Two seriously good books today - Jane Yolen's Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast and Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.
I've picked one of my favorite books for my first entry. Jane Yolen's collection of children's short stories is alternately dark and whimsical, and sophisticated enough that adults will enjoy it as well. Yolen adds layers of depth to familiar stories such as Where The Wild Things Are (in Wilding), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (in Tough Alice), and Peter Pan (in Lost Girls). But this is no mere collection of fractured fairytales - Yolen's other stories are every bit as good, sweet and scary tales of vampires, fairies, aliens, and monsters. This book is an odd little gem. It compels you to read it again and again.
Recently, I read another collection of fantasy short stories: St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Much of this collection takes place in the Everglades, and there's a kind of slow, humid haze over the whole book that makes it very comfortable to read. Not that the prose feels thick - on the contrary, it is straightforward but foreboding. Many of the stories feature animals (alligators, minotaurs, a giant conch shell) and it gives them a kind of a mythical, ancient quality.
The author, Karen Russell, is only 25 - what am I doing with my life? Random House has this
interview on their website.
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