The Borrowed Rose: Beauty and the Beast Book Recommendations and Retellings

Beauty and the Beast has been around for a looonng time - evolving from variations of Cupid & Psyche from the 2nd century AD.  What about the werewolf trope?  It was myth and folklore long before it was a paranormal trope today.  Early writings about lycanthropy popped up early in the 1st century AD and then later in the 1100-1200s.  Dealing with werewolves was concern enough in medieval Europe to write about it.   Both mythologies involve the animal nature of man - whether good or evil, whether to embrace or to tame.  The original Beauty and the Beast used a similar animal magnetism to demonstrate how young women can claim their own agency to tame the beast in a coming of age experience. It's not surprising then, to see these two mythologies cross over from time to time.  Jerry Griswold comments in his fun Beauty and the Beast commentary,  The Meanings of "Beauty and the Beast:" A Handbook , that "in a hyper-civilized society like ou...

I've mentioned in my  reading list for 2020  that I'm changing up my go-to genres for reading this year, adding varieties that are outside of my usual picks.  In fact, this year, I made a TBR book list.  I've not done that before, and so far I'm digging it.  I often veer away from the list or pause and fit in a few other selections, but so far, it's been helpful when I've just finished a book and am aimless in moving to the next one.  I have a few long ones on the list this year, and find that I tend to pause for a day to finish taking in the characters and story before launching into a new world.  The list gets me picking up the next book faster, spending less time browsing on the Kindle . Courtesy of Pixabay This approach has also worked well for Beauty & the Beast retellings this year.  However, I need to pick up the pace - I'm five of 12 and only have three new ones (not even on the list!) to share with you for this report.  But I di...