King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Ugly Duckling

author: Hans Christian Andersen

published: 1844

genre: short story/fantasy/classic/fairy tale


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

first line: It was lovely summer weather in the country, and the golden corn, the green oats, and the haystacks piled up in the meadows looked beautiful.




In this classic children's fairy tale, a mother duck waits for her eggs to hatch.

All but one large egg have hatched and she begins to wonder if it's not a turkey egg. When the egg finally hatches, an 'ugly duckling' emerges.
She thinks he is not so ugly, and takes him into society to introduce him to the other animals on the farm.


The other animals begin to pick on the ugly duckling saying he does not belong with them because he looks different.
The bullying is so bad, he runs away.

"He is too big," they all said, and the turkey cock, who had been born into the world with spurs, and fancied himself really an emperor, puffed himself out like a vessel in full sail, and flew at the duckling, and became quite red in the head with passion, so that the poor little thing did not know where to go, and was quite miserable because he was so ugly and laughed at by the whole farmyard. So it went on from day to day till it got worse and worse. The poor duckling was driven about by every one; even his brothers and sisters were unkind to him, and would say, "Ah, you ugly creature, I wish the cat would get you," and his mother said she wished he had never been born.

He stumbles upon an old woman living in a cottage. She is half blind and doesn't see how different the duck looks, so she takes him in. Three weeks pass and he decides he wants to set off and explore the world. He comes upon beautiful swans and can't believe his eyes. He wants to be just like them.

One evening, just as the sun set amid radiant clouds, there came a large flock of beautiful birds out of the bushes. The duckling had never seen any like them before. They were swans, and they curved their graceful necks, while their soft plumage shown with dazzling whiteness. They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea.

The ugly duckling endures a harsh and lonely winter, almost freezing to death in the water and nearly starving.

When Spring finally arrives, he stretches his wings and comes upon beautiful swans again. He swims to them and bows his head, asking them to kill him.
But when he bows his head, she sees his reflection in the water. He himself has become a beautiful swan and is welcomed by the others.

He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome.

The ugly duckling appreciates everything he has now, because of all he has suffered.

..he was so happy, and yet not at all proud. He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds.

I think the story of The Ugly Duckling is timeless. Many of us can relate to going through that awkward phase in life and coming out stronger because of it, myself included.
This is one of my favorite fairy tales.



This is a statue in Central Park, NYC, of Hans Christian Andersen.







About the author:

During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

title: Losing Beauty

author: Johanna Garth

genre: paranormal romance

published: 2011

pages: 315

first line: "I've been to hell and back."

rated: 4 out of 5 stars

Her beauty was the lure and what lay beneath was the trap. She wished she could warn them, tell them to run from her before it was too late, but she couldn't. That was the other part of the deal. She got to be beautiful but she never, ever got to tell the truth.

p.3

About:

When Haden Sarantos arrives in the small town of Iowa claiming he is the new librarian, something is very different about him. He knows when people will die and I wondered if he was the grim reaper.



The beautiful Persephone Campbell is well known in her small home town.
She was raised by a single mom, her father having died in a car crash before she was born.


After meeting Persey, the one thing Haden notices right away is that as the ruler of death, he cannot 'see' how she will die.
Haden knows every 'humans end', how and when they will die, yet Persey is a mystery to him.






Persey herself is not like others, people are compelled to confide their deepest secrets to her, secrets she sometimes wishes she didn't know. The darker the secret, the stronger the urge for people to unburden it on her.





As the years pass, Persey goes on bewitching everyone she meets. Aaron Strait, a high school football player, falls in love with her. The two eventually marry and Persey goes to work at a law firm in NYC. Aaron goes on to become a Wall Street investment banker.



All the while, Haden is in her life in some form or another, waiting to make her his own. He has been obsessed with Persey since he first laid eyes on her.

A lawyer named Daniel Hartnett works with Persey and is hopelessly in love with her as well, even though she is married. Soon enough Daniel realizes there is something different about Persey, and he figures out her special talent of inspiring people to confess themselves to her.




