2015 Reading Resolutions: Onward and Upward!

With another year of books under our belts, it’s time to look ahead. To bring the blogging year to a close, some Eleventh Stackers have chosen to share their reading resolutions for 2015. There’s nowhere to go, but up, and our team has aimed high — check it out!

Jess

Every time someone asks for a mystery recommendation, I cringe. Despite my love for serialized crime shows (Criminal Minds, Veronica Mars, Murder She Wrote…), I just have a hard time with the genre in book form. 2015 is the year I step up my game and have some titles in my back pocket for the next time I’m put on the spot. I have Anthony Hororwitz’s Moriarty on my list (I read The House of Silk last year for our Tuesday book club, and liked his take on Sherlock). And a regular patron suggested the Ian Rutledge series, by Charles Todd. Readers, if you have any must-reads, maybe some non-historicals that are maybe a bit John Grisham-y, please send ’em my way.

suzy

Unfinished business.

I’m going to finish some books in 2015. This year, for whatever reason, I’d get almost to the end of a book and stop reading it. It didn’t matter whether I liked the book or not: I just stopped. I don’t know if this is a sign of mental illness or a newly shortened attention span. Here is a sampling of the books I started, thoroughly enjoyed, and never finished. Feel free to tell me the endings.

• Maya’s Notebook, Isabel Allende
• Lucky Us, Amy Bloom
• We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler
• The Magician’s Land, Lev Grossman
• Bittersweet, Colleen McCullough
• One Plus One, Jojo Moyes
• Rooms, Lauren Oliver
• Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
• We Are Not Ourselves, Matthew Thomas
• Land of Love and Drowning, Tiphanie Yanique

Ross

In 2010 I started Stephen King’s It. “Started” being the key word here.  That book is thick, yo.  Maybe 2015 will be the year I finish it.  Or maybe I’ll focus on the classics that I missed out on for one reason or the other, like Animal Farm or Moby-Dick.  Maybe I’ll go back to the books of my childhood, like the Narnia books. Or, since I just started re-watching Gilmore Girls, maybe I’ll focus on a Rory Gilmore reading list.

Irene

I’ve never had much use for audio-books, but I recently discovered how much I like listening to them on long runs. So my reading resolution for 2015 is actually more of a listening resolution: to delve into the library’s collection of super-portable Playaways. I just started listening to Runner.

Scott

I plan to read some more Anne Sexton. I am also slowly re-reading all of the Song Of Ice And Fire novels using the eCLP format.

Leigh Anne

I like to play along with formal reading challenges, to make sure that I regularly step out of my favorite genres and formats to try a little bit of everything. Luckily the magical internet is filled with such opportunities, most of which I find via A Novel Challenge, a terrific blog that collects news and info about different reading games. Of course, I always load up on way too many challenges, and rarely finish any of them…but I sure do have a great time trying!

Here are some challenges I’ll be signing up for in 2015:

The Bookish 2015 TBR Reading Challenge. I have two bookcases at home filled with books I own that I haven’t read yet (I blame the Library, both for being so excellent and for fueling my book-buying habit). It’s getting a little bit out of hand, so I’ve decided to dive into those TBR shelves and decide whether to keep or regift what I’ve got.

It’s not bragging if it’s true.

Janet Ursel’s We Read Diverse Books Challenge. It’s no secret that the publishing  industry is still predominantly white, which means there are a lot of stories out there untold or overlooked. This bothers me both professionally and personally, so I’m on a constant mission to make sure my own reading and reviewing is as inclusive as possible. This challenge was inspired by the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign of 2014.

The 2015 Ebook Reading Challenge. Ebooks are an important part of the reading landscape these days, and I really should be looking at more of them (Overdrive READ is my friend right now, until I finally decide which tablet I want). Ebooks are also sometimes challenging for me because of my vision impairments, but I’m hoping Consumer Reports , a little web sleuthing, and input from other users (maybe you?) will help me pick out the tablet with the best accessibility features. Thanks in advance!

