Lady and the Tramp

Lady and the Tramp is about a cocker spaniel and a mutt. Actually on second thought that seems to be a theme with Disney high class citizen falls in love with the diamond in the rough and everyone lives happily ever after. I can actually point to quite a few Disney movies that fall under this category. Anyway, back to Lady and the Tramp. Lady is the cocker spaniel owned by two loving humans named Darling and Jim Dear. (I'm sure that these aren't their real names, but this is the only names that Lady knows them by). When a new baby comes into the house, Darling and Jim leave for a short trip leaving Aunt Sarah in charge. When her Siamese cats cause a ruckus, Sarah blames it all on poor Lady and takes her down to be muzzled. She then meets up with Tramp and they have some adventures before returning home. There is more to the movie, but I don't want to give it all away just in case you've never seen it :). Anyway, it's Disney so you know that everyone will pretty much live happily ever after. Rarely does a Disney movie do anything else.

The Princess in the Chest

        

       The Princess in the Chest was part of the Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. It is originally a Danish tale and is one of my favorite fairy tales even if it is a little on the macabre side.

                In it the princess is begat by magic and must be not seen by her parents until she is fourteen. On the eve of her fourteenth birthday, the king breaks this sacred oath and is told that he has two options. The princess would die regardless of what he does, but he can either give her a burial of state and suffer plague and pestilence throughout the land or put her in a wooden chest inside the church with a guard every night. Of course, although it pains him, the king chooses the second option.

                This goes on for about a year, until a soldier named Christian shows up. That first night a little fairy man shows up and tells him how he can survive the ghost of the princess. Each night the fairy man shows up and tells Christian another place to stand. Finally on the third night, he tells Christian to climb into the chest and then the princess will be unable to climb in when morning comes. The spell is broken and Christian and the Princess are married and everyone lives happily ever after.

                I don't know why this is one of my favorite stories, but I always found it interesting how the spell is broken and peace once again returns to the land. The story can be found on the internet.

The Waters Rising by Sherri S Tepper

This is a book that blurs the lines of fantasy and science fiction. It takes place in a post apopolytic world where the apocolypse was so very long ago that "our" world is just distant memories and legends. The book starts out like a fantasy not much different than Shannara or Thundar the Barbarian where magic has crept back into this world of ours with the fall of the machines. Readers meet Abasio and his talking horse, Blue, and Xulia, the soul carrier for the dying "Woman Upstairs" who has been cursed by Alicia who wants to marry the Woman's husband. When the Woman finally does die, Xulia must travel to her homeland to lay the Woman's soul to rest. This is still a very magical concept even when the story then drifts into science fiction by telling us that Alicia employed a sort of DNA seeking biochemical weapon to kill the Woman and that Xulia is a mutant that can change herself into an octopus, and her greater purpose in the world is to breed merchildren so that humans can live when the waters cover the earth. There were a lot of plots and subplots going on, and sometimes it was hard to figure out what was going on. Was it a great novel? Not really, but it was okay and I did enjoy reading it.

Night of the Living Deed by E.J. Copperman

I liked the Night of the Living Deed, but I must admit that although Copperman is still writing these books, I lost interest. That being said, let me tell you about this first, great book.

When Alison Kirby returns to her hometown after a nasty divorce (a common theme in most cozy mysteries :) ) she buys a Victorian mansion to fix up as a fashionable Guest House. There is only one small problem, the house comes haunted with the ghosts of the previous owner Maxie and the private investigator, Paul, that she hired to find out who wanted to harm her in the first place. Now since they are bound to the house where they met their demise, they want Alison to find out who killed them and why (Paul hadn't gotten that far when he met his untimely end).  It is fun to see how the two resident ghosts give Alison advice and how she solves the mystery. I would at least give this first book a whirl!

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

                This is the first book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Although my favorite books happen to be the second and fourth book, Dealing is also a very enjoyable read. The plot is as follows.

                Princess Cimorene is bored with being a princess. She can never learn anything interesting and is horrible at embroidery and other more "princessly" pursuits. When her parents engage her to a perfectly horrid prince, there is just one thing for our uncommon princess to do. She runs off to be princess to a dragon. The dragon Kazul to be more exact who is just as uncommon a dragon as Cimorene is a princess. Together these two new friends must defeat plotting wizards and a range of other dangers whilst also trying to convince all those princes and knights that she really doesn't want to be rescued!

The book is available through both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The Riddle Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip

The Riddle Master of Hed is by far one of my favorite book series. It is one that you have to read in order or the books don't make sense, although my favorite book is by far the last one, Harpist of the Wind. They're all great though.

                The main character of this series is Prince Morgan of Hed. Hed is a farming community and Morgan has never really fit in. He is a Riddle Master, or lore master of this world and he was born with three stars upon his forehead. The story begins when Morgan goes to claim his bride Raederle, but a ship wreak changes his plans. He realizes that those stars on his forehead has marked him for a mysterious destiny, and so he begins a search throughout the lands for the High One, the only one who may have the answers for the questions surrounding his fate. I highly recommend this book. It is available in a paper book and e-book omnibus of all three books from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.