26: Melisande

Melisande
E. Nesbit and P.J. Lynch
Published: 1901, 1999

Why?: E. Nesbit was one of the first authors to write children’s books with children as main characters, and stories about ordinary children in fantastic worlds owe a lot to her (“E” is for “Edith”!). She also had a wonderful sense of humor, and this short story shows that off to best effect. Melisande is a twist on the Rapunzel story, though interestingly enough, Rapunzel has since been confused with Melisande – Rapunzel didn’t have magical, fast growing hair! To round out the perfection of this story, P.J. Lynch’s illustrations are gorgeous, as always.

Gist: Melisande is a beautiful princess with one unusual feature: she’s bald. Luckily (or unfortunately, as her family will learn), she has something of a surfeit of fairy godmothers, and she goes from no hair to far, far too much!

Quote: "I've seen too much trouble come of christening parties," said he. "How ever carefully you keep your visiting-book, some fairy or other is sure to get left out, and you know what that leads to. Why, even in my own family, the most shocking things have occurred. The Fairy Malevola was not asked to my great grandmothers christening-and you know all about the spindle and the hundred years' sleep."

Bonus Trivia: The full story of this short story is “Melisande: or Long and Short Division.”

Perfect For: The young and young at heart, a great family story

Genres: Fiction, Short Story
Keywords: Picture Book, Classic, Humor, Fantasy

24: The Man With Two Left Feet

This wasn't my original plan for today, but then the day kind of exploded. We have two very sick cats, so I took one victim (roomie's cat Fred) to the vet. Got home, rushed out for a haircut. Came home, started watching some college football, took off my nail polish...heard a strange sound...

...Found that Fred had taken leave of his senses and wandered into the "dogs only" portion of the house, and Alfred was bugging him. I leaned down to get Alfred to back off and Fred went BERSERK. Result? Alfred doesn't have a scratch on him, but I have loads...hand, arm, and side. Fred even left a claw in there for me. Nice, huh?

Soooo off to the emergency room, where they treated me like a moron for coming in about a cat bite/scratches before it became disgusting and infected. I don't know if you're familiar with the dangers of cat bites and scratches, but I am, thanks to my grandmother and aunt. So I refuse to feel dumb for being proactive. If I was such a waste of their time, how come they insisted I have a tetanus shot and a week of antibiotics? Hmm?

So, whilst trapped in the waiting room, I curled up with my Kindle. College football was on, but I was in pain and not in the mood. A while back, I downloaded one of the few free books available from one of my all-time favorite authors: P.G. Wodehouse. Reading this short stories really lifted my spirits, so I decided to make it my rec for the day!

The Man With Two Left Feet
P.G. Wodehouse
Published: 1917

Why?: Well, it's pretty much up there in the italics there. It's impossible to feel too horrible while reading Wodehouse, and since this collection is free, that's even better! I'll be recommending more Wodehouse - I just can't help it. Plum, as he was and is affectionately known, is a classic British humorist. He wrote both novels and short stories, but I find his incredibly charming style best suited to shorts. This is a fairly random collection, which might be why I love it so much, as I'm a fairly random person!

If you check this book out online, the very first page is adorable and really shows Wodehouse's style!


I had just taken off my nail polish when it all went down. Of course. Sigh!

Gist: The Man With Two Left Feet contains 13 short stories, most of which are stand-alone. Two stories are told from the perspective of dogs ("The Mixer: He Meets a Shy Gentleman" and "The Mixer: He Moves in Society") and the collection does contain the first appearance of Bertie and Jeeves, "Extricating Young Gussie." There's also an amusing (sort-of) sleuthing story, some romances, and an adventure or two. Since the stories are so brief and self-contained, they're perfect for when you need a pick-me-up!

It's available for a buck on the Kindle (I thought it was free, but I'm mistaken...or they've changed it!) or you can read it online for free. Free! Awesomesauce! We'd better not get used to free, given the ridiculous length of copyright these days (life of the author + 70 years!).


Probably not hugely sanitary, huh? At least he's trying to make up for being at the source of the problem...right?!

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories
Keywords: Classic, Humor

23: Life Among the Savages

I am ridiculously tired! My grad school pulled an about face on me and required a Wednesday night class - I live 4 hourrrsss away! So I was at work before 7:10, worked untl 12:30, had to take half a day, drove a little over four hours, class for four hours, drove home, home at 1 am on Thursday, up at 6, work, then I had tickets for a local dinner theater that I bought a couple of months ago! Great fun with some awesome ladies, but about ready to be UUUUUNconscious! I am, in fact, too tired for Pet Photo Sessions (tm). For a special bonus, one of the cats is sick, soooo yeah. Gross.