Persey comes in contact with Haden again in NYC when he is instructing her Yoga class. Little does she know, Haden has plans to make Persey his own and will stop at nothing to claim her. He wants to make her his immortal queen.

The heat of his body threatened to suffocate her with its intensity. It was more than heat. It was devastation, sorrow, musty odors from rooms where people sobbed lonely tears. His secrets were inside of her, consuming her. She could feel their darkness and the horror. Each one was more devastating than the next, and yet, something in her called to them. They were part of her, their pain and suffering belonged to her.

p.145

My thoughts:


I have to say I didn't know what Losing Beauty was about when I first began reading it.

I have been pleasantly surprised! It reminded me a bit of the film Meet Joe Black as far as Haden's character was concered.




Author Johanna Garth does an excellent job at weaving a unique and interesting story here. In the beginning I couldn't figure out whether Haden was a villain or not. And when I did see that he wasn't one of the good guys, I still liked him. He's one of those bad boys you love to hate. Haden became my favorite character in the story. I now have a new literary crush.


The interactions between Haden and Persey gave me the chills.

The first time Persey came to the library, he felt her. Her presence was a dark space—a hole where knowledge should be. She entered the room and filled it up with nothingness. He found her sitting on the carpeted floor, between the stacks of older children's books. She looked up as though she was expecting him. He crouched down in front of her and she inched away from him.

"Hello, Persey," he said, smiling at her.

"You know my name." She said it without wonder or surprise. It was as though his knowledge of her name was just another thing she expected.

p. 11

I liked Persey's character. I wondered who she was, where she got this special power from. Imagine people having to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets to you? I think that's a sad fate.


I liked that Persey married Aaron, and yet, I liked Daniel too and could see her being happy with him as well. Daniel himself was a sweet guy with a good heart. I rooted for him throughout the story and I enjoyed the interactions between Persey and him.




The paranormal and romance elements in this book were right up my alley and I enjoyed reading Losing Beauty very much.
I liked the mythology of the story as well.

Kronos—ruler of both the world and immortals—lived on Mount Titanus. From his mountain-top palace, he pulled the strings of time which governed all human life. His palace was carpeted with the ever-changing map of time. He walked over it as he observed and guided the timing of all events in accordance with the dictates of natural law.

p.197

The book took some unexpected twists and turns and I never really knew what would happen next, my interest was held throughout. I also like how the events in the story were wrapped up together towards the end, to create an exciting conclusion. In my opinion, the ending leaves the story wide open for a sequel.





Special thanks to author Johanna Garth for providing me a copy of her debut novel for review! I recommend Losing Beauty to fans of romance and paranormals, or for anyone looking for a good story to get caught up in.





On a final note, I'll also mention, I'm old-fashioned and still have yet to purchase an e-reader. I don't tend to read full length books online, mainly because I just prefer to be holding a paperback. I did make the exception for Johanna's book and am glad I did.




About the author:

Johanna Garth is a writer of urban fantasy and mythic fiction for adults who resides with her husband and two children in Portland, Oregon.

This is her debut novel.

title: Through the Looking Glass


author: Lewis Carroll

genre: classic/fantasy/childrens

published: 1871

source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

first line: One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it:--it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars










I recently read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it became an instant favorite. After being a bit biased against Carrol, he won me over with his fun and bizarre classic, so I decided to read Through the Looking Glass, which is the sequel to Alice's Adventures.




This story opens with Alice speaking to her cat Dinah and her kittens. She holds up one of the kittens to the mirror, so it can see the looking glass world where everything is the opposite, even the letters in books are backwards.

Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking- glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through--' She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass WAS beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.

Alice herself passes through the looking glass, into this other world. She is in her house, yet things are not the same. She decides to investigate this mirror world and have an adventure before going back through the looking glass and going back home.
Through the looking glass everything is backwards, time itself runs backwards and if Alice wants to get someplace, she has to move in the opposite direction to reach it.
When she leaves her house, she comes upon a sunny garden.

The countryside is set up in squares like a giant chessboard and as Alice explores it, she comes across some curious characters. Talking chess pieces, talking flowers, The Red Queen and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, a knitting sheep and Humpty Dumpty are a few of the characters she meets.








