Mer Books 2014

[Slee]

I just finished another wonderful book involving mermaids and thought we should have a current thread for 2014 mer-books.

The Sea House, by Elisabeth Gifford
Historical Fiction, Magical Realism
(Arguably a 2013 publication, but my edition is 2014, so whatevs)
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In 1860, Alexander Ferguson, a newly ordained vicar and amateur evolutionary scientist, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the remote Scottish island of Harris. He hopes to uncover the truth behind the legend of the selkies—mermaids or seal people who have been sighted off the north of Scotland for centuries. He has a more personal motive, too; family legend states that Alexander is descended from seal men. As he struggles to be the good pastor he was called to be, his maid Moira faces the terrible eviction of her family by Lord Marstone, whose family owns the island. Their time on the island will irrevocably change the course of both their lives, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after they are gone.

It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. Their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child's fragile legs are fused together—a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? To heal her own demons, Ruth feels she must discover the secrets of her new home—but the answers to her questions may lie in her own traumatic past. The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford is a sweeping tale of hope and redemption and a study of how we heal ourselves by discovering our histories.

Coral & Bone by Tiffany Daune
YA Paranormal
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Halen knows the sparks igniting under her fingertips are dangerous. She has spent her entire life trying to quell the tingly feelings that make her destroy things, but now that she is back in Rockaway Beach, where she watched her father drown, the flames have become impossible to tame.Halen is trying to hold on, but when she is thrust into a mysterious new world, the underwater realm of Elosia, she unravels the secrets of her past and can't help but ignite. As she explores Elosia, she realizes her life has been a lie. And when those who have deceived her come to her for help, Halen must choose—walk away or unleash the magick that could destroy them all.

[Slee]

The Sea House is one of those books that will stick with me for a long time, and has me seriously wanting to form some sort of creative response centered around selkies. I expect it will be one I revisit like an old friend, even though it is filled with awful situations and characters I don't like. I think that's one of the best things about literature though- it takes us to uncomfortable places so we can see things we wouldn't otherwise see and learn things about ourselves and others along the way.

[Mermaid Galene]

I'll have to read this. I've always been fascinated by legends of the selkies. Have you seen the movie, The Secret of Roan Inish? A selkie story is central to the plot, and it's just a gorgeous film.

[Slee]

I loved that movie and have revisited it more than once. I do wish it was available on netflix.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

I've only read a couple of mermaid story books so far...

"Hannah" - Daughters of the Sea trilogy
"The Selkie Bride"
Captivate
Teardrop
All pretty interesting but I think its more for teens.

[Ariel-Starfish]

Please post more! <3

We finally have our version of the first Water Saga part here in Belgium. I'll start it today. :)

[SeaSister]

Could we start up a mernetwork book club?! I feel like I would have more incentive to spend money on books for leisure reading (books for school already suck up a lot of my funds, dissuading me from purchasing other things that I would want to read :() if there was a group of people who were all reading the same thing, and if we could have discussions.

[SeaGlass Siren]

^ i second that. we could probably do this over skype chat. i know books these days are easily accessible through e-readers so you don't need to physically go buyt the books, you could just download them :0

[Mermaid Galene]

That would be fun!

[Slee]

Some friends and I have also done a twitter book club with a hashtag to make it searchable in hootsuite or any of the other myriad clients, but I don't see why starting a thread for a book wouldn't work, other than the whole refresh thing. I do love a good book club and regularly attend to IRL. Heck, I even keep a book review blog, Biblivoracious (http://biblivoracious.blogspot.com), and then I write reviews for We Do Write (http://we-do-write.blogspot.com). Reading is like swimming. - a critical part of life.

[SeaGlass Siren]

skype chat would be easier because it's much faster and we can actually hold full discussions.

[SeaSister]

The problem with Skype is that it gets difficult with conference calls... you aren't able to use the webcam when there's more than 2 people, and although you can have multiple people chat at the same time, it can be frustrating from the lag (from my experience, anyways, Skype is notorious for cutting people's voices in and out, delay, etc). Although I like the idea of conference calls, I think that Google+ or some other service might be better. Or even just an instant chat service.

