The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm

by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 9780142404065 Global Overview for this book
Registered by imawinn2 of Neenah, Wisconsin USA on 10/3/2008
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7 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by imawinn2 from Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Friday, October 3, 2008
A nice collection of imaginative stories. If you like the world of faeries or fey, this is a must read. Touted for teen readers but adults will be equally fascinated.

Description taken from Amazon.com:

This lively anthology brings together 17 original stories and three poems with the common theme of fairies and other nature spirits. Windling leads off with a fine introductory essay on the origins, varieties, and attitudes toward fairies in different cultures and, in particular, their treatment in English literature and art. Among the authors represented are Neil Gaiman, Patricia McKillip, and Gregory Maguire, though less-well-known writers contribute some of the most imaginative and edgy pieces. Most of the stories bring magical elements into modern settings, including New York City, an English village, a Brazilian city, a Japanese mountainside, a French farm, and L.A.

Journal Entry 2 by imawinn2 from Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I am offering this book for a bookring.

Bookring Rules:

1) When you receive the book, please journal it so that the group knows where it has landed.

2) Please take care of the book. Others want to read it and would be disappointed to receive a destroyed book. Take care of it as if it were your own.

3) Plan on keeping the book for no more than 30 days. If you think you might need more time, please make note as a journal entry. If you would like to participate in the ring but know that you can’t read it in the allotted time, I will gladly add you toward the end of the list.

Be considerate to the others in the bookring and do not stall the book.

4) When you’re ready to pass the book along, PM the next person on the list to get their address. Journal again when you've sent it on. Let everyone know what you thought of the book and where you’ve sent it. Set the book’s status code to “traveling”.

Participants:
(Reading order subject to change. Please check before sending out book)

innae - Colorado
Bug2004 - Nebraska
AlterEgoZoe - Pennsylvania
BarkLessWagMore - New Hampshire
Guinneth - New Hampshire
Maurean - Florida -- Book is Traveling Here
ladilee24 - Delaware
hostile17 - Indiana
snapdragongirl - Texas (prefers last)
Back to me-- imawinn2 - Wisconsin

Journal Entry 3 by imawinn2 at Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Friday, November 7, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (11/8/2008 UTC) at Neenah, Wisconsin USA

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I left this book off at the Neenah Post Office so that the Postal Faeries can deliver it to innae in Colorado. Hope it gets there before the snow flies!

Journal Entry 4 by winginnaewing from Aurora, Colorado USA on Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Safe and sound in Colorado...and WOW it is a big book! I will start reading it as soon as I get done with Hotel Translyvania -- and it may take me a bit to get through the stories, but it looks like a good group!

Journal Entry 5 by winginnaewing from Aurora, Colorado USA on Friday, November 14, 2008
I like to make a huge journal entry for anthologies, with my comments on each story as I go along, so -- this will be that journal entry for this book! Also, I wanted to thank imawinn2 for the nice bookplate (I just need to find the right book for it) and for choosing the perfect bookmark to make the journey with this book.

I will "white out" my thoughts on each story in case I accidently add a spoiler or two -- to read, just highlight!