The 2015 Graphic Novels & Manga Challenge. This one’s kind of a cheat, as I adore comics of all kinds. The problem is, I rarely make time to read them, mostly out of guilt because they’re so much fun and there are many other Terribly Serious Things I should be reading dontcha know. However, this means I missed a lot of good stuff in 2014, so I’ve decided to ditch the guilt and spend 2015 savoring the fine art of comics. Woohoo!

Four challenges is do-able, right?  I’ll report back regularly in upcoming blog posts.

Melissa F.

Browsing the historical fiction section

I’ve become a little too comfortable insofar as my reading habits go. On one hand, I don’t see any problem with this, since reading is something I do for fun and entertainment. Still, there’s something to be said for expanding one’s knowledge and horizons.

In 2015, I’m planning to do more of my reading from the World Fiction and Historical Fiction sections on the First Floor of CLP-Main. I’m not setting an actual numerical goal for this resolution, just challenging myself to read more from these areas (which I admittedly tend to overlook while perusing the new fiction, nonfiction, and short stories).  Your suggestions are most welcome.

And there you have it! Do you have any reading recommendations or advice for the Eleventh Stackers? Do you set yourself reading goals or just let the books fall where they may? Share the wisdom, leave a comment!

Jack Gilbert, Anne Sexton, And The Lyricism Of Loss And Alienation

I read poetry like I eat dark chocolate. I go through spurts of wild consumption of the stuff, then I don’t touch it for weeks or longer. I spent most of 2014 erratically reading Jack Gilbert. The best thing to get if you want to start reading Mr. Gilbert is Collected Poems. His muscular, hard-hitting poems never fail to strike a chord inside of me. I feel like he speaks to me in a way few writers can. His harrowing descriptions of his experiences of loss and regret often leave my head spinning. Take this series of lines, wherein he writes of finding one of his wife’s black hairs around their home after she had passed away:

… A year later,

repotting Michiko’s avocado, I find

a long black hair tangled in the dirt.

Brutal. Real. Sad. Uplifting?

Jack Gilbert’s poems breathe with life even as they entertain the grim reality of death and loss. The very bleakness his sometimes dark and gritty poetry evokes acts as a light. How? He reminds us we are not alone. Others have walked this path of frailty, loneliness, and loss. If these tests are a tunnel, you can come out on the other side.

So how to unpack Anne Sexton? Like Mr. Gilbert, she’s a poet of exceeding honesty and skill. Her work combines a delicate, lyrical touch with hard-hitting language and themes. Her career was tragically cut short when she took her own life in 1974. I started seriously reading her stuff late this year. I knew of her, but I had not read much of her work until a friend quoted some lines from her for me. They are from the poem “Her Kind”, and they assert that inherent sense of otherness Ms. Sexton felt:

I have ridden in your cart, driver,

waved my nude arms at villages going by,

learning the last bright routes, survivor

where your flames still bite my thigh

and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.

A woman like that is not ashamed to die.

I have been her kind.

That’s the last stanza of three.

I approached Ms. Sexton’s work with some wariness and without making assumptions. I dug into a lot of CLP’s collection of criticism on her as I read more of her work. I used our literary databases too. They helped. As a man raised in a popular culture steeped in violence and misogyny, I approach the work of poets like Ms. Sexton with caution and care. I will not say that reading and studying her has made me better at understanding the challenges women face. It has served to broaden my perspective.

Jack Gilbert lived through his pain and loss and produced an amazing volume of poetry to catalog it all. Anne Sexton’s poetry explored themes of gender and alienation. She burned brightly for a short time, then left us too soon.

We’ll all write more about our “reading resolutions” for 2015 in tomorrow’s post, but I can rightly say now that Ms. Sexton’s work will be part of my 2015 must-read list.

 

 

 

 

 

–Scott P.

Cross Your Heart, Cross Your Fingers

Knitting and crochet get the bulk of crafters’ love, but I’ve never been able to get the hang of either one. Believe me, I’ve tried; my hands just won’t do what they’re supposed to! Don’t kick me out of the needlework club just yet, though — I express my creative side with counted cross-stitch, an old-school pursuit that has evolved over time, from decorative borders and samplers to snarky slogans and pop culture patterns for every fandom imaginable.

