Bookstore

Went out and ended up at the nearest Borders. Which is one of the many being closed down. So ended up spending like seventy bucks even after the store closing discounts. Also the Bookstar nearest me (which might have been the last one in the Valley) closed down sometime recently. Which means that the closest brick & mortar new books place is the B.Dalton Barnes & Noble up at Metrocenter. Such a shame...

Sunday Trade: Rapunzel's Revenge

Rapunzel's Revenge written by Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation)

A reimagining of the Rapunzel fairy tale in an Old West-ish setting. Where the mean old witch Mother Gothel rules over the territory with her control over all the local crops. If you want to be able to grow food you'll do what she says and pay her taxes. Not that her "daughter" Rapunzel knows any of that at first. She just knwos that she's been confined in the castle forever and ever. Until she uses a kindly guard's lariat lessons to climb the walls and see whats outside. And what that is, in part, is a slave mining camp. Where she finds her true mother. This of course leads to her being confined again. This time in a giant tree tower in the middle of a swamp. Until she can escape and begin a series of adventures that will hopefully eventually bring her back to Mother Gothel's castle so she can free her mother...

The Hale's Rapunzel is a feisty heroine with an imaginative way of using her trademark hair as tool and weapon. And the other Hale admirably crafts the pseudo-Old West setting that makes it fit well with the fairy tale origin. An excellent re-telling of a classic story...