Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

From Amazon:

I threw my neck out in the middle of Swan Lake last night.

So begins the tale of Kate Crane, a soloist in a celebrated New York City ballet company who is struggling to keep her place in a very demanding world. At every turn she is haunted by her close relationship with her younger sister, Gwen, a fellow company dancer whose career quickly surpassed Kate’s, but who has recently suffered a breakdown and returned home.

Alone for the first time in her life, Kate is anxious and full of guilt about the role she may have played in her sister’s collapse. As we follow her on an insider tour of rehearsals, performances, and partners onstage and off, she confronts the tangle of love, jealousy, pride, and obsession that are beginning to fracture her own sanity. Funny, dark, intimate, and unflinchingly honest, The Cranes Dance is a book that pulls back the curtains to reveal the private lives of dancers and explores the complicated bond between sisters.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve always loved a peek behind the scenes, and this look at the highly competitive world of professional ballet dancers sounds fascinating. There have been a lot of great ballet movies over the years — Center Stage, The Turning Point (an oldie with a very young Barishnikov – wow!), Black Swan, and even the new Bunheads series on TV — but I haven’t come across that many ballet novels that I’ve loved.

This one sounds intriguing, and I like that the story focuses on the relationship between two sisters as well. I hope to read The Cranes Dance as soon as my library branch gets a copy.

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See the introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

26Sep2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson
(published 2011)

From Amazon:

For over half a century, Richard Matheson has enthralled and terrified readers with such timeless classics as I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Duel, Somewhere in Time, and What Dreams May Come. Now the Grand Master returns with a bewitching tale of erotic suspense and enchantment.…

1918. A young American soldier, recently wounded in the Great War, Alex White comes to Gatford to escape his troubled past. The pastoral English village seems the perfect spot to heal his wounded body and soul. True, the neighboring woods are said to be haunted by capricious, even malevolent spirits, but surely those are just old wives’ tales.

Aren’t they?

A frightening encounter in the forest leads Alex into the arms of Magda Variel, an alluring red-haired widow rumored to be a witch. She warns him to steer clear of the wood and the perilous faerie kingdom it borders, but Alex cannot help himself. Drawn to its verdant mysteries, he finds love, danger…and wonders that will forever change his view of the world.

Other Kingdoms casts a magical spell, as conjured by a truly legendary storyteller.

Why do I want to read this?

First off, it’s Richard Matheson! Not only is he responsible for some remarkable works of fiction, he is also the creator of fiction that inspired some remarkable movie achievements as well. Somewhere In Time has to be one of the most romantic movies of all time (Christopher Reeve! Jane Seymour!), and when I finally discovered the book, I loved it as well. Based only on Somewhere In Time, you might assume that Richard Matheson writes mainly in the romance/fantasy genre… until you encounter pieces as diverse as the scary I Am Legend and short story Steel, the basis for last year’s boxing robot movie Real Steel.

Other Kingdoms sounds right up my alley. Post-WWI historical setting, mysterious woods, a dangerous faerie kingdom — too intriguing to pass up! Mortals inadvertently crossing a border into faerie have cropped up in several novels I’ve read over the past few years: Graham Joyce’s Some Kind of Fairy Tale and Susanna Clarke’s masterpiece Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, among others. Done well, these stories can be chilling in their mix of the ordinary and the magical, as they take the sparkly fairy worlds of our collective childhoods and reinvent them as strange universes full of menace and wonder. I have a feeling that Other Kingdoms, in the hands of Richard Matheson, will fit right in with the best of the best.

19Sep2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
(originally published 1997; new edition to be released October 2012)

From Amazon:

The invincible Ninth Roman Legion marches from York to fight the northern tribes. And then vanishes from the pages of history.

Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea.

Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he’s finally found it—not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has “seen” a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.

Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve recently read two other books by Susanna Kearsley: The Winter Sea and The Rose Garden. Both were exceptionally well-crafted novels which combined a contemporary story with an historical twist — they’ve been described as “time slip” novels, where the main character finds herself displaced into another time period and must struggle to fit in, solve a mystery, or both. The author has a lovely flair for describing settings such as Scottish castles and Welsh countrysides, and her characters are fully developed with rich inner lives and deeply-felt emotions.