Preface by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling - a nice reasoning for why they decided on faeries.
Introduction: The Faeries by Terri Windling - A lot of this I knew, and a lot I did not. I am not sure I was aware that the wee folk are found in every culture, I was primarily familiar with the UK faeries.
The Boys of Goose Hill by Charles de Lint - a nice little poem. I do like how the editors have decided to have a mini-biography for the author, and the author's thoughts at the end of their contribution. Mr. de Lint's thoughts on this poem were nice. He is a filker :-).
CATNYP by Delia Sherman - I loved this story. Partly because of the connection to the books (how can a bookcrosser not like a faery tale about the New York Public Library?) And it did make me want to read more stories about Neef.
Elvenbrood by Tanith Lee - A little spooky, a little revenge, a little luck, and you have this story. I liked it quite a lot.
Your Garnet Eyes by Katherine Vaz - A little disjointed. I liked the idea well enough, but I got lost in the telling.
Tengu Mountain by Gregory Frost - my favorite story of the collection thus far. Perhaps like the author I feel a connection to the Japanese? I don't know, but it was a well told tale of classic goblins.
The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link - another good one, and this one made me want to read more about Zofia and her granddaughter - what adventures they have to tell.
The Price of Glamour by Steve Berman - although I have not read Oliver Twist this seems like it a little bit. Berman even mentions that perhaps he has read too much Dickens and Doyle. in any case, a nice story.
The Night Market by Holly Black - The faeries in this tale are a bit darker, a bit more evil than in previous stories. I kind of liked the tale.
Never Never by Bruce Glassco - I really liked this tale about Peter Pan. I like the idea that the faeries guard the lost things (like the Lost Boys) and to have it told a bit from Hook's view was nice. Reminded me a little bit of the My Side of the Story books by Disney. Maybe the "villians" aren't as villianous as we think.
Screaming for Faeries by Ellen Steiber - I think I will just say..I was interested to see what the faeries would tell Cherry. another one I really liked.
Immersed in Matter by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - not one of my favorites of this little anthology, but it read quickly enough. I do wish I could know more about Owl and his siblings, but not enough to really be sad the story was over.
Undine by Patricia A. McKillip - A morality tale about how what we are doing to the Earth is affecting all her children -- faery and human alike. A good tale, a little sad.
The Oakthing by Gregory Maguire - okay, I will admit I am not a a Maguire fan. I have tried to read his books, but his writing and my understanding do not coincide. So, I thought about just skipping this tale, but that seemed to be cheating. So I forced my way through it, and well...yeah. His writing is not to my liking. I didn't like this story.
Foxwife by Hiromi Goto - A tale about the Kitsune. A friend of mine has named his mead that -- if he ever opens his meadery look for tasty honey wine labeled Kitsune. Ok, back to the story. I liked this story quite a lot. Has a hapless gal who ends up being a hero of sorts. Nice.
The Dream Eaters by A.M Dellamonica - I have a new favorite story. Loved this! I want to read more about Liz and Mo and Peg. Yes I do!
The Faery Reel by Neil Gaiman - quite a nice little poem. Read it aloud.
The Shooter at the Heartrock Waterhole - I admit to being a little confused at times with this story. It seemed to jump a little. I like the overall idea though.
The Annals of Eelin-Ok by Jeffrey Ford - Perhaps my second favorite story...I even cried a little, and it is a beautiful idea. I will look at sand castles as something even more special than I used to.
De la Tierra by Emma Bull - A statement on the United States. A bit on the immigration issues. And I like how it ends.
How to Find Faery by Nan Fry - Her idea is to remind us to find magic in the everyday. I like it. A nice end to the collection

Journal Entry 6 by winginnaewing from Aurora, Colorado USA on Friday, November 21, 2008
My massive entry is now complete, and I have finished this collection. I liked many more stories than I disliked. I do have Bug's address, so I will be getting this out soon!

Journal Entry 7 by Bug2004 from Omaha, Nebraska USA on Saturday, November 29, 2008
Rec'vd today....looking forward to it!!

Journal Entry 8 by Bug2004 from Omaha, Nebraska USA on Sunday, December 28, 2008
Just an update...I have only a couple of more stories left. I've been caught up in preparation for surgery, which I'm having tomrrw, but I promise to finish it up this week and send it off!! Sorry for the delay!!

Journal Entry 9 by Bug2004 from Omaha, Nebraska USA on Thursday, January 15, 2009
I'm such a dork! I mailed this off last week to AlterEgoZoe and made notes to journal and then never journaled!!

I loved this collection!!! It was so much fun and I couldn't wait to get back to it each time.

I won't go into great detail about each story as I don't want to ruin anything for anyone...I'll just group them.

My favorites: Tengu Mountain(creepy...good old fashioned creepy); The Faery Handbag(just loved everything about this idea); The Oakthing(just liked the feel of it); Never, Never(loved the 'other side' of a classic character); Immersed In Matter(loved the animal angle...love when stories point out how lame humans can be); The Annals of Eelin-Oak(what a wonderful concept).
I would gladly take extended versions of all of the above.

Liked Quite A Bit: Catnyp(faeries and books, great combo); Elvenbrood(this one is a creepy thought); The Price of Glamour(loved the Dickens feel); The Night Market(a very interesting idea...enjoyed the darker feel to some of the creatures); Screaming For Faeries(these are what I think of when I think of faeries); The Dream Eaters(great, creepy concept)

Okay, but didn't totally work for me: Your Garnet Eyes(just kind of sat there for me); Undine(again...just didn't capture me); Foxwife(I loved the idea of this, but for some reason it fell flat for me); The Shooter at the Heartrock Waterhole(my least favorite...felt disjointed to me); De La Tierra(interesting, but just didn't have a great 'faerie' feel to it)

The poems were a great addition.

Overall, a fun, fun read and certainly wants to make me read more!!! Thank you so much for sharing, imawinn2!! I do apologize for keeping it a tad longer than planned!

