Once Upon A Time III Challenge

The second of two new springtime challenges I'm joining is the eagerly-awaited Once Upon a Time III Challenge, hosted by Carl V. of Stainless Steel Droppings (the first was the Spring Reading Thing 2009). The OUT Challenge has become an annual event, and it was one of my favorite challenges from last year. Once again, Carl is offering several different levels of commitment, or rather several Quests to choose from. Everything is explained on the challenge announcement page.

I'm signing on for the Journey level this year. I'll probably read more than one book, but I'm not sure I'll manage to work in as many as four or five. Also I'm not really good at assigning books to different categories, and with the journey I won't have to worry about that. And I'm much more drawn to fantasy in its broad and various forms than to folklore or traditional fairy tales and mythology. This year I think I'd like to explore some books that use fantasy or mythic themes in new and different ways. Some of the books I'm looking at for this one:

Solstice Wood or Winter Rose, by Patricia A. McKillip
Mortal Love or Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand
The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton
All the Bells on Earth, by James P. Blaylock
The Stress of Her Regard, by Tim Powers
The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly
Faerie Tale, by Raymond Feist
Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke

There are also a number of Edward Eager's magic fantasies for young people that I'd like to read. And I still have one book to finish in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence (Silver on the Tree); I read the first four books in the sequence last year, three of the them for last year's Once Upon a Time II Challenge. So I've obviously got a lot of good reading to choose from as I start out on my springtime Journey.