Life Among the Savages
Shirley Jackson
Published: 1952

Why?: I admit to having a huge soft spot for humorists. Shirley Jackson is most famous for her more political work (“The Lottery”) and her collection of horror novels (the most famous is probably The Haunting of Hill House). I read her stories about raising her four children in suburbia before I read “the Lottery” or anything of her creepy works. In fact, it must have been a decade after I read “The Lottery” that I realized this book was by the same author! The stories are delightful and witty, far ahead of similar books dealing with the realities of family life.

Gist: "Our house is old, noisy and full. When we moved into it we had two children and about five thousand books; when we finally overflow and move out again we will have perhaps twenty children and easily half a million books . . ." This book is a collection of stories inspired by Jackson’s real life and children; exactly where fiction and reality diverge isn’t clear, but only in the same way that all master storytellers adjust their lives for a good story.

Bonus Trivia: Life Among the Savages is followed by Raising Demons. Also, a selection from this novel, about her son starting kindergarten, is often included in Jackson collections with the name “Charles.”

Perfect For: Ages 12+, people who love a good chuckle

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir
Keywords: Humor, Classic

22: Caves of Steel

Tomorrow is my first day of my new grad school program. It will be a Very. Long. Day. Indeed. @_@ This may prove once and for all that I'm utterly insane.

Caves of Steel
Isaac Asimov
Published: 1953


Yes, that's a Zune. An OLD Zune. I love my Zune, and she loves me, so don't be hatin'! :p

Why?: Only Asimov can so neatly combine his science fiction world with a decent mystery. Asimov claimed in his introduction to Asimov’s Mysteries (a fun short story collection, if you can get your hands on it out of print; my copy is on the dresser at the moment) that he wrote this book because his publisher said that two genres that could never intersect were mystery and science fiction. Asimov definitely proved him wrong, with style!

Caves of Steel is the first Asimov book I read – or listened to, actually. I was suffering with nonstop headaches, and unable to read, when I downloaded the audiobook of this novel. Audio books aren’t my favorite way to read a story, but the reader (William Dufris) did an excellent job with the voices of Baley and Daneel. The world of Caves of Steel is very real, and is an excellent introduction to Asimov’s many joined Robots novels and stories. The Three Laws of Robotics and the development of Earth’s history (or downfall, really) are well-outlined without turning into a textbook as some of Asimov’s later writing did (I’m looking at YOU, Robots of Dawn). The use of agoraphobia as the protagonist’s strongest weakness is logically introduced and well developed. Baley is also a likable dude, as is Daneel, so it’s just a fun and engaging read all around.


Photo sessions with Alfred are super special because he wants to be in my lap/face/stomach/hand/etc at all times. @_@

Gist: About three million years in the future, mankind has stretched across the universe – and left a crippled Earth behind. The billions who live crammed together in Earth’s underground cities are looked down on in disgust by the genetically superior and wealthy Spacers. When a Spacer is murdered on Earth soil, it could mean disaster for mankind’s home planet. An Earther detective named Elijah Baley is assigned to the case, assisted by an unusually tolerant Spacer named R. Daneel Olivaw.

Bonus Trivia: I would very much like to listen to the BBC radio adaptation by Bert Coules, as he was a genius at adapting the Sherlock Holmes stories for Clive Merrison and Andrew Sachs. Anyone want to toss me a copy?!

Bonus Bonus Trivia: The next book in the series, The Naked Sun, was also quite good. It introduced an adulterous relationship, though, which is a total turn off for me.

Perfect For: Ages 13+ (though the story becomes more sensual in the third book in the series, I don’t really recommend reading it anyway, for other reasons), fans of the film I, Robot, since this is in the future of that Earth.


This picture = adogable!

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Science Fiction, Mystery

Zune 80 cover came from DecalGirl.Com! I also got my Kindle skin there. They're awesometastic.

