The Rose and the Beast: fairy tales retold

If you're a fan of Robin McKinley's enchanted worlds wherein women find freedom from societal conventions by mythical and majestic means (i.e. The Blue Sword), then you'll enjoy Block's collection of short stories. These are not stories for children, but rather for teens & adults who are looking for thorny, emotionally complicated retellings of classics in a time when Nature was wild and more dangerous.

p. 190-191: "Beauty began to change. Her hair was always a tangle, she bathed less often, her skin smelled of the garden and the forest, she was almost always barefoot--there were hard calluses on her soles. Her senses were so sharp that she could smell and hear things she had never known existed before. This was the happiest she had ever been in her life, if happiness is waking with a start of joy for the day, feeling each moment in every cell of your being, and going to sleep at night with a mind like a clear moonlit sky."

The Blue Sword

This is old-school teen fantasy book--it won the Newbery Honor in 1982. When I was growing up, this and McKinley's Hero and the Crown were touchstones of mine. Don't we all grow up wishing that we could wield swords and ride horses through the desert? Learn foreign languages and fall in love with handsome princes, all without relying on femininity and flirtation?

I revisited it as a special treat to myself for Easter. I'll add quotes in a day or so, but please consider reading it, even if you're not a fantasy fan. It's like dark chocolate with chili and cinnamon--wonderful plain, but with the addition of a few uncommon twists, it transcends to the amazing.

Dragonhaven

Incredible.

I'm not a gigantic SFF (science fiction/fantasy) reader, but for Robin McKinley's work I'll make plenty of exceptions. She won the Newbery for The Hero and the Crown years ago, and her other books are just as good. It's not just the characters and the writing, it's that she is able to create an entire world in every book, a world that is so complete without being too otherworldly (no bizarre robots or spaceships here). Like Rowling has done with the Harry Potter books, she has been able to create a separate space for her characters, a space in which every detail has been thought out and imagined; even if the storyline doesn't revolve around those details, the depth is there.

I can't tell you what it's about, and you shouldn't read the jacket of the book either. Just take me at my word and get it. Make yourself a gigantic cup of cinnamon tea and sit down with the book on your lap and work through it page by page. You'll be glad.