Where Alice in Wonderland is based on a deck of cards, Through the Looking Glass is modeled after a game of chess. Lewis Carroll's fantastic imagination is evident throughout, and I wish I had read these as a child. I'll be sharing both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with my daughter.

'And you do Addition?' the White Queen asked. 'What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?'


'I don't know,' said Alice. 'I lost count.'


'She can't do Addition,' the Red Queen interrupted. 'Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.'


'Nine from eight I can't, you know,' Alice replied very readily: 'but--'


'She can't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen. 'Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife--what's the answer to that?'

This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


author: Lewis Carroll


genre: classic/fantasy/childrens


published: 1865


source: DailyLit



first line: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'



rated: 4 out of 5 stars












I don't know what took me so long to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I think it's because I'm not a big fan of Disney's animated Alice, and that kind of put me off from reading the actual story.
I also have to admit the unsavory rumors about Lewis Carroll also steered me away from reading this one.




I put that aside and decided to finally read this classic. I found Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a delight. As soon as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, I found myself swept into Carroll's lyrical and strange storytelling and didn't stop reading until the end.


Alice herself is the one who captivates the reader.

For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

After falling down the rabbit hole, Alice encounters some strange characters, the Chesire Cat, the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter among them. The encounters Alice has with these characters are funny and strange and I enjoyed the silliness of the story. Interestingly enough, this genre is referred to as literary nonsense.

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and that is evident as you read this story.

Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!

My favorite chapter was 5, Advice from a Caterpillar.


I found it amusing that Alice comes upon a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, smoking a hookah no less.

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.

I read this one online, but I'll definitely be grabbing a copy to add to my book collection. I know this one is best read with the illustrations included.

I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what CAN have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought!

Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland online free from DailyLit or at americanliterature.com.







This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: The Little Mermaid


author: Hans Christian Andersen


genre: short story/fantasy/classic/fairy tale


published: 1837


first line: Far out in the ocean the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower, and as clear as the purest glass.


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/






The original story of The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite fairy tales. As a child I watched an animated version (non Disney) and enjoyed the beauty and sadness of the story.

This bittersweet fairy tale is about a little mermaid who gives her life up in the sea for the chance to have a human soul and to be with her true love, a Prince.






In Hans Christian Andersen's version, the little mermaid lives in the ocean with her father, grandmother and five sisters.

They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the most beautiful of them all. Her skin was as soft and tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, but like all the others she had no feet. Her body ended in a fish tail.

When she sees a young Prince, and saves him from drowning, the little mermaid falls in love with him and cannot think of anything else. She longs to have human legs and live on shore with her Prince.


I found it sad how the mermaid longs to be something she is not. After she rescues the Prince, she often visits the shore just outside his home in hopes of seeing him.

Many evenings and many mornings she revisited the spot where she had left the Prince. She saw the fruit in the garden ripened and harvested, and she saw the snow on the high mountain melted away, but she did not see the Prince, so each time she came home sadder than she had left. It was her one consolation to sit in her little garden and throw her arms about the beautiful marble statue that looked so much like the Prince. But she took no care of her flowers now. They overgrew the paths until the place was a wilderness, and their long stalks and leaves became so entangled in the branches of the tree that it cast a gloomy shade.

The little mermaid goes to the sea witch and asks her to make her human. This part of the story was creepy. The witch agrees to give the mermaid a potion that will give her human legs....but for a price. The witch wants her beautiful voice in exchange for the potion.

The witch tells the mermaid that her human legs will be always unbearably painful, like walking on knives. She also tells her that if the prince doesn't love her completely and marry her, she will die.

If he marries someone else, your heart will break on the very next morning, and you will become foam of the sea.

Despite all of this, the mermaid agrees and the sea witch cuts off her tongue and gives her the potion.





The little mermaid takes the potion and finds her Prince. He does end up loving her, but eventually he marries someone else. She gave her life and her family up for him and she saved him from the shipwreck, but the little mermaid can't explain herself to him, since she is now mute.



