Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales
Valerie Paradiž
Clever Maids was published in 2005, and includes illustrations by Walter Crane that were originally published in Household Stories from the Collection of the Brothers Grimm in 1886.
This edition of From My Bookshelf is a unique one, in that I am featuring just one book, and it is not a typical read-cover-to-cover book like the others I’ve written about. I picked it up on a whim at my favorite bookstore, and figured I would share it via FMB before spring ends: The Green Thumb Garden Handbook by Doc and Katy Abraham.
For the first time, I visited the Maine State Library and – shocker – it was fantastic.
My trip was prompted by the latest book chosen for the #AnHistorianReads book club. The library I frequent did not have a copy, and I could not request the book from the Maine State Library (to be delivered to a nearby library they are connected to) without a state library card. So I decided to spend a lovely Saturday morning making the trip up to Augusta (the capital of Maine) to get a card and the book.
This From My Bookshelf post is inspired by the spring equinox; I’ve chosen the following books because of their subject matter, covers, titles, and/or a combination of all three. This post features one of the few nonfiction titles living on my shelves, as well as an old favorite, and a childhood book: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Bloomability by Sharon Creech.
I started reading Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up with a fair amount of skepticism. I certainly didn’t expect to come away feeling as inspired as I am, and the spiritual impression The KonMari Method made on me is just as much of a surprise.
Once again, my hometown library held a stellar book sale, and once again, I brought home “way too many” books. While almost all of the books I chose are works of fiction, the following three are works of non-fiction that I could not pass up (and three works that I haven’t yet read). They are: Part of My Soul Went with Him by Winnie Mandela, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields, and Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah and A. Elzabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth.