Avengers design by Ivan Petroff of Amazing Cross Stitch – click through for his Etsy site.

It’s fairly easy to pick up: if you can count, you can do cross-stitch. And teaching yourself the ropes is easy with help from the Library’s collection of instructional manuals and patterns. Here are a few suggested texts for DIY Xstitch 101:

Cross-Stitch: A Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide to Techniques and Motifs, Charlotte Gerlings. Just in case the word “beginner’s” didn’t give it away, this is a great place to start if you’ve never picked up a needle. Covers the supplies you’ll need, different types of stitch and stitching techniques, and reading charts. When you’re feeling confident in the basics, Gerlings throws a few advanced techniques at you, but nothing overwhelming. Includes 30 charts.

The Two-Hour Cross-Stitch series, Trice Boerens. Once you feel comfy with the basics, you’ll want to move on to small, easily-finished projects. Boerens’ series contains a variety of small patterns for animals, flowers, and decorative motifs that you can knock out in a few hours and feel good about. The overall aesthetic is vintage/retro, and each volume contains refreshers on the basics, in case you need them. Want something a little more modern and/or easier on the eyes? Swap in Jacqui Pearce’s Big Stitch Cross Stitch instead.

Next you’ll want to grab Julie S. Hasler’s 500 Alphabets in Cross-Stitch, partially to get the hang of stitching letters (still quick and easy!), but also to spark inspiration for your own designs. If you have a favorite quotation, song lyric, or even personal catch-phrase, you can  easily turn it into a clever design piece. Your only real problem will be choosing a font, as Hasler’s not kidding about showing you 500 of them. Overhwelming, but in a fun way.

When you’re ready for slightly more intricate projects, but still feel you need a little guidance, try Dorothy Wood’s Cross Stitch: Skills, Techniques, 150 Projects. Clocking in at 250+ pages, it’s a bit hefty; however, the 600+ instructional illustrations more than make up for it.  These projects will take a little longer to finish, but by the time you’re done, you should feel confident enough to try more complicated projects.

Now you’re ready for the tricky stuff! Where to go next depends entirely on your personal taste; your choices range from the traditional to the fanciful, and if you enjoy making homemade gifts/crafts for Christmas or babies, you are definitely in luck. With over 300 options to choose from — including digital patterns — you’ll have plenty of ideas to keep your hands occupied during the long, cold winter, and beyond.

Not seeing your fandom/interest in the Library catalog? A well-constructed internet search will usually do the trick. Try:

” X” cross-stitch

where X = the patterns you’re hoping to find. For example:

“Legend of Korra” cross-stitch

“Welcome to Night Vale” cross-stitch

Steelers cross-stitch

“heavy metal” cross-stitch

Try it for your special interests! Then run the same search in Google Images to make sure you don’t miss anything good (often a web search will offer a link to the image search as the first option).

Keep in mind that not all patterns will be free (artists need to eat!), and that anything you make from a copyrighted/trademarked design should be kept for personal use or gifted, not sold, unless the designer explicitly gives you permission (it’s complicated, but this blog post does a great job of explaining the essentials).

Think you’ll give it a shot? Already an avid-stitcher? Tell me about it in the comments. And if this adventure isn’t quite your thing, no worries — when it comes to hands-on learning and new DIY projects, Library staff are more than happy to point you in whatever direction strikes your fancy.

–Leigh Anne

whose own stitcher grail is Teresa Wentzler’s  The Lady of Shalott

 

On Reading 100 Books (Actually, more like 50)

On January 21, 2014, I shared this picture on social media with the accompanying caption positing that I would attempt to read one hundred books during the year.

I’m so artsty it makes me sick.

Almost as soon as my fingers pounded out the goal, I realized that reading one hundred books was out of the question; it was already practically February.  So instead I said that reading fifty would be more likely.  I don’t have a calculator in front of me, but that’s like one every week or something.

