of us ever since.

The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul by one of our finest historians.

MY THOUGHTS: The synopsis is misleading. It makes it sound like the book is about nonfiction crimes but most of it is about crime fiction and for that, I'm disappointed. Starting in part 2 and there's 3 parts, the author is just talking about and giving away plots of mostly well known fiction crime novels, mostly by British authors, written before the 1970s, but mostly before the 1950s. I had to skip over quite a few pages because she was spoiling four or five books I have but haven't read yet. Unfortunately she continued to do that throughout chapter 3 too. I'd have preferred the fiction novels be saved for their own chapter and not mixed in with nonfiction crimes. Aside from that, I did like hearing about the fiction books mentioned that I haven't read and didn't plan to read. 

There's a section in the middle of 16 pages that are in full-color of the things she's talking about, such as items in a museum. There's a few black and white photos scattered throughout of real life murderers that she's talking about, which is nice to see. 

I found the book to be interesting for the most part (I absolutely love the cover of this hardcover edition) and I enjoyed, as I always do, learning of true murders I hadn't known about that took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries and will look into some of them, and some of the books mentioned. 

You can see images from inside the book here.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.