Based on my previous experiences with her work, I’d be happy to give The Shadowy Horses a try. The description really appeals to me as well: I’m grown quite fond of stories set in and around Scotland, I love good historical fiction, and I find the story of the disappearance of the Ninth Roman Legion quite fascinating. I know the fate of the legion has inspired other works of fiction and, most recently, the movie “The Eagle” (with Channing Tatum), and I’m sure Ms. Kearsley is more than up to the task of giving us a fresh take on one of history’s great unsolved mysteries.

12Sep2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
(published September 2012)

From Amazon:

On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings—and to catch their wives.

The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire, despair, and transformation. With devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love.

Why do I want to read this?

Well, just look at that description! Selkies, witches, love… windswept, sea-battered islands… sounds like the perfect mixture of mythology and otherworldly romance, with a very dark undercurrent.

I read Margo Lanagan’s story collection Black Juice a couple of years ago, and — unusual for me with my bad attitude toward short stories — I just couldn’t look away until I’d read the whole thing. “Singing My Sister Down” immediately became one of my favorite short stories ever — it’s crisp, creepy, tragic, and unforgettable.

Since I’m trying to curtail my hardcover book buying, I haven’t given into temptation yet on The Brides of Rollrock Island… but if my local library doesn’t get it PRETTY DARN QUICK, I have a feeling this will be my next purchase.

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See last week’s introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

5Sep2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is actually a two-fer:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003)

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005)

by Mary Roach

From Amazon, about Stiff:

Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors’ conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

Also from Amazon, about Spook:

The best-selling author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers now trains her considerable wit and curiosity on the human soul. “What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that’s that—the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?” In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves’ heads, a North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of “ectoplasm” in a Cambridge University archive.

Why do I want to read these two books?

Plain and simple, Mary Roach cracks me up. I have never laughed so hard over a science book as I did reading Roach’s Packing for Mars. (Come to think of it, I’m not sure that I’ve ever laughed while reading a science book, but my point remains.)

Mary Roach takes on a subject and then examines it from every possible angle, looking for all the scientific oddities that bring her subject to life. In Bonk, her subject was sex, and while some parts were particularly cringe-inducing (there are certain experiments that I just didn’t need to know about!), it was certainly never boring. Packing for Mars is a look at the science of human space travel, and it was hilarious. Plus, I learned a lot, such as the arduous process of inventing effective space toilets and what position to assume in order to increase the odds of surviving an elevator crash. (Answer: Lie flat on your back. There, maybe I’ve actually saved a life today!)

Stiff and Spook were Mary Roach’s first two books, and they’ve been on my shelf for years now. I don’t deviate from the fiction world very often, but I think these two books are a good reason to veer off a bit.

I leave you with a quote from Stiff: “Death. It doesn’t have to be boring.”

29Aug2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
(published 2004)

From Amazon:

This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai’i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place—and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i. Here her life is supposed to end—but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka’i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that “few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel’s story” (mostlyfiction.com).

Why do I want to read this?

Moloka’i has actually been on my to-read list for some time now. I’ve always been fascinated by Hawaiian history, and really enjoy good historical fiction set in Hawaii. The story of the leper colony on the island of Moloka’i is quite moving — and sadly, is quite true. Alan Brennert has published Honolulu more recently, another piece of historical fiction set in Hawaii in the early 20th century. If I enjoy Moloka’i as much as I anticipate, I’m sure I’ll want to read Honolulu too.

22Aug2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

From the author’s website:

Mara Dyer believes life can’t get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.
There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.

Why do I want to read this?

It sounds mysterious, intriguing, suspenseful… with a hint that some sort of conspiracy or larger force is at play. The synopsis doesn’t tell me much, but I like how dire it all sounds. I actually came across this book after seeing a blurb for the sequel, The Evolution of Mara Dyer, which is due out in October.

Once again, I may be breaking my own rule about not starting any more trilogies — I really have to stop doing that! Still, my library branch has a copy available, so I think I’ll dive in, give The Unbecoming a try, and then make a decision about continuing with the story.