All she can do is watch the wedding ceremony brokenhearted, knowing that this will be her last night alive. She was always taught that mermaids do not go to heaven after they die, there is no afterlife for them.



Her sisters appear to her that night and give her one chance to save herself. The cost would be to stab the prince with the sea witches knife. The little mermaid cannot kill her true love, so the following morning, she becomes the foam on the sea.



But when she dies, the mermaid becomes a spirit, because of the selfless act she committed by not stabbing the Prince to save herself.
She now has a chance of going to heaven if she does good deeds for 300 years. So the little mermaid gets a chance at her happy ending after all.





For me this is the most moving moment in the story since mermaids cannot cry because they have no tears. However after the little mermaid dies and becomes a spirit, she can finally cry:

The little mermaid lifted her clear bright eyes toward God's sun, and for the first time her eyes were wet with tears.

Hans Christian Andersen's story is beautiful, sad and scary all at once. I enjoyed the descriptive storytelling, and found myself easily able to imagine the mermaid's undersea world. The part where the sea witch chops off her tongue was creepy, I would think young children would be scared by that.





One thing I wasn't thrilled with was the part at the end where the little mermaid would get to heaven after 300 years of helping children. Seems a bit harsh no?
I would have thought she had already redeemed herself by sacrificing herself instead of the prince.




All in all, this is a favorite fairytale of mine and I enjoyed reading it.

Moral of the story? Perhaps that we shouldn't try to be something we are not? Or maybe that selfless acts will grant us a spot in heaven?












The photo above is of the Little Mermaid statue located in Copenhagen, Denmark.







This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: The Door in The Wall

author: H.G. Wells


genre: short story/science fiction/fantasy/classic

source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

published: 1911

first line: One confidential evening, not three months ago, Lionel Wallace told me this story of the Door in the Wall.




In this short story by H.G. Wells, the narrator is a man named Redmond. He is telling the story of his friend Wallace's obsession with a door in a wall that leads to a beautiful otherworldly garden. Wallace discovered the door when he was a lonely five year old, out walking in West Kensington, London.
While he was there, he played with children and even spent time with an angel-like woman, a mother figure.

After spending time within the enchanted garden, he came back home to the real world where his governess raised him since his father was a busy lawyer. He told to his father about the garden behind the wall, but Wallace received a spanking for telling lies. Wallace wanted to go back to the garden, often dreaming about it.



Years pass, and a forty year old Wallace still obsesses with the door. He is now a successful politician. Wallace actually sees the door a few times throughout his life, but he never goes through it again, only contemplates it.

You may think me superstitious, if you will, and foolish; but, indeed, I am more than half convinced that he had, in truth, an abnormal gift, and a sense, something - I know not what - that in the guise of a wall and door offered him an outlet, a secret and peculiar passage of escape into another and altogether more beautiful world.

I always enjoy reading Wells stories. Here is a man who was ahead of his time. I love his imagination and the way he spins a story, to make it almost believable.
In this story, poor Wallace was neglected by his busy father and ends up finding this paradise-like world behind a door. It's no wonder he often thought about it for the rest of his life. As a reader, you do wonder whether the door actually existed or if it was his way of compensating for the neglect he suffered. He never went through the door again even though he saw it a few more times.

I became in a moment a very glad and wonder-happy little boy - in another world. It was a world with a different quality, a warmer, more penetrating, and mellower light, with a faint clear gladness in its air, and wisps of sun-touched cloud in the blueness of its sky.

About the author:




H.G. Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books. Together with Jules Verne, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".




This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses

author: Ty Drago

genre: fantasy/science fiction/independent reader

source: sent for review by Sourcebooks

published: April, 2011

pages: 465

first line: On a sunny Wednesday morning in October, a day that would mark the end of one life and the beginning of another, I found out my grouchy next door neighbor was the walking dead.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars









About:




When twelve year old Will Ritter is wakes up one morning just like any other day, and starts to get ready for school, he notices that his neighbor is one of the undead. Unable to believe his eyes, Will takes the school bus and once he arrives in his Math class, he realizes his teacher is also a walking, talking corpse.
Will thinks he's just going crazy when he starts seeing several more undead adults at school, all of whom look like they want to attack him.