As of writing this, I’ve read fifty-one books and am on my way toward finishing number fifty-two.

Now, I realize that this isn’t a great accomplishment by any means.  Still, I was impressed with myself for setting a goal and achieving it.  While I’ve always enjoyed reading–I do work at a public library after all–there was something almost stifling about knowing that I had to finish this goal.  In fact, almost as soon as I posted the picture, one of my friends commented that it’s better to keep the goals that you set to yourself because announcing the goals tricks your mind into thinking they have already been completed.

There were many times when I started reading a book and just couldn’t get into it, and wanted to stop.  For instance, I started reading The King in Yellow after watching True Detective over the summer, but I didn’t finish it until early December.  That’s outrageous! The book is only 256 pages.  I should have been able to knock that out in a weekend.  So I set it aside and read other books.  All the while I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that the time I put into reading those hundred or so pages would be worthless unless I finished the book in its entirety.

So I pressed on toward my goal’s end.  I knew I had to, but it wasn’t just because I’d already put it out there on the Internet. I had to do it because if I don’t finish a book, I feel like I’m disrespecting the author.

When I first take a book in my hands, open the cover and feel the paper, crisp and dry between my fingers, I’m entering into an agreement with that author and into a relationship with that book.  For however many pages, I belong to that book and it belongs to me. When I put it down, even for a few days, I feel like we’ve abandoned each other. By not being interesting or not grabbing my attention, the book has recanted its agreement with me.

A recent study showed that putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, such as when you read fiction, improves your ability to show compassion.  Maybe that’s why I have trouble abandoning those books—because I know inside those pages, I’m someone else, maybe even someone better, if only for 300 or so pages.

Please save your psychoanalyses until the end, thankyouverymuch.

I’ve listed the fifty-one books on the next three pages, broken into three categories:  Good, Godawful and Great (because I like alliteration. If I liked assonance, I’d call them All Right, Awful and Amazing).  I briefly thought about ranking them, but then I realized that my rankings would do nothing to sway you if you’d already read a particular book and loved it and vice versa.  All I can say is that I highly recommend all the ones that I’ve put in the Great category.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Season’s Greetings!

Image from a Victorian cigar box, obtained via The Graphics Fairy – click through for source page.

The Eleventh Stack blog will take a short posting break for December 24th and 25th. The entire writing team thanks you for your readership and support in 2014, and wishes you the happiest of holidays! We’ll resume our normal publication schedule on December 26th.

Go West…

As an outreach librarian for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, I find myself in various neighborhoods throughout the city from week to week. In my year-end reflections, I’ve realized that through my job I’ve had the opportunity to discover new (to me) or otherwise unfrequented parts of this exquisite city of ours. Thanks to some programming I’ve been involved in over the past year, I’ve become much more familiar especially with two of our more western neighborhoods – The West End and Sheraden.

The West End branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is one of our 19 locations which has had the benefit of a recent renovation. Now replete with a newly paved parking lot and elevator access, along with a very warm and comforting sitting area, this little branch is managed by colleague Mark Lee. It is a gem in the West End neighborhood both physically and with regard to the multitude of programming that goes on both in and outside of this sweet space, provided to visitors by a very excellent and welcoming staff.

The West End branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Those of you who only know the West End as that place at the end of the West End bridge as you leave Heinz Field, would be surprised to know of all the library activity that goes on in that neighborhood. Beyond the branch at the corner of Neptune and Wabash are also the offices of the Allegheny County Library Association. Here, county librarians and library advocates work to promote library services around the county. In addition, just next door to the West End branch is the Library Support Center, which houses some great library workers who are responsible for everything from cataloging and labeling the many items that you see on our shelves, to the shipping department responsible for getting those materials out to the city and county libraries.

Here, too, resides the wonderful sorting machine, the staff who attend the machine, and van delivery staff (10 drivers, 1 manager and 8 vans!) – all of which make it possible for your requests to go from one library in the county to another in the matter of just a few days. These special workers are akin to Santa’s elves for the magic they perform in sorting and delivering to your local library that bestseller, DVD or much needed item for your child’s school project. (In 2013 alone, 4,099,800  library items were moved among the 74 libraries served by the shipping center).

