[BHE 131] Launch of Reading Theme for November-December – Paranormal Fantasies

Myra here.

Every Sunday, we share the books that have found their way into our hands – either through whispered secrets, unrealized magic, or left orphaned in our doorsteps.

This week is extra special as we are now launching our new reading theme for November-December – Paranormal Fantasies: Dragons and Unicorns, Vampires and Elves.

As you may have astutely observed, our reading theme in the next two months has very clear links with our previous reading theme on Scifi and Speculative Fiction. This is deliberate, as we simply do not want to be tethered to this world, at present. We prefer to fly out into the great unknown.

As such, we are hunting for books that have the following themes:

1. Paranormal fiction: beyond the realms of this universe with angels and demons, vampires and elves, zombies and fairies.
2. Anything about Dragons, Unicorns, Mythical Creatures in make-believe universes.
3. Magic! Wizards and Witches!
4. Transformed Universes – special emphasis on the strange, the surreal, the weird.
5. Nonfiction titles on makers of such universes – picturebook biographies on word weavers.
6. Nonfiction books about nature’s undead, sightings of creatures, or other paranormal stuff set into scientific/empirical investigations.

Fantasy Books for Review for Pansing: YA and Adult Titles

Over the past several months, I have been receiving a few books from Pansing Books to be featured for our Fantasy theme. Here are several:

The Fairyland Trilogy of Catherynne M. Valente: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland And Led The Revels There, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland And Cut The Moon In Two.

The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. I heard the third book is out?

The Grisha Series by Leigh Bardugo: Shadow And Bone, Siege And Storm, Ruin And Rising.

And because I am catching up on my adult novels too: Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

I am not sure whether this would fit our theme, but knowing David Almond and his penchant for surreal darkness, I am sure I would be able to find something here to bring me to somewhere otherworldly: A Song For Ella Grey by David Almond.

And for review by our 12 year old Quill Junior Contributor: Goosebumps books by R. L. Stine: Deep Trouble II and The Blog That Ate Everything.

Library Loot and Personal Collection: PictureBooks Edition

I am looking forward to reading Gaiman’s The Sandman characters portrayed as children: The Endless Storybook by Jill Thompson.

Graeme Base titles simply because we love the man: The Legend of the Golden Snail and Little Elephants.

Marshmallow Incident by Judi and Ron Barrett and Planet of the Pies: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3 by Judi Barrett and drawn by Isidre Mones.

I have been waiting to read this book for the longest time, and am I so excited to discover that we already have it in our public library: Quest by Aaron Becker.

Two exceptional picturebook biographies createdby Barbara Kerley and Edwin Fotheringham: A Home For Mr. Emerson and The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy).

Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown – the latter book, I received personally from Isabel Roxas, the artist who made the book cover.

The Discovery of Dragons by Graeme Base. This one was a steal. I discovered it fairly recently from Bras Basah here in Singapore and bought it for 7.90. What a steal indeed!

Library Loot: Collection of Weird Tales

I have my doubts whether I’d be able to read these two collections of strangenesses by husband and wife Ann & Jeff Vandermeer, but they’re definitely worth sharing here: The Thackery T. Lambshead’s Cabinet of Curiosities and The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories.

I was supposed to share this one for our previous reading theme, but I thought I’d save it for this one instead. Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide To Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer.

How about you, dear friends, what books found you over the past week? Do you have any recommended titles for us for our current reading theme? Do share!