Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage by Madeleine L'Engle, 1988

I grabbed this memoir because Madeleine L'Engle was one of my favorite childhood authors. L'Engle focuses her writing on the story of her marriage, its beginning and its ending with the ultimate death of her husband. While it sometimes feels as if she is simply name-dropping at the beginning of the book, the truth is that she was surrounded by artsy people due to her husband's work as an actor. By the end of the book, I found myself sobbing, reliving the death of loved family members from cancer, and thinking of the eventual death of my own beloved. Recommended, but not when you're feeling emotional.

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede, 1989

An Elizabethan retelling of the tale of Snow White and Rose Red, with the addition of a black-sheep Faerie Prince who saves his favored brother from two bad sorcerers who accidentally turn him into a bear. Even if you can get past the annoyingly bad Shakespearian English, the story itself is strange and at times, boring. Not recommended.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, 2005

When the king's priests divine that Mount Eskel is the home of the prince's future bride, all the mountain girls between the ages of 12 and 17 1/2 are rounded up to attend the Princess Academy, obtaining training in the standards of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, as well as Poise, Commerce, Conversation, History, Dancing, etc. Competition, danger, love, epiphanies, as well as some of the Hale magic-language communication are abundant. It's not a Newbery Honor book for nothing. Recommended.

River Secrets by Shannon Hale, 2006

A coming-of-age fairy tale, in which Razo (from Hale's The Goose Girl) joins Bayern's Own in escorting the ambassador to Tira, Bayern's enemy. With the help of Dasha, he discovers who is trying to frame Bayern. Not as much magic as Goose, but readable.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, 1992

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (of the series of picture books How Do Dinosaurs...) is not a happy book. Unlike many YA retold fairy tales, this story is set in modern times. It is the story of a young woman, Becca, seeking information about her deceased grandmother who insisted that she was a princess--that she, in fact, was Briar Rose. Becca's search leads her to Oswego, the site of a WWII refugee camp, and then to Poland where she dives into disturbing Holocaust history that strangely parallels the story of Briar Rose. Although the parallels are interesting, the characters are somewhat flat, and the ending of the book is graphic in both violence and homosexuality. Not recommended.