A portion of the magical sorting machine which sorts hundreds of thousands of items a month!

Just beyond the West End, over a hill or two and around a couple of bends (through the hamlet of Elliott – which requires some further research on my part), one eventually gets to the neighborhood of Sheraden not even 2 miles from the West End. Here, the Sheraden Carnegie Library branch (headed by Ian Eberhardt, whom you may have seen on your TV as of late) shares a building and hallway with the Sheraden senior center, tucked away on Sherwood Avenue. Although one of our smaller branches, this location lacks for nothing in terms of programming, and has an extremely welcoming and helpful staff too!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this neighborhood, it is home to what I believe to be one of the most beautiful school buildings in the city of Pittsburgh, Langley K-8. Named for the same Langley of Langley Air Force base fame – Samuel Langley, a 19^th c.  Western University of Pennsylvania (University of Pittsburgh) astronomy professor. The school sits high atop a hill in Sheraden, but be careful not to attempt to gaze at this school as you’re making your way through the busy intersection that sits just below, as I have a tendency to do when I’m out that way.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

Both of these western neighborhoods, and more specifically, the senior centers that reside nearby to the neighborhood branches welcomed me for some exciting technology programming recently. I’m grateful to the centers, their directors and the fact that these programs opened up new doors and vistas in my daily work. I’m looking to discovering more of our many neighborhoods in the coming year(s) of my outreach and hope to share some more with you in 2015.

Happy New Year!

-Maria J.

Yet Another Best Of List

Because of a technical glitch, my selections for favorite books read in 2014 didn’t quite make it into the annual Stuff We Like edition of Eleventh Stack.

This just means now I get to tell you all about the great things I discovered this year in MY VERY OWN POST.

Funny how life works out that way.

You already know how much I loved History of the Rain, the Man Booker Prize nominated novel by Niall Williams. As we come to year’s end, this remains one of my favorite books I read in 2014. It has one of my favorite quotes as its second paragraph:

“We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. That’s how it seems to me, being alive for a little while, the teller and the told.” (pg. 1) 

Another book that I loved right away was Kelly Corrigan’s memoir Glitter and Glue.  Now, some may say I’m partial to Ms. Corrigan’s writing because, like me, she’s a Philly girl. That certainly helps, but the fact remains that she’s a damn good writer – and Glitter and Glue is a fantastic follow-up (actually, it’s somewhat of a prequel) to The Middle Place.

I read a lot of poetry this year, and much of what I read was by poets who were new-t0-me. My favorite poetry book is actually a single poem in book-length form.  Edward Hirsch’s work was among my favorites before 2014, which made Gabriel: A Poem a highly-anticipated read.  A tribute to and reflection on his loss of his son, Mr. Hirsch’s heartbreak cracks your heart open with the grief on every line he writes.

Finally, this was the year of the audiobook – at least for me.  I listened to a total of 20, mostly during my commute to and from my job here at the Library.  (Those minutes sitting in traffic on the Vet’s Bridge really do add up. Who knew?)  Among those who kept me awake was none other than Rob Lowe, who filled my car with long-ago tales of debauchery, a tearjerker about sending his son off to college, and a female co-star who had a difficult time kissing him. (Note to Rob: if you ever find yourself in such a predicament again, drop me a note and I’ll help you out.) Now, celebrity memoirs by people who don’t even need their name on the book cover are usually not my thing, but if you grew up in the ’80s as I did, you might find Love Life irresistible.

What books, music and movies did you find irresistible in 2014?

~ Melissa F.

Searching for Truthiness

When it comes to non-fiction, I go through a lot of “Dude, I should really read that” but very minimal execution on said talking to myself. Aside from my Read More Mysteries! goal (see our Reading Resolutions group post coming at the end of the month…), I’m gonna try for a non-fiction book a month. Wish me luck, ’cause the topics I’m interested in usually come in 400-page tomes.

