30 Best Places to Be if You Love Books

Buzz Feed recently published an article at the web address: http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/the-best-places-to-be-if-you-love-books. Take a look at all of these cool libraries and book stores. I warn you, though, these libraries, bookstores, and personal home libraries will have you feeling jealous (believe me, I did).

Sweetwater Creek / Anne Rivers Siddons

Photo by billread available through a Creative Commons license

In Anne Rivers Siddons' Sweetwater Creek, we find the coming-of-age story of young Emily Parmenter, a 12-year-old growing up in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Emily is a stranger in her own house, Sweetwater Plantation, where her father and two older brothers hardly know what to do with this girl on the cusp on womanhood.

Emily, whose mother left when she was a baby, just wants someone to love who loves her back. She finds solace of sorts with her impeccably trained Boykin spaniel Elvis. The Parmenters breed and train the spaniels and Emily is actually a bit of a savant when it comes to the family trade.

Nevertheless, her place in the family is an ill-fitting one, and terribly sad as we watch father Walter miss chance after chance to forge a true connection with his only daughter.

The catalyst for change is Lulu Foxworth, the mysteriously troubled college-aged daughter of a prominent Charleston family. When her family visits Sweetwater to see its spaniels, the connection Lulu has with the dogs is immediately apparent. Her parents asks if Lulu can spend the summer at Sweetwater and to Emiy's resentment, Walter immediately assents, eager to find an "in" with high society.

But what came, on the new wings of summer, was Lulu Foxworth, as glistening and beautiful and vulnerable as a beached Portuguese man-o-war, and just as dangerous. And for everyone at Sweetwater everything changed, and nothing ever went back to the way it was before.

The maelstrom Lulu brings with her will affect Emily the most of all.

Siddons crafts a riveting story about the idyll of childhood and the price we pay as we step toward adulthood and move beyond the boundaries of home. Her characters are well-rounded and believable. Emily comes across as a sensible girl who yearns for a kindred spirit, a vulnerability that Lulu latches onto. Even Lulu, conceivably the antagonist of the story, courts our sympathies as we learn of her sordid past. In many ways, she's a child herself.

Their relationship plays out in a way that has you hoping it's for real for Emily's sake. But woven into their developing friendship is an air of unease and even menace. This can only end badly, we think, but we read on because we want to be wrong. Siddons keeps us in her grip to the very end.

Classics Retold or Reimagined

The classics are books that lots of people are familiar with, whether you had to read them in your high school English class or just enjoy reading for fun. There are lots and lots of contemporary books that have been written as sequels, retellings, or reimagings of these classic works. This post will cover some of them, and there is a bibliography on the website and by the catalog computers if you would like to find out about more. Give one a try and see if the author was able to catch the same feeling or capture your interest in the same way that the classic does. Happy reading!

FIC ADRIAN / Chris Adrian              

Based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

The Great Night                                                        

FIC AIKEN / Joan Aiken                           

A sequel to Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Eliza’s Daughter                                                     

FIC BORCHERT / Don Borchert           

Based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead         

FIC BROOKS / Geraldine Brooks

Based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

March                                                                                     

FIC CLINCH / Jon Clinch           

Based on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Finn                                                                                        

SF CORNWALL / Emma Cornwall                    
Based on Dracula by Bram Stoker

Incarnation                                                                           

FIC ESSEX / Karen Essex                       

Based on Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula in Love                                                                    

FIC GRAND / Porter Grand

Based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott               

Little Women and Werewolves                                          

FIC HAMBLY / Barbara Hambly

Based on Dracula by Bram Stoker                      

Renfield: Slave of Dracula                                                 

FIC HART / Lenore  Hart                    

Based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher               

MYS HOROWITZ / Anthony Horowitz              

Based on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The House of Silk                                                                

FIC JORDAN / Hillary Jordan                             

Based on The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

When She Woke                                                                 

FIC KALPAKIA / Laura Kalpakian                     

A Sequel to Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Cosette: The Sequel to Les Miserables                          

MYS KING / Laurie King                          

Based on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Series

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice                                             

A Monstrous Regiment of Women                                   

A Letter of Mary                                                                    

The Moor                                                                               

O Jerusalem                                                                         

Justice Hall                                                                           

The Game                                                                            

Locked Rooms                                                                     

The Language of Bees                                                       

The God of the Hive                                                            

Pirate King                                                                            

Garment of Shadows                                                         

FIC KOONTZ / Dean Koontz                               

Based on Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein Series

Prodigal Son                                                                         

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son     (graphic novel)

City of Night                                                                          

Dead and Alive                                                                    

Lost Souls                                                                             

The Dead Town                                                                   

SF LAMPLIGH / L. Jagi Lamplighter                 

Based on The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Prospero’s Daughter Series

Prospero Lost                                                                          

Prospero in Hell                                                                   

Prospero Regained                                                             

FIC LIVESEY / Margot Livesey              

Based on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Flight of Gemma Hardy                                               

FIC MAGUIRE / Gregory Maguire & Douglas Smith 

Based on The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wicked Years Series                                                  

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West                       

Son of a Witch                                                                      

A Lion Among Men                                                             

Out of Oz                                                                              

SF MIEVILLE / China Mieville                            

Based on Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Railsea                                                                                

FIC MOORE / Christopher Moore                      

Based on King Lear by William Shakespeare

Fool                                                                                       

FIC SMILEY / Jane Smiley                                   
Based on King Lear by William Shakespeare

A Thousand Acres                                                              

FIC SNODIN / David Snodin                               

Based on Othello by William Shakespeare       

Iago                                                                                  

FIC STOKER / Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt

A sequel to Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula: The Un-Dead                                                       

FIC URBACH / Linda Urbach                             

Based on Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary’s Daughter                                              

FIC WINTERS / Ben H. Winters

Based on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Android Karenina                                                                

Based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters                                    

Some found in the Young Adult section:

YP FIC ANDERSON / Jodi Lynn Anderson

Based on Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Tiger Lily                                                                                

YP FIC CHAPMAN / Lara Chapman                                         

Based on Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

Flawless                                                                                       

YP FIC GAUGHEN / A.C. Gaughen                   

Based on The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

Scarlet                                                                                          

YP FIC GRIFFIN

Adele Griffin

Based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Tighter                                                                                                     

Bethany Griffin

Based on The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

Masque of the Red Death                                                  

YP FIC JAY / Stacey Jay              

Based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Juliet Immortal                                                                      

Romeo Redeemed                                                              

YP FIC PRATCHET / Terry Pratchett

Based on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Dodger