I don't know why this book didn't get more attention at the time--it's a treasure. Here, women writers of the highest caliber reflect on their favorite fairy tales and their influence. Such writers as Alice Adams, Margaret Atwood, Bell Hooks, Vivian Gornick and Francine Prose write about how fairy tales affected their childhoods and later became motifs in their lives and writing. A.S. Byatt talks about The Snow Queen and how northern climes conjure an aesthetic of art and beauty. Ursula LeGuin l...

All right...another review it as I go. Various women authors and their takes on fairy tales, how the stories influenced them as women....yeah~!!! How many Cinderella complexes are out there!!!? But what I find really interesting, as I write this I realize...aren't fairy tales historically written by men?? So, we are, as little girls, listening to the tales of men and their perceptions of women and how they are to be treated and/or behave in the world?? Looking at it in a Jungian perspective, isn...

My favorite essays in the collection, the ones that are each worth five stars of their own, are "An Autobiography of Scheherazade" by Julie Alvarez, "In a Trance of Self" by Deborah Eisenberg, "Little Red Cap" by Patricia Foster, "Rapunzel Across Time and Space" by Connie Porter, "Sleeping Beauty" by Francine Prose, "Bones and Black Puddings" by Linda Gray Sexton, and "Transformations" by Terri Windling. Another great essay that comes to mind is "The Wilderness Within" by Ursula Le Guin. I wish

For me the biggest problem with this collection was that the essays were really hit and miss. Some of the authors did a great job in analyzing certain fairy tales from their childhood that they enjoyed or related to and examined the impact those stories have had in their adults lives and writing. However, other authors treated it more as a very sterile academic exercise or barely even mentioned the fairy tales at all. I also could very much feel a generation gap here with many of these writers.

Added this to my to-read shelf after reading Kate Bernheimer's luminous essay "Other Women" in the anthology The Friend Who Got Away. I had this book out at the library for three months -- I had to renew it the maximum number of times online and then finally finished it the night before it was due. (I know that I could have probably walked in and manually checked it out again, but sometimes, you need to just take a deadline.) My favorite selections were Julia Alvarez's "An Autobiography of Sche...

I picked this up for a few reasons:1. I wanted to read more from Lucy Grealy. (But eventually realized that her piece from this collection is also included in her book of essays As Seen on TV…which you should pick up.)2. Reading this book adds a +1 count to the books read for Lucy Grealy. (As well as 23 other authors! I don't track sports stats, but I'm just as obsessive about my own book-reading stats.)3. My friend challenged me to read only books written by female authors for 6 months, so this...

I'm always a fan of fairy tales, so thought this might be interesting. There were a wide variety of approaches...some felt academic and left me bored, some looked at personal stories through a fairy tale lense, which I prefered. Some seemed to be promoting their previous titles. There were two authors I made note of and marked their writing for future reading (Terri Windling and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni), and there were some famaliar big names like Margaret Atwood and Ursula LaGuin, plus other...

This collections concerns one of my favorite topics--people talking about their favorite fairy tales. I've always loved hearing which stories people gravitate towards, though there's one essay where the author points out that when adults answer this question they can't help but talk about it from an adult perspective. In other words, they might have adored a story for months as a kid and now they only remember the one that it seems like they should like now.This may or may not be the reason that...

I really, really enjoyed this collection of essays on fairy tales and women writers. As a woman writer who grew up on fairy tales, the collection really struck some chords with me. I can't say that every essay was good-- there were a few that weren't very good and a few that I couldn't make out at all-- but overall it's a great collection, worthwhile reading for anyone interested in fairy tales. I want my own copy of this book. I think I would only love it more on rereading.

Some of these essays are excellent--Margaret Atwood's, Julia Alvarez's, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's, Joyce Carol Oates'--but others were only so so. Still, if you're a fan of fairy tales, then this is going to be an enjoyable read. Each author discusses their favorite tales in completely different ways. I tended to like the ones that combined scholarly examinations with personal experience rather than the purely personal experience essays, but that's just my preference.

I started to read this almost two years ago, lost it, then found it again recently. Instead of starting from the beginning, I picked up where I left off. Most of this review was written about a year ago, but I’ve wrapped it up and kept it short. If it sounds choppy, that is probably why.Has anyone read "The Snow Queen"? Everyone contributing here did and apparently it's the only one worth talking about. Halfway through I stopped to see if I had this story so I could read it. I don't.Aside from h...

As with many essay collections, I read a few, then read something else, then read a few more, and so forth. By doing so, I had the time to reflect on and absorb a few at a time. Be forewarned, these authors do not rely on the Disney version of fairy tales. These essays delve into older, darker versions of the stories and forthrightly face the writers' own stories, some also very dark. I am constitutionally incapable of criticizing a writer's essay on his or her own influences, so long as it is c...

Ok book with several good essays on fairy tales, a larger part with middling quality essays, and a few so lost to true communication they were nearly giggle worthy. A couple of these authors seemed to unwittingly illustrate their own unpleasant character from some story or other. Maybe it was just me...or maybe some people are just too full of themselves. But there were some excellent essays in the book as well, and I love reading stories about stories, books about books, even people about peopl...

I really enjoyed this book - it was smart and interesting and engaging. I found a lot of solidarity and connection to the writers in the book as someone whose creative work often borrows from/utilizes/is in conversation with fairy taless and other classic childrens stories. I really appreciated getting insight in to the lives of women and their relationships to these fairy tales..... I also highlighted a lot as I anticipate this book will be helpful for me with some critical work I will be doing...

This is a diverse and interesting collection of essays that introduced me to different fairy tales and sent me off in different reading directions, generally a good sign. Rather than being an academic series of essays, each essay is in a different style and the subhead "Explore" is a good hint that this will involve more than a straightforward march through the stories. If you're interested in the way writers and stories interact, this is a good choice.

Episode 1:Hi guys,I’ve read a few re-workings of classic stories and fairy tales this year and am really enjoying this refresh of stories. Do you have any suggestions for books with retell a story or tell the story from a different point of view? The initial inspiration for this was when I read Longborn by Jo Baker and would love to discover more books which retell a story from a different view point.Thanks for your suggestionsKimRecommended by: Jenn

This book was so good! Interviews with Female authors on how Fairy Tales have effected their writing, or their perspective on life. I particularly enjoyed Midori Snyder: The Monkey Girl. It is a very dense read, meaning that you have to let it sink in and if necessary read it in small bites to understand each chapter. I love Kate Bernheimer's anthologies--excellent.