These three should take me through March:

Derek Boogaard played hockey at the professional level for six years before his death in May of 2011. John Branch’s Boy on Ice explores his career, especially what it meant to have been an enforcer in the NHL, and how his posthumous diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy has changed the league in the seasons since.

My comic book interests run mainly toward the Dark Knight and his crew. Other than some passing trivia about the lasso of truth, I don’t know much about the Amazon warrior princess. I’m hoping to change that with The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Her creator, William Moulton Marston, was a psychologist whose research on emotion and blood pressure was a major contribution to the modern polygraph test — later the inspiration for that lasso of truth.

Five Came Back : A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War dives into how the wartime experiences of John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra affected their careers, and Hollywood as a whole. Huston and Stevens both served with the Army Signal Corps, a unit responsible for making documentary films. Ford and Wyler were with the Navy and Air Force, respectively, also creating documentary pieces. Capra entered the Army as an enlisted man and worked directly under Chief of Staff George C. Marshall to make the seven-part Why We Fight series of films.

– Jess

Visit Arkansas

The Hot Springs National Park headquarters is located in one of the old bath houses. Courtesy the National Parks Service.

I have some time off between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and I decided to spend it with one of my best friends in Arkansas. When I tell people I’m going to Arkansas, they inevitably look shocked and ask, “What’s in Arkansas?”

Visiting friends aside, if you’ve never been there, you might be surprised by all there is to do in this Southern state. Little Rock alone has a wealth of historic sites and museums to visit, and there’s Hot Springs National Park an hour or so to the east—not to mention the Ozarks.

I, too, used to be one of those people who thought, “What’s in Arkansas?” until the first time I visited my friend. I thought we’d visit the national park and then mostly hang out at her house while we worked on our master’s theses.

In 1957, nine black students began attending the formerly all-white Central High, causing a prominent conflict in the area. It’s still a functioning high school. Photo courtesy the National Parks Service.

Instead, we went out almost every day to see something different. We visited Central High School, one of the first Southern high schools to go through desegregation (it’s still a functioning high school, but there’s a small-but-thorough interactive exhibit next door). Then we went to the Old State House Museum, which features exhibits about the political history and life of the state, including one featuring gowns from the wives of all the governors over the past hundred odd years.

Although the labs at my friend’s university aren’t technically open to the public, she was able to give me a tour. Aquaculture—fish farming—is huge down there, and it was really cool to visit the university’s farms and learn a little bit about their research on nutrition and water treatment. I also got to see a nature center that had free admission and beautiful hiking trails.

My favorite part, though, was visiting Hot Springs National Park. All the springs have been capped to preserve them, and several of them are available for public use. You can bring a jug or many jugs and fill them up from the public fountains. The water comes out steaming hot. There are also several spas that sit near springs and use the water in their services. My friend and I didn’t get any spa treatments, but we did do a nice hike up the mountain, where we got some great views of the town below.

The one thing I wanted to do but didn’t get the chance to do was go fishing–this state has a ton of outdoor recreation opportunities.

If you’ve never visited Arkansas, consider it. Here are some guides to get you started:

Arkansas, Off the Beaten Path
This book features the big tourist sites as well as lesser known places.

AAA Tour book: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma
In addition to maps, AAA Tour Books feature information on hotels, restaurants, and tourist sites.

In the Arkansas Backwoods: Tales and Sketches
This is an annotated travel journal/memoir from the mid-1800s.

The Ozarks, An Explorer’s Guide
If the outdoors are calling you, check out this book to learn about Arkansas mountains.

America’s National Parks vol. 2
This is a digital video available from OverDrive. All you need is your library card number to check it out and watch it!

Complete National Parks
This beautiful full-color book features battlefields and historic sites like Central High School as well as the parks.

–Kelly

Into the Woods We Go Again

I’m gearing up to see the Hollywood adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. I’m excited for this. I like musicals. I like that one in particular, ever since my college theater troupe put it on while I was living with half the cast. And even though I know they’ve made changes (they even announced a lot of the changes being made, unusual for Hollywood), I’m still going to enjoy it. I like a good fairy tale with a twist.