Journal Entry 10 by AlterEgoZoe from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Received today.

Journal Entry 11 by AlterEgoZoe from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Sunday, February 1, 2009
I loved several of the stories, but it seemed to go downhill for me somewhere in the middle and stopped reading the rest of the stories, including two authors I absolutely refuse to read, Tanith Lee and Gregory Macquire.

I loved Tengu Mountain, Immersed in Matter and The Faery Handbag. I also liked CATNYP, Your Garnet Eyes and the Price of Glamour. Screaming for Faeries and Undine were both interesting...don't know if I liked them or not.

Will be PMing next in line.

Journal Entry 12 by BarkLessWagMore from Merrimack, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wow, this is a big book! It's been awhile since I've read a tome this size but will do my best to get it read within 30 days and will write my comments as I read the stories. Thanks again for sharing.

Journal Entry 13 by BarkLessWagMore from Merrimack, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I am a pathetically slow reader and will probably need a bit more time than 30 days but I'll do my best to finish it up sooner rather than later. I'm going to post my comments on the stories in the first post as I read them. My memory is horrid and I have several different audiobooks going at the same time and tend to get confused if I don't write things down immediately. I'll edit the post and add them all into a new journal entry when I'm finished. Thanks for sharing, so far it's great!

Journal Entry 14 by BarkLessWagMore from Merrimack, New Hampshire USA on Monday, March 23, 2009
I skimmed the preface, intro. and the poem by Charles De Lint. Sorry, poetry just isn't for and because my reading time is so sparse and this book is such a tome I wanted to get straight to the stories.

Catnyp by Delia Sherman: I loved this one about a human child kidnapped by the faery, renamed Neef and raised as a changeling. On a whim, she makes a bet with a broken hearted swan maiden that humans know more about love than faeries do. Unfortunately, she knows nothing about love and ventures into the library to do some research and learns a heck of a lot more than she intended to. This story was light-hearted and so much fun, the world really came alive for me.

Elvenbrood by Tanith Lee was an okay read for me but just didn't grab me the way Catnyp did. Something about Lee's writing almost always manages to keep me from connecting to the stories she writes.

Your Garnet Eyes was a very enjoyable story of love, loss and the inability to move on.

Tengu Mountain, like the others before me have said, is a beautifully atmospheric and extremely creepy story. It would make a fantastic horror movie.

The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link This was an interesting story but it almost felt like I was reading an intro. to a much longer book and it didn't feel complete all by itself.

The Price of Glamour by Steve Burman: I couldn't get into this one at all.

The Night Market by Holly Black: I always enjoy Holly Black's writing and dark edged characters and this one didn't disappoint.

Never Never by Bruce Glassco: In all honesty, when I realized this was a story about Peter Pan I started to skim but just when I thought I'd dismiss it mostly unread something in the story hooked me and I went back and read it thoroughly. Nice to see a familiar cast of characters in a different light.

Screaming for Faires by Ellen Steiber: Is another one I enjoyed quite a bit. The fairies here are the cute little pixies you see in statuettes but they may have a sinister side. A young teen is unsure once they enter her life. Along with dealing with typical teen angst and a cute boyfriend who wants more than she's willing to give she's unsure whether to trust the fairies or fear them. There's a lot of sexual tension and frustration in this one and I think the author did a great job of recreating some issues teens struggle with on a daily basis.

Immersed in Matter by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: This story hooked me and started off well but came to a screeching halt at the end and felt irritatingly unfinished. The fact that the author, in her afterward, has to clean up two dangling items really annoyed me.

Undine by Patricia McKillip: This one was pretty good about mermaids, their quest for human men and the ruin of the environment.

Oakthing by Gregory Maguire: I wasn't a huge fan of Maguire's Wicked. It was too political and too all over the map for me as well as being way too hard to follow at times so I wasn't expecting to like Oakthing much. But I was surprised. I was very engrossed in this story of a strong willed old woman left behind when her family flees the German occupation, and the odd friend she acquires.

The Foxwife by Hiromi Goto: This was definitely one of my favorites. It had the whole J horror film feel that I enjoy so much and wasn't expecting in this book. It was creepy with disturbing imagery, haunted characters and an oddness I loved.

The Dream Eaters by A.M. Dellamonica: This one just didn't grab me. The fact that I was sitting in an emergency room stressed out and hungry may have been a factor as well but I skimmed and then quit it.

The Shooter at Heartrock Waterhole by Bill Congreve: There was a good use of landscape in this story but I didn't like the premise or the lead character and thus didn't enjoy the story much.

