Book ring:
Sunlightbub---arrived 9/21
Mirp---arrived 11/11
Candieb---arrived 12/15
xallroyx---arrived 1/21
Suebo--has a copy, asked to be skipped
Rebemdee

Please feel free to send the book in the least expensive way possible. Please try to send it back out within a month. When you are finished reading, PM the next person on the list for her address. Thanks!


Amazon.com
Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness.
But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers.

When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly swirl around in a heated mix:

Everything about this moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in, strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy. Extreme beauty is an affliction...
But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." --Therese Littleton

I really enjoyed this story; there are surprises at the end I didn't expect at all. It's well written and reads very quickly.

On it's way today to Sunlightbub in England. Enjoy! It went surface, so you have a few weeks (or months) before you get it.

Received today !!
I hadn't heard of this author before BC but really like the sound of his work. I have Wicked in the toobies and will get to this asap..Thanks Reb xxx

Just an update...I should get to this later this week , so it may be a couple of days over a month when it goes out..sorry to hold everyone up...It will be on it's way shortly!!

Sorry I've taken so long with this, I've had a lot on at work, college, home etc..

I really enjoyed this take on Cinderella. It was my first book by Maquire and I was expecting lots of magic etc. However, it was much more like a very detailed folk story. I'll be sending it on to Mirp tomorrow.

Thanks Reb

Recieved today. I have a few rings ahead of it, but I hope to get to this one soon. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

posted yesterday 7/12/05.

This arrived today :-)
I'll start it after my current read and a ring ahead of it. I hope I like this better than Son of Witch... I loved Wicked, so we shall see! I should have this back out within the 30 days :-)

I read Wicked, found it a difficult read, but absolutely loved it. I read Son of a Witch thinking I would love it just as much. I was a little worried going into this book, thinking I would hate it, but I really enjoyed it! It wasn't so indepth that it got lost in itself. It didn't bog down badly. I wish the ending had been more fleshed out, but enjoyed the epilogue :-) A good book, well worth a read - it was interesting to see how the retelling of Cinderella worked out in Maguire's mind.

Thank you for sharing it! I am PMing the next person right now.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to xallroyx, next person in the ring

got in the mail for bookring--will start as soon as I finish current read!!

I finally finished this one last night!
I knew it was going to have to do with the Cinderella story, but was not sure exactly it was going to come to pass. This is the first Maguire I have read.
I liked how the story was mainly told from Iris' point of view. This made her character more likeable. I also liked how the characters weren't all set up as evil and good. The reader figures it out just as the daughters figure out that their mom is kind of a witch!
I was sympathetic to Clara's character and still not sure about who locked her up at a young age.
The end is believable and the slight surprise at the end brings the story together. I will probably read more of Maguire's work.

Mailed back to rebemdee on 2/8

Wow! This book made it all the way back to me. My first completed ring! Thanks to all who particpated. I hope the book was enjoyed.

RELEASE NOTES:

going out through paperbackswap.com