Given that this isn’t a movie I’m likely to see with a dozen friends in costume at midnight (ahem, Harry Potter, ahem, The Avengers, ahem, my friends are really nerdy), what does it mean to gear up to see a movie? For me, it’s all about those fairy tales. Because Into the Woods involves an array of fairy tale characters, with a few original inventions to move the story along, I’ve been focusing on just one—Cinderella. Sondheim’s Cinderella follows the Grimm version of the tale rather than the familiar Perrault/Disney, so she is aided by forest creatures and the spirit of her dead mother inhabiting a hazel tree rather than a fairy godmother. This Cinderella is more self-aware than most—even after catching the attention of the prince, she recognizes that escaping her life of drudgery by attaching her fate to a complete stranger won’t necessarily lead to a happily-ever-after ending.

The classic cover of Ella Enchanted, before the movie release went and spoiled everything.

Some of my favorite stories are these clever Cinderellas who direct their own lives. First and highest on my list is the children’s novel Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine. The character list is what you’d expect—Ella, dead mother, unattractive stepfamily, fairy godmother, charming prince. But Ella isn’t just a comfort-to-rags-to-riches girl. She has a knack for foreign languages, a sense of humor, and a tendency to trip over her own feet. Her prince is not a distant stranger, but a confidante and pen pal. The story elapses over years, allowing for real character development. As the title implies, Ella has been under a spell since birth, and her great moral struggle comes from understanding and fighting this spell. If you want a fast read with fairies, friendship, and banister-sliding, I’d recommend picking this up.*

A rear view of Danielle in her ball gown, with massive fairy wings.

The second recommendation is the film Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore. Our heroine is Danielle, living in an entirely non-magical 16^th century France. She reads Thomas More and befriends Leonardo da Vinci. She is aggressive, crafty, and—like Ella—a defender of the weak and disenfranchised. The prince is an elitist, burdened by the demands of his station. The stepmother (played by Anjelica Huston) is conniving and self-serving, and gets some great dialogue. As a costume drama lacking in fight scenes and special effects, the movie ages well.

The final recommendation is Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. It’s more of a soft science fiction story than the usual fantasy, and our eponymous leading lady is actually a cyborg, who leaves an entire prosthetic leg behind at the prince’s ball. The setting is New Beijing, in a world with android servants, mysterious plagues, and hostile alien forces. Linh Cinder was adopted as a child after a hovercraft accident destroyed two of her limbs and all memories of her birth family. She works as a mechanic for hire, enslaved by her adoptive family and the limited rights granted to cyborgs. She is independent, sarcastic, and dreams of freedom rather than love. Cinder is actually the first book in an in-progress series, currently including Scarlet (Red Riding Hood) and Cress (Rapunzel), with Fairest due out next month.

Cinder and the first two sequels, with references to the classic tales on which they are based.

If you’re interested in more non-traditional Cinderella stories, here are some worth looking up:

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix, a children’s novel exploring life in the aftermath of the ball

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire gives us a kind stepfamily to a bratty girl who chooses the kitchen hearth, set in Holland during the tulip craze

Ash by Malinda Lo is a dark teen romance with a servant girl torn between the powerful magic she’s dreamed of saving her and the real world friendship/romance that allows her true freedom

Bella at Midnight is another teen adventure, with prince as childhood friend and heroine who refuses to be a damsel in distress

Fables is a graphic series wherein the stars of fairy tales are exiled from their magical world into modern day New York City, full of espionage, intrigue, and well-developed female characters.

Once Upon a Time is a television series with a suspiciously similar premise to Fables. Now in the middle of its fourth season, it borrows from not only the “Disney Princess” canon but also Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, and Mary Shelley.

*I don’t recommend the film version of Ella Enchanted, however. The plot has been changed enough to be almost unrecognizable, and it lacks most of the charm of the original.

– Bonnie T.