The book is based on re-telling fairy tales, from a different point of view - a different character, what happened after the ending.... you get the drift. Enough memories to make you smile fondly as you revisit the tales, but with an interesting fresh spin to draw you in. Great idea, and well executed.

Decided to start a ring with this book - it should start travelling by the end of January. Feel free to use surface mail for this one.

Participants:

Bookfrog (Aus)
Mundoo (Aus)
guinevere69 (Aus)
crimsontide (Aus)
FutureCat (NZ)
chivers (brazil)
symphonicca (Austria)
Fire-Dragon (UK)
Deerskin (UK) asked to be skipped)
Tangledthreads (UK)
coffee31 (Can) appears to have disappeared from the database, so will have to skip
Bookczuk (US)
BigBird2002 (US, prefers US)
CariAnne (US, prefers US)
ladyoflight (US, prefers US)
Sherria (US)
Meralee (US)
vicki9170 (US)
Puppetlady (US)
Zenzele (US)
Allysther (US)
Tamster33 (US)
Katayoun (Iran)
Hengameh (Iran)
Starbytes (Malaysia, prefers Asia/Pacific)
Scism (Aus, prefers Aus)
Twinmaker (Aus)
Loupylou127 (Aus)
Lisagt (Aus)

And back home to me!

Released on Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at Post Office in Melbourne, Australia Controlled Releases.

This book is beginnig its journey!

Wow this book is going a long way and it is starting with me! How honoured I am!!! I have already started and I am highly enjoying the twists in the tales and the subtle changes and what really happens after "Happily ever after"

Thanks puppymummy for ringing this!

Posted to Mundoo today! Great read!

Got this book in the post.
Is the next book I will read.

Interesting concept. I found the stories a bit 'too modern' for my taste. The stories really didn't keep my attention as I found the slant a bit depressing as there was 'no happy endings'

Have posted to the next person in the ring.

Got book in mail today, thanks Mundoo
Oops just found this on my shelf while cleaning during a bout of nesting, i read this ages ago, a bit different some stories good some not so. My daughter wanted to read it but was a bit violent in places for a 7 year old

Received today in the PO Box. Looks like fun. Currently number 3 on the TBR pile.

I appreciated the fresh approach to these stories, and thoroughly enjoyed most of them. Do agree that some were definitely better than others. Especially loved the ones where all the different fairy tale characters got mixed up together in the same story.

And hey Mundoo, some of these did have "happy endings", such as Gilly the Goose Girl, and Baron Boscov's Bastard. Who wants to marry a boring stuck up Prince anyway?? LOL

Sending onto to FutureCat in NZ tomorrow. Sorry I hung on to it a bit longer than the usual.

Arrived safely in NZ today, along with two extra books!!!

Many thanks, crimson-tide!

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Great fun, and a real variety of writing styles represented by the different stories, which saved it from getting too boring. It was interesting to compare the two different "court-room" versions of Jack and the Beanstalk - although both authors came up with the same basic idea, they took their stories in quite different directions. As others have mentioned, some stories are better than others, but they're all short enough that you're not stuck in the less satisfying ones for too long.

Off to Brazil next...

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On its way to Chivers in Brazil.

the book just arrived. i have 2 other bookrings with me right now, i'll try to read and send this one asap.
thanks for the postcard futuracat!!!

i finished reading this one some days ago but computer problems... sorry!!!
i really enjoyed it!!!!
thanks!

This book just arrived in my mailbox yesterday! I have one bookring I am finishing, and then I will start this one ASAP. Thanks for sending it along--- will journal more when i have started reading it.

Well this was a fun little book. To be honest, i am not a big sci-fi reader, and so the style of writing really stuck out for me. I especially enjoyed the weirder stories, like the one with the collection agency and the 'wolfish' woman, the one about rapunzel and breaking out of the mould, and gilly the goose girl was also great!

I wish that the collaborators in this collection had claimed one fairytale (or a mixture) instead of having two court cases about jack and the beanstalk (plus on from the point of view of the castle, which was interesting), plus a few about rumplestiltskin. Got a bit repetitive, i must say.

But on the whole i thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! Thanks, puppymummy, for starting this ray--- loads of fun!

