The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

For a nice dose of a fairy tale quest, I recommend The 13 Clocks by James Thurber. A children's fairy tale in the tradition of three tasks tales, it still has a bit of the flippancy of The Princess Bride.

It's not an update or redo of any fairy tale but certainly pulls elements from many of them -- a wise old man guide, a helpless-ish princess, an evil duke, and a youngest son. And goes a step further, acknowledging that these are fairy tale tropes and sometimes commenting on them quite a bit, but never so far as to take the reader out of the story.

It's a very quick read, and I'd go so far as to call it delightfully entertaining. Definitely recommend it for the fairy tale loving crowd.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Not a straight forward adaptation of a particular fairy tale, instead Nancy Werlin takes on an old folk melody, Scarborough Fair. Intrigued yet? Check out the book trailer:

I could hardly put this book down. I think the writing was fluid and beautiful, and the story and characters captured me from the first pages. It was intense and emotional, carefully crafted so that the price paid felt right and the ending seemed natural. Probably one of my favorite books that I've read all year.

Which led me to read a little bit more about the history of the ballad. (Yes, on wikipedia -- hey, this isn't a research paper! :D ) It's pretty fascinating and disturbing. If you watch this video you can hear the Simon and Garfunkel version, and if you click through to the youtube page, it's got the lyrics they used (also probably the most commonly known):