A fellow classmate named Helene, Will's crush, starts squirting the corpses with a water gun and runs out of the school with Will, promising to explain everything to him later. She takes him to a special, secret hideout where there are several other kids. These kids call themselves the 'Undertakers'.


Will soon finds out he is a 'Seer', a person who can see these walking corpses for what they really are. These are not zombies, they are corpses who are smarter and quicker than zombies. These corpses have been possessed by aliens and live among us wearing 'masks' that only Seers can detect. For the most part, only kids can 'See' them. Their sight usually takes place around puberty, which is why Will started to see them now.



Since Will is a Seer, his life is in danger. He can no longer go back home, since the corpses will harm his family to get to him.

Will learns some things about his father, a cop who passed away a few years ago, and who was connected with this band of kids. As the story flows, Will meets the rest of the Undertakers, gets lessons in combat and makes strong friendships.


With the threat of the Corpses ever present, Will and the Undertakers need to
decide if they are going to take a stand against the undead or if they should continue hiding out, while their own army continues to grow.




My thoughts:


When I first saw the cover on The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses, I thought this book was about zombies. It's not. It's about corpses that have been possessed by aliens, and are living and walking among us. They seem like your average, every day citizens, and only kids with a special sight can see them for what they really are.




This book was FUN from page one. It was a great read, with likeable characters that you root for. At 465 pages, it's a fast paced book and I finished it just a few sittings. Will's a great hero, you like him from page one. Throughout the story he misses his mom and often thinks about her. The supporting characters within the book seemed believable, and the author captures the children's voices very well. The kids are all resourceful and smart, working together as a team. There were a few funny parts here and there and some very cool fight scenes.

The story takes twists and turns that keep the reader interested, I didn't find any dry spells. There's a surprise in the ending that I didn't see coming. Author Ty Drago keeps the ending open for the next book in the series, which I want to read.



I can see this one being made into an animated film. It's geared towards independent readers ages 10 and up. This is a fun read for independent readers as well as adults.

about the author:

Ty Drago is an author, husband, father, and a born Quaker who has lived in New Jersey almost his entire life. He is the editor/publisher of Allegory, an online magazine of science fiction, fantasy and horror. He has also had short fiction published in Space and Time Magazine and Fortress Publishing's YESTERDAY I WILL anthology. Many years ago, Ty attended a book signing by Isaac Asimov. When Dr. Asimov learned that Drago was a struggling young SF writer, he penned the following: “To Ty: Please keep trying. Isaac Asimov.” And he did.

The Undertakers have their own website.




Special thanks to Beena over @ Sourcebooks.

Due to time constraints, I have not joined any reading challenges this year, other than my own Romance Reading Challenge. However, when Carl's challenges come along, there is no way I can resist.




It's time again for the Once Upon a Time reading challenge.

Five years ago I set out to celebrate my own deep affection for this literature by inviting others to set aside the period of the year that in the Western Hemisphere is known as Spring (March 21st to June 20th) to journey together into the magical lands of fantasy, fairy tales, folklore and mythology.

I'll be doing The Journey.

By signing up for The Journey you are agreeing to read at least one book within one of the four categories during March 21st to June 20th period. Just one book. If you choose to read more, fantastic!

Last year I read The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure for this challenge.



This time around I looked at my bookshelves and found a few books that would fit the challenge nicely. So I really have no excuse not to read, these books are readily available.

I want to read at least one of these books, hopefully two.
Have you read any of these? Which should I put as a priority read?



The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale has been sitting on Mt. TBR for years.






My little brother raves about the The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. He loves this series.





I've been wanting to read Eragon by Christopher Paolini for a while. I love this cover.






And of course, I grabbed American Gods by Neil Gaiman a while ago and it's been collecting dust. I read Coraline and Stardust and enjoyed both.








Short Stories read & reviewed for this challenge:

1. A Door in the Wall by H.G. Wells

2. The Little Mermaid

3. Alices Adventures in Wonderland

4. Through the Looking Glass