The Annals of Eelin Oak by Jeffrey Ford:
Meh, another I just couldn't get into. Read it in the ER as well and skimmed.

De La Teirra by Emma Bull: I enjoyed this one more than the previous few. The story was original and thought provoking.

This was a well balanced collection with only a few duds. I'll be looking for more from some of these authors.

I've pm'd Guinneth and will mail it out as soon as I hear back. Thanks everyone for sharing!

Journal Entry 15 by BarkLessWagMore at -- BookRing, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Released 15 yrs ago (3/24/2009 UTC) at -- BookRing, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA

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Sent off to my neighbor Guinneth.

Journal Entry 16 by Guinneth from Manchester, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, March 28, 2009
This arrived safely today (thank you, BarkLessWagMore) and looks marvelous. I'm already wishing for a copy of my own. :)

The timing is great as I'm just finishing up another book and am going into the hospital for a biopsy on Tuesday and will likely be there for a few days. Plenty of uninterrupted reading time means I should be able to get through this fairly quickly.

Journal Entry 17 by Guinneth from Manchester, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, April 4, 2009
As predicted, I was able to finish this while in the hospital last week. It really made for a wonderful companion (certainly a better one than my roommate, who was a tad unbalanced, I think.)

Anyway, an anthology edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow is almost guaranteed to be first rate, and this one was no exception. I also happen to LOVE tales of the Fey and it's been a good while since I read any. Windling's introduction was a smidge long winded but provided a very comprehensive overview of Faery. I also always appreciate the recommended reading lists they include, and I loved the cover art and illustrations by Charles Vess.

My favorite stories (in no particular order) were:
The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link. This was an original premise and I enjoyed the "old country" flavor of Zofia and her tales of the people under the hill.
The Price of Glamour by Steve Berman. I loved the 19th century London setting and how the fey folk simply live among the mortals in its crowded, dirty streets.
The Night Market by Holly Black. An engaging and interesting love story of sorts. I love the market idea; it gives me a little shiver similar to the lore about crossroads, or the Wild Hunt.
The Oakthing by Gregory Maguire. I loved this story, although the ending was pretty downbeat.
The Annals of Eelin-Ok by Jeffrey Ford. My favorite story of the collection, I think. I found it very moving and I've always thought sand castles were magical, now even more so.

A few other comments:
1. Immersed in Matter would have been on my favorites list but for the rushed and irritating ending as mentioned by BarkLessWagMore.
2. Tengu Mountain was a classic (and thus predictable, which is not necessarily a bad thing) fairy story. I enjoyed it, but it didn't touch me enough to be on my list.
3. I was somewhat disappointed that Neil Gaiman's contribution was a poem.
4. The Shooter at the Heartrock Water Hole, while not a favorite of mine, offered a terrific sense of place. This may have been my first reading of a faery story set in Australia, and it suited, I thought.
5. De La Tierra did something similar and I also enjoyed what it ultimately had to say.

Thank you for sharing this, imawinn2! I'm so glad to have read it and have added several things to my lists of books to track down because of it. I'll be sending it on as soon as I have Maurean's address.

Journal Entry 18 by Guinneth at on Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (4/7/2009 UTC) at

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I'll be mailing this off to Maurean this afternoon.
Del. conf.# 0308 2690 0001 7695 8044

Enjoy!

Journal Entry 19 by imawinn2 from Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Sadly, The Faery Reel was lost via mail. Guinneth has put some posts out on the forums, looking for a replacement copy. I was hoping that perhaps it would show up or be returned to sender but so far no such luck. I am keeping my eyes open for a used copy. Please be patient, one way shape or form we will get this ring going again.

Journal Entry 20 by imawinn2 from Neenah, Wisconsin USA on Thursday, July 2, 2009
I have a replacement copy of The Faery Reel and will be restarting this ring shortly. The new link for this copy is at:

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7319589

Journal Entry 21 by lostbookisland on Saturday, August 29, 2009
This book has washed ashore at the Lost Book Island after not being heard from for many months. This new arrival will be shown to a room and be allowed a bit of rest before being introduced to the many fun things to do here at the island.



All around there are books sipping cool drinks under shady palms while other books participate in a wide variety of beach sports. There is plenty of sand, surf and sun here for all of the lost and wayward books to enjoy.



It is hoped that very soon a new journal entry will come to rescue this book from the island and send it back out into the BookCrossing world so that it may continue on its journey. It is hoped that the new journal entry will tell all the interested parties where this book has been this long time and where it will be traveling to next.

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