20: The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper”
Charlotte Perkins Gillman
Published: 1892

Why?: My connection with this story is very personal. I first read this story in college, but my memory of it was somewhat jumbled. Why? Because I spent a year falling into a severe depression without realizing it. While in many ways those of us who battle depression are no longer said to have a “nervous disorder” and locked away in an attic bedroom, there is still a stigma attached to the diagnosis. My depression was both chemical in nature (born of a hormonal disorder that affects many parts of my life) and emotional (I tried to stay in contact with high school friends and was naively devastated that I didn't hear from them; I had lost three grandparents in high school, one in the last month). As cliche as it might sound, this story helped me realize that something was wrong...and it's really about how NOT to cure the problem, rather than the problem itself!

This is a powerfully written and thought-provoking story. How well Gillman must have known the apathetic lack of energy and wandering thoughts that come with severe depression. How clearly she writes of the fact that medical science in her time did exactly the wrong thing by locking away these poor, delicate women suffering from “a slight hysterical tendency.” Like Conan-Doyle’s take on the dangers of cocaine and heroin, Gillman was ahead of her time in applying common sense to medical practice. Her use of the first person as her narrator falls from depression to psychosis is masterful and chilling. This short story works just as well as a psychological thriller as it does a social and medical commentary of the times.

Gist: A woman who has suffered a “brief nervous depression” is locked away in a rented house to recover her health. As her husband controls her days and nights, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the wallpaper pattern in her room, until it begins to consume her every thought.

Quote: "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw — not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.”

Bonus Trivia: This is a favorite of feminist critics, though I’m not one myself. Gillman herself wrote that this story is a result of her own struggle with depression and the “rest cure” she was placed under. Only after she began to rejoin the world did she start to feel better.

Bonus Bonus Trivia: This story is free on the Kindle, as well as many locations online!



Perfect For: Ages 15+

Genres: Fiction, Short Story
Keywords: Drama, Classic

18: The Red House Mystery

Tonight was parent night, and I was at work from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. I'm all worn out!!

The Red House Mystery
A.A. Milne
Published: 1922

Why?: This is Milne’s only mystery novel (he’s most famous, of course, for the Winnie the Pooh books), and it’s a shame that he didn’t revisit the genre. While the ending suffers from something of a cliché, the writing is a lot of fun, and he has wonderful descriptions that bring on the requisite chuckles. The mystery is well-developed, and I couldn’t figure out the entire solution until the very end, which is unusual. There are signs of this book in other writing, such as P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, and it doesn’t owe as much to the Holmes stories as many mysteries of the time do (despite the characters referencing them, Milne avoids the Watsonian narrator).

Gist: The story begins in the bachelor home of Mark Ablett, with the visit of his little known and black sheep of a brother, Robert. When Robert is abruptly murdered, an unfortunate passer-by named Antony Gillingham is drawn into the mystery.

Quote: “Directly I saw him and I said to myself--” Why, you could have knocked her over with a feather. Feathers, indeed, were a perpetual menace to Audrey.

~~~
“He is an important person to this story, so that it is as well we should know something about him before letting him loose in it. Let us stop him at the top of the hill on some excuse, and have a good look at him.”

Bonus Trivia: Milne was a huge fan of mystery fiction, and wrote that he preferred amateur detectives to the growing genre of professionals and P.I.s that were developing in American fiction. His affection for the Holmes stories is pretty obvious, as the two amateur sleuths refer to themselves as Holmes and Watson more than once!

Perfect For: Milne fans who want a surprise, and mystery fans. The language is very accessible to modern readers from ages 12 and up.

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Mystery, Classic

12: The Bad Seed

The Bad Seed
William March
Published: 1954

Why?: This is a classic of creepy, originating the term “bad seed.” Anyone who has an interest in the history of creeptastic novels needs to give this one a go, especially since it’s just as disturbing today as it was when it was first published. March wrote a lot of other books, but this is the most famous; certainly more famous than March himself! This novel is all about getting under your skin, revealing Rhoda’s nature bit by bit. There’s only one thing I would have changed…but that’s a spoiler (and has to do with March’s need to explain WHY Rhoda is as she is, when leaving it a mystery would’ve been much more disturbing).

Gist: Kenneth and Christine Penmark have just moved to a new town, along with their only daughter, Rhoda. While Kenneth is away, Christine has trouble settling in, especially when one of her little girl’s classmates dies mysteriously while on a field trip…

Bonus Trivia: This novel was published right before the author’s death, but became hugely successful about a month later.

Perfect For: Old school creep out fans

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Horror

Along with today's theme, I have the strangest feeling that I'm being waaa~aaatched!







...The strange thing is, I'm in the kitchen where they're allowed, and they're in the living room...