We’re about 2 months into our 2024 Summer Reading Challenge! Summer is going so fast!

We wanted to update you last week, but we were knee-deep in festival prep, so our missive comes today, when we are exhausted but still on a festival high. Also, conveniently, after a lot of time to read on planes. (Btw, the Dublin Irish Festival in Columbus, OH is the best thing ever, and you should absolutely come hang out with us there next year!!)

But now, here is update #2! (If you missed update #1, click here​!)

(If you haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late! Head over here to grab all the free stuff and start reading – and if you want some extra community fun, our Patreon is totally the place to be!)

Sara:

So, I have a confession. I haven’t been reading to the challenge at all, even though I’ve been reading a ton. So, uh, I guess I’ll find out while writing this update how much I’ve actually done of the challenge?  

“Read a Novella” – I actually read several! I love me a novella. Two especially fairy-tale-y ones that I’ve read in the last month are A Conspiracy of Roses by Trip Galey, which was included in the benefit collection All in Among the Briars, edited by Julia Rios, and The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. A Conspiracy of Roses had some really lovely and creative botanical magic. The Salt Grows Heavy was an interesting continuation of Khaw’s very sinister “Little Mermaid” short story “And In Our Daughters, We Find a Voice.” Pro tip: I highly recommend reading the short story before reading the novella, which I did not know about until I found it at the end of the book. The Salt Grows Heavy is gorier than I tend to prefer, but it was beautifully written.

“Read a Book by an Actual Folklorist” – Turns out that when you’re a folklorist writing a tv series about urban legends, this kind of reading is already baked in. One of my favorite research books this month was Gary Alan Fine’s Manufacturing Tales: Sex and Money in Contemporary Legends. It’s an older book (published in 1992) but it has incredibly valuable groundwork about a bunch of extremely iconic urban legends and some really useful, fairly accessible theory. I also inevitably read a bunch of Jan Brunvand, including his landmark The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, which is probably the best place to start if you want to read an academic book about urban legends.

“Read a Feminist Fairy-Tale Retelling” – There were so many great ones in All in Among the Briars! I personally loved “Oracle Gretel” by Julia Rios (I’m just an enormous fan of their work in general, it’s always 🔥) and “we fairytale girls are growing older” by C.S.E. Cooney (another extremely consistent generator of said 🔥). Christa Carmen’s “The Witch of Coywolf Woods” has also absolutely haunted me with its depiction of the fraught relationship between art, self, and family. I’ll also shamelessly add that Brittany and I’s co-written poem “Twelve,” a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” is in there, and it’s one of my favorite poems we’ve ever written. Of course, Khaw’s novella and short story mentioned above count, too!

“Read a Book with a Purple Cover” – Because I mostly read on my Kindle, I never have any idea what color my covers are, which is a real pity! But I was delighted to see, when I was wildly googling what I’ve been reading, that A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske has a beautiful purple cover. This book had been recommended to me at least 4 times by the time I picked it up, and it lived up to the hype. Beautifully written, snappy, creative magic system, fun historical setting, queer romance, great characters. Loved it. I’m currently halfway through book two in the trilogy, and it’s just as wonderful so far.

“Read a Book that Makes You Laugh Out Loud” – So, you know how last month I told you that Jared and I were reading Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer, which is literally just gender-swapped Twilight? Well, when we were on a road trip earlier this month, we finished it, and, y’all, it goes off the rails. I don’t want to spoil it too much, in case you decide to undertake reading this whole situation on your own, but the ending is real different, and some choices are made, and Jared and I were actively howling. Well, I was howling, and Jared just kept saying variations of “what?” and “…did I hear that correctly?” and “WHY?” while I cackled. A+ reading experience. 

Well, hey! This worked out better than I thought! I think to complete the challenge, I’ll have to be a little more deliberate, but honestly this month’s reading worked out better than I thought it would!

Up Next: I’ve got a copy of Deborah Sage’s Sherlock Holmes-themed poetry collection Doggerel in the Night-Time, which I’m SUPER excited to finally read. I also definitely want to read Nimona by ND Stevenson, which is both a graphic novel AND the basis of the movie of the same name, which I completely adored. OH, and how much do you want to bet that it was banned somewhere? Y’all, I think I found the 2024 Carterhaugh Challenge Reading Book of POWER! 

Brittany:

So, I have a confession too. I haven’t been reading as much as I would like to be at all, and certainly not to the challenge as much as I need to, so my list will be woefully short. But, if you’re like me, know that you STILL HAVE TIME! We can crush this!!

“Read a Novella” – So since it was our book club book last month, I obviously also read A Conspiracy of Roses by Trip Galey in the benefit collection All in Among the Briars edited by Julia Rios, yay! I too thought it was a delightful take on botanical magic, but my favorite part, of course, was that it was a fascinating twist on the “Sleeping Beauty” fairy tale. The idea of a curse that forces you to stay awake is so sinister and interesting – I also really liked the pseudo-Victorian/Edwardian magical England setting!

“Read a Feminist Fairy-Tale Retelling” – It’s a YES from me to all the beautiful feminist fairy-tale retellings in All in Among the Briars as well (I love all the ones Sara mentioned, but I’ll also throw in Theodora Goss’ poignant story “Conversations with the Sea Witch,” as I really like that it deals with women in an older stage of life – we need more fairy-tale fiction that does this!) I do still really want to read Kalynn Bayron’s new Snow White retelling, Sleep Like Death before the end of the summer too though!

“Read a Poetry Collection” AND “Read a Book by an Author that You’ve Always Meant to Read but Haven’t Gotten Around to Yet” – So a few months ago I backed a kickstarter for a beautiful photobook by Kyle Cassidy and Trillian Stars called This is Only Earth, My Dear and inspired by the poetry of Elizabeth Siddal, one of the main muses of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and an artist and poet in her own right. If you backed at a certain level, they also included a book of her (mostly) complete poems that has one of the best covers I’ve ever seen – totally inspired by Victorian style in the best way!

I mean look at both of these!

I had read a few of Siddals poems here and there, but I always meant to read more and really get into it, so I’m counting these two toward that challenge as well – and I have to say, I have fallen in love with her work. She’s not the most technically advanced poet, but her words are deeply moving and sad and clear and honest. My favorites were “O Silent Wood, I Enter Thee” and “O Mother, Open the Window Wide and Let the Daylight In” (so folklore-y!), but I could NOT get over the sadness of “I Care Not for My Lady’s Soul,” which seems to perfectly depict the fears she had regarding Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “love” for her (and his failure to acknowledge her immense talents beyond her beauty.)  

Up Next: I’m in the middle of Death in the Spires by K.J. Charles, which I’m reading for the “Read a Book a Friend Picks Out For You” challenge, and I am absolutely loving it so far! I admit I also love Sara’s idea of reading Nimona by ND Stevenson, so I might do that too (can you tell I get a lot of my reading from Sara? She’s just always so on it!)

Again, there’s still tons of time to join us for this reading challenge, and to READ, so click here and commit to reading some truly awesome stuff! What’s your favorite book of the summer so far? Let us know in the comments!!

P.S. Tickets are now on sale for our next Smithsonian talk – “Witches in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales” – on September 30th at 6:45PM ET! Click here to get yours!

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