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Nov. 18: After much searching for the next in line for this ring (thanks for the help and patience puppymummy!), this has finally been popped in the mail this morning! Sorry for the delay!

This looks like a fun book to read on the tube. It arrived yesterday with two other bookring books but I shall try to get to it within the month.

This was a real mixed bag. Some stories were quite readable, such as Gilly the Goose Girl and Wolf at the Door, but I found most to be pretty poor. I kept reading in the hope of finding the hidden gem, but was disappointed.

There was too much repetition with about three versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and a couple of Rumpelstiltkin tales. This would have been okay if they were noticeably different but they were mostly interchangeable.

I know what Mundoo means about it being 'too modern'. I'm not a traditionalist by any means but if you're looking for a fresh slant on fairytales, there are better books out there, such as The Practical Princess and Other Tales by Jay Williams, which I read and loved as a child.

These stories were written more for an adult audience and many of them galled me by being too overtly self-referential and clever. It was all very 'subvert the dominant paradigm', as we used to say at uni. In Fifi's Tale, for example, the author insists on referring to the witch as the 'Anthropophagous Witch' for the duration of the story. Ugh.

Most of these stories were formulaic and unoriginal. The writing was jumbled and lacking in emotional truth and the characters were generally boring sterotypes as opposed to archetypal stereotypes! There was often not even a solid plot line - stories like Fifi's Tale seemed to just be a meaningless jumble of different fairytale characters wandering around the woods.

I'm giving this 5/10 because I thought some stories were better than average, but many were below average.

Thank you to puppymummy for sharing and for Symphonica for posting it to the UK. I'm PM-ing Deerskin now.

Received this morning with thanks! - Arrived just in time to come away for the weekend with me. I probably won't be able to send on until after xmas as I don't have any more days off but will try if I can!

Took me a little bit longer to finish than anticipated but was a great book to pick up and put down again when I had a spare five minutes in the last couple of weeks! I like the principle of the book, but none of the stories really stood out for me individually.

I think the problem is that I've read so many re-worked fairy tales now (in general, not just this book!) that it takes something quite special to make me take notice. These stories were mostly amusing but perhaps a little same-y. I found the stories in the Datlow/Windling collections less consistent overall, but more varied in style and concept, with usually a couple per book to really grab my attention. This book was enjoyable, though, if not my favourite collection of its type.

Will contact bookczuk for address, & will forward book when received.

On way to bookczuk by airmail...

Oh! I'm delighted, surprised and excited, all rolled into one!

Delighted because this book was the very first bookring I ever signed up for and the story sounds like such fun.

Surprised, becaues that tangledthreads is very clever and pulled one over on me completely. She and I had just done a trade, so she had my address, knew it was current, and thus didn't PM me that it was coming. Don't tell Netstation or antof9 that you pulled one over on me- my Queen of Sttealth reputation will go down the toilet!

Excited, because I only have a chapter or two of the previous ring to finish, and then I can settle in with this book. It promises to be a rainy weekend, all the better for curling up with a book.

I shall write when done. Thanks to puppymummy for starting the ring and to all who have kept it in such good shape and sent it along. And a special thanks to tangledthreads for making my day!

Pictured: Statue of the Brothers Grimm in their hometown of Hanau in Germany- from a previous trip to Germany years ago.

WEll! That certainly was fun! I read a little bit here, a little bit there, dabbling into the worlds of alternate fairy tale universes. I think my faavorites were the ones about Gilly Goose Girl (I agree- true princes are not always royalty) and the one about Evil King Chuck. The way the authors tied up several stories together was fun- I always had thought it odd that all princes seemed to be named "Charming", but now understand why!

Will be sending this off in tomorrow's post to BigBird2002.

The cartoon (if the picture turns out) is one of my favorite fairy tale spoofs. If it is copyrighted, sorry! The artist's signature is in hte corner, but I can't read it

This book arrived in the mail. I have two other rings in front of it, but they should go quickly. I will journal again when I have finished the book. Thank you!

My life has gone crazy right now, and I know I won't get to this book soon, so I am passing it on. It will be mailed tomorrow.