15Aug2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The Diviners by Libba Bray
(release date: September 18, 2012)

From Amazon:

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City–and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult–also known as “The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.”

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first.

Why do I want to read this?

This sounds right up my alley — young adult fiction, New York City in the 1920s, and an occult mystery, written by an author who knows how to mix plot and humor in the most delightful of ways.

I got a huge kick out of Libba Bray’s previous novel, Beauty Queens, a snarky, funny ode to grrrl power. What’s not to love about teen beauty pageant contestants stranded on a deserted island? Chaotic genius, all the way around.

I’ve had the author’s award-winning Going Bovine on my to-read list for some time, so perhaps while I’m waiting for The Diviners, I’ll give that one a spin as well.

My only hesitation: I just read a blurb for The Diviners which mentioned that this is the first in a projected trilogy. Yikes! I’ve more or less sworn off starting new trilogies, but I do like this author, so it may be worthy breaking my anti-series resolution for this one. Proving — as if I needed further proof — that when it comes to books, I am a weak-willed creature.

8Aug2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Every Day by David Levithan

From Amazon:

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

With his new novel, David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

Publication date: August 28, 2012

Why do I want to read this?

I always love a good young adult novel, and David Levithan never fails to impress me. I’ve read several of his novels co-written with other YA authors:

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (co-authored with John Green)
Naomi & Eli’s No Kiss List (co-authored with Rachel Cohn)
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (co-authored with Rachel Cohn)

With each, I’ve been incredibly impressed by the authenticity of David Levithan’s voice. He doesn’t talk down, he doesn’t imitate, he’s not an adult trying to capture the lingo of “kids today”. His characters have a depth and dimension that’s unusual in YA fiction. They experience a slice of life, deal with real-life problems and dilemmas, and most of all, have personalities and wits that sparkle.

I’m eager to read some of David Levithan’s stand-alone works, and the story synopsis sounds for Every Day sounds intriguing. Who doesn’t love a story that involves body-swapping? I’ll be interested to see Levithan’s terrific writing skills applied to a fantasy scenario.

1Aug2012

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce

From Amazon:

Acclaimed author Graham Joyce’s mesmerizing new novel centers around the disappearance of a young girl from a small town in the heart of England. Her sudden return twenty years later, and the mind-bending tale of where she’s been, will challenge our very perception of truth.

For twenty years after Tara Martin disappeared from her small English town, her parents and her brother, Peter, have lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. And then suddenly, on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents’ home and there, disheveled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It’s a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara’s story just does not add up. And, incredibly, she barely looks a day older than when she vanished.

Award-winning author Graham Joyce is a master of exploring new realms of understanding that exist between dreams and reality, between the known and unknown. Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a unique journey every bit as magical as its title implies, and as real and unsentimental as the world around us.

Why do I want to read this?

First off, Graham Joyce’s The Silent Land was one of my favorite reads in 2011. For those who missed it, here’s what I loved about The Silent Land (per my Goodreads review, April 2011):

A couple on a romantic ski getaway in the Pyrenees is caught in a sudden, early morning avalanche on the ski slopes. When they finally manage to dig themselves out and find their way back down the mountain, they find their hotel and its village have been evacuated, and they’re completely alone. Or is there something else going on? “The Silent Land” is simply told, but does a masterful job of evoking the glory of a snowy mountain, the joy of being with a soulmate, and the disquiet of realizing that some things defy explanation, no matter how hard you try to understand it all. It’s hard to go any further without divulging spoilers, which I won’t do. Suffice it to say that “The Silent Land” is both beautiful and ominous, gave me the chills, and kept me intrigued enough that I ended up reading in all in one day. Definitely recommended.

The writing was so phenomenal, and the storytelling so creative and full of unexpected moments, that I swore I’d read whatever the author published next.

Some Kind of Fairy Tale sounds like something I’d love — I don’t know much more about it than what the publicity blurbs have said, but I’m always up for a good fairy story. Especially when the fairies in question are of the devious, changeling-leaving sort, and not of the twinkly Disney variety.

Fortunately, this is one Wishlist Wednesday book that I won’t have to wait long to read. My copy just arrived at the library, and I plan to dig in over the weekend. I’ll be back with my review ASAP!