Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

Yesterday, I read this excellent blog post by Liberty Hardy (aka @MissLiberty) on Bookriot, listing 100 strange and unusual novels. http://bookriot.com/2016/04/11/i-got-your-weird-right-here-100-wonderful-strange-and-unusual-novels/ I was rather disappointed that I'd only read three-and-a-bit out of 100 (I'm actually in the middle of one right now!) But then I remembered that I've read plenty of other bizarre books. And enjoyed most of them -I do love a bit of weird! So I thought I'd make my own list in response, beginning with the original four and going on from there. Sadly, I could only come up with 30 at short notice (it's Monday morning!) but it's been fun to reminisce. 30 Weird Books I Have Read 1. Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre I believe Bookriot described this as "if David Bowie wrote historical fiction." 2. The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen So, this author vanishes in a flurry of snow, and... 3. Brave Story by Miyuki ...

I recently read a Top Ten of short stories from The Guardian , and I hadn't read any of them!  So I thought I would post a list of short stories that made a lasting impression on me.  They're all fantasy stories, and 7 is a magic number, so it seemed to fit together well.   Smith of Wootten Major by JRR Tolkien From Tales from the Perilous Realm On a completely different scale from the epic Lord of the Rings , but with the same heart, this is a beautiful story about a boy who swallows a star which enables him to walk in the land of Faery as an adult.  For anyone who has ever felt, like me, that "I'm walking in the wrong land.  My generation doesn't understand". The Kith of the Elf-Folk by Lord Dunsany From Time and the Gods (Fantasy Masterworks) It's very hard to choose just one story by "the master", Lord Dunsany, but this one really does linger. The little Wild Thing of the marshes wishes for a soul when she hears singing in the cathedral, so h...