Two books that you probably already have but just in case you don’t now’s your chance, cheap in Kindle format:

Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears edited by Datlow and Windling with contributions from Gaiman, Lee and Yolen.

For many of us, the fairy tale was our first exposure to the written word and the power of storytelling. These wondrous works of magic and morality enthralled us, enchanted us, sometimes terrified us, and remain in our hearts and memories still. Once again, World Fantasy Award–winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have compiled an extraordinary collection of reimagined tales conceived by some of today’s most acclaimed contemporary purveyors of literary fantasy, science fiction, and horror, including Neil Gaiman, Gahan Wilson, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, Nancy Kress, Gene Wolfe, and others.

Remarkable things lurk in these dark and magical woods. Here Beauty confronts a serial-killer Beast, Hansel and Gretel’s witch resides not in a gingerbread house but in a luxurious resort, and Rumpelstiltskin is truly the devil demanding his due, rightfully or otherwise. The hilarious “Roach in Loafers” ingeniously combines the classic “Elves and the Shoemaker” tale with “Puss in Boots” and adds an insectile twist, while in a modern fable that blends The Wizard of Oz and Hans Christian Andersen, Dorothy is set adrift in Hollywoodland, ruby slippers and all. These are not the fairy stories you remember from childhood.

America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation by Kenneth Davis (author of Don’t Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don’t Know Much About Series))

….presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation’s destiny and character. Davis’s dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation’s fate hung in the balance.

Spanning a period from the Spanish arrival in America to George Washington’s inauguration in 1789, America’s Hidden History details these episodes, among others:

The story of the first real Pilgrims in America, who were wine-making French Huguenots, not dour English Separatists
The coming-of-age story of Queen Isabella, who suggested that Columbus pack the moving mess hall of pigs that may have spread disease to many Native Americans
The long, bloody relationship between the Pilgrims and Indians that runs counter to the idyllic scene of the Thanksgiving feast
The little-known story of George Washington as a headstrong young soldier who committed a war crime, signed a confession, and started a war!
Full of color, intrigue, and human interest, America’s Hidden History is an iconoclastic look at America’s past, connecting some of the dots between history and today’s headlines, proving why Davis is truly America’s Teacher.

I do not necessarily endorse each of these revisionist claims, by the way, but it is not just made up stuff (though over time some of these historical vignettes have become part of our common knowledge because of this book and similar).

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
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