Inspiration: magical

I'm defining "magic" as books where charms or spells and supernatural powers are used. The kind of stuff not defined by physics and lab science. Mostly thought to be fiction, but I'll let you make up your own mind.

You've got to be able to suspend your disbelief and really fall into the book to truly enjoy a magical story. Things happen that can't happen, and that's just the way it goes. Remember when you were a kid and could do that? Try to recapture it.

Here's a list of magical stories I've personally read and enjoyed, including internal links to this blog's posts where I discussed them (if I did).

Note: I have an admitted weakness for vampires, but they're not really "magical" so I'll save that list for another day. ;) 

• I, Coriander by Sally Gardner - A fantastic, captivating middle-grade book about a 17th Century London girl who ends up in the land of fairies.
• The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde - A high-rise rest home for magicians, the orphan who tries to keep it all afloat, and a quest to save the world's last dragons.
• The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag - A magical, living house that protects women in need.
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - The first in her All Saints Series, where a witch and a vampire fall in forbidden love. 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Highly acclaimed novel, a steampunk magic circus.
• The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman - A library of magical materials, collected by the famous Grimm Brothers.
• The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry - Salem's modern witches, who tell fortunes by focusing through hand-made lace.

I also could simply recommend nearly anything by Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett, but if I have to choose just one from each of them, I'll recommend:

• Stardust by Neil Gaiman - A naive young man who vows to bring back a falling star to win a girl's love, and the profane Earthly embodiment of that star who doesn't want to be captured and held prisoner.
• The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett - Crivens! A girl witch (and a clan of drunken, thieving, miniature warriors) tries to save her baby brother from the Queen of Fairies.

What's your favorite book of magic?

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I know, stunning, but I had never read this. We chose it for the library's book discussion, which seemed like as good a reason as any to finally commit.

I listened to the audiobook, read by Rob Inglis, and I think that made a HUGE difference for me. Having the dramatization, the accents and all of that really helped draw me into the story.

Suddenly, having read this, much about pop culture makes more sense to me.

Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

At the suggestion of an alley cat, a brave boy named Elmer Elevator sets off to rescue a dragon.

This 50th anniversary volume contains the books My Father's Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and The Dragons of Blueland along with an introduction by the author. Together, they make up the "Elmer and the Dragons series." In the first book, Elmer sets off to save an enslaved baby dragon. The second book is the fantastic journey homeward. In the third book, the dragon returns to enlist Elmer's help in saving his family.

I read this as part of my self-education on award-winners of the past; the first book in the series was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal when it was published in 1948.

It's an odd type of children's story - the kind we had before anyone took "children's literature" very seriously. It's a series of wildly improbable adventures taken by a child without the aid of adults. There are talking animals. There's menace, but no big danger befalls them. All's well in the end, and it always finishes with the adults befuddled as to what's happened right under their noses!

The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde

Corporatized magic for profit, professional kidnapping and ransom scams, and high-risk tourism are all factors in the fantasy quest (sorry, no, not a quest, didn't fill out the paperwork - it's just a business trip) of this novel, the third installment of The Chronicles of Kazam series.

When magician The Once Magnificent Boo gets kidnapped, our heroine and intrepid orphan Jennifer Strange turns the ransom negotiation into a multi-tasking trip to also save the world's last two dragons by locating a mythical stone for a crooked magician. And she might find a way to sneak in a date, too.

The first two books in this series (The Last Dragonslayer and The Song of the Quarkbeast) to me felt a bit incomplete ... like they were building to something. Yes, THIS is what they were building to! Fforde has found his groove with this third book, and he's not done because this one ends with the start of a whole new world for the magicians of Kazam. I won't ruin it for you.

I seriously loved this book, and I couldn't have said that for the first two. But I've really come to love these characters, and the storyline in this one is full, rich, and satisfying. Best yet!

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

Pocket the Fool is back, and he's seeking revenge on the bastards who killed his Queen Cordelia ... (if you thought these characters from Moore's earlier novel "Fool" would have a happy ending, you haven't read much Shakespeare).

In his second Shakespeare-inspired black comedy mash-up, Christopher Moore combines elements of "Othello" and "The Merchant of Venice," then stirs in a little Edgar Allan Poe and a variety of other recognizable references, characters, and quotes.

It's a twisty tale of intrigue - Iago's out to become a councilman if he has to kill everybody he knows to get there, Pocket's in town under false pretenses. There's a lot of cross-dressing, a court scene where everybody's out to win over the doge, and secret casks that can only be opened by solving a riddle. Plus a big git that's only interested in sex, Marco Polo, and a monkey. You know, typical Christopher Moore.

I loved this book, but it's at times hard to follow: there are a lot of characters, tons of back-stabbing and lying, and way too many things going on at once (you know: exactly like the Shakespeare source material). The more Shakespeare you know, the funnier the book will be. Also, I think a second reading may be beneficial for deeper understanding - which is fine, because these are characters I've enjoyed revisiting and will again.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

In a near-distant future, magic exists. While it's been relegated to performing boring tasks like delivering pizza and rewiring houses without tearing up the walls, it does exist and is in use - and teen orphan Jennifer Strange is the girl who schedules the work and fills out the forms to make it legal.

But it seems there are bigger jobs for Jennifer to perform - this coming Sunday at noon, for example, she's supposed to kill the last dragon in existence. Not that she WANTS to, or even necessarily WILL ...  but Big Magic is afoot, and abundant soothsayers agree the visions include both Jennifer and dragon death.

The comedy is decidedly British (like Fforde's other books, and in the vein of Douglas Adams or Monty Python), and the setting is the Ununited Kingdoms. It's fairly obvious Fforde plans to make this a series - there are a lot of characters introduced here that could have a rich life down the line in another tale. And while there's a satisfactory ending to the tale, the climax of this story is almost an after-thought in the larger scheme of establishing mythology for another story.

While the main character is 16 years old (in two weeks), this story would easily be of interest to younger readers or adult readers too. Jennifer is a teen slightly wise for her years - but not dissimilar from anther magical orphan embraced by young and old alike (*cough*Harry*cough*).

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex

In this book full of people with crazy names, a bunch of unpopular kids band together to thwart world domination by a mean fairy queen. Through breakfast cereal. Seriously!


It's hilarious, and totally preposterous: There's a secret society, experimentation on unsuspecting kids, more magic than you can shake a stick at, and a rabbit-headed man. You really can't go wrong with an Adam Rex book!