[Raayvhen]

Just throwing in tinychat as a suggestion. ..

Sent by Jellyfish

[SeaGlass Siren]

oh true! i forgot we had tiny chat!

ok cool when do you guys want to hold the book club meetings?

[SeaSister]

Timing is also pretty tricky because of different the different time zones... I'll also be away in Italy from October - December, and it's a field school so I'll be pretty busy between writing essays/attending classes/touring around (medieval Italian literature, yay! xD).

But anyways, I think we should try to make it at a time that's convenient for the people on North America, which is only a 5- hour difference either way. We should probably see how many people want to get involved and maybe split it into two smaller groups if there's a lot of interest but we can't decide on a time that's convenient for everyone.

For me, weekends would be best because I go to school, and I live in BC so sometime between 10 AM - 11 PM PST would work well (after I get back from Italy, anyways).

PS, in other news, there are a couple of mermaid books I heard about and am thinking of checking out! One is Ice Massacre, written by a fellow British Columbian, and the other that was recommended to me by a friend, Lost Voices. I haven't read either yet but I want to start with the Lost Voices trilogy. XD

[SeaGlass Siren]

i've only read the first lost voices book.

i agree with seasister, we should divide it into time slots. for me i'm good saturday mornings, but we could always decide on the next chat date after we figure out everyones schedules. i dont have school anymore BUT i do have work. fridays and mondays i'm usually free, with the occasional saturday

[SeaGlass Siren]

i just looked into a bag full of books i bought from the Eds downtown because it's closing down... aaaaand theres a bunch of mermaid mystery novels.. o-o they probably have nothing to do with mermaids but its a mystery and i LOVE a good mystery novel. and one writer made ariel evil so snow white, cinderella and a pirate have to work together to bring her down

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Thought I'd go ahead and suggest a couple more books for you guys. Check out Tides by Betsy Cornwell and Ingo by Helen Dunmore. Ingo is a bit more young adult, but it's still good.

[SeaGlass Siren]

I'm back with that list of mystery/ thriller novels:

The mermaids madness by Jim c Hines, the mermaids singing by val mcdermid , why mermaids sing, by c s Harris.

[Merlia]

Im a teenage girl so here wa go...
I'm obsessed with these 'water song' books by Amanda Hocking :$

They're AMAZING !

[SweeteSiren]

I just finished Prospero's Children - the mermaid is a very minor character, but the story centers on the lost city of Atlantis & is a very good read. Author is Jan Siegel.

[SeaGlass Siren]

Husband just bought the vicious deep for me, and Atlantia by Ally condie.

[Mermaidwriter]

In another bout of shameless self-promotion, you may be interested in my new paperback, The Trelanton Tales (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trelanton-Tales-Simon-Peel/dp/1503068161/ref=asap_B00HGG9HU0?ie=UTF8). It's a compilation of three of my existing short stories plus a little appendix with a guide to the characters and locations. The cover picture was drawn by a local artist who has been known to hit the beach in a tail (in fact I first met her when she was dressed as a mermaid!)
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[Zirconmermaid]

I have loved mermaids all my life, and I have a few to share. One is my Christmas present from a friend and is actually a coloring book: Mer World Problems by Theo Nicole Lorenz http://www.amazon.com/Mer-World-Problems-documenting-hardships/dp/1502596628. Another is Mermaid's Song by Alida Van Gores. This one is my absolute favorite mermaid book. It can be hard to find, but it is worth it. There is a list of 218 mermaid titles on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3500.Best_mermaid_books And I second the Mermaid's Madness. The whole series is great!

[Mermaid Ciela]

Some of the books I'd recommend have been mentioned already (Ingo by Helen Dunmore, the Lost Voices trilogy, etc.) - other good ones are the Emily Windsnap novels (sort of young'un-ish but still an interesting/quick read), and... well, actually I've got a bunch of mermaid books I'd like to read, but I won't recommend them until I've actually finished them. I've started Everblue, by Brenda Pandos, and it seems pretty interesting and is part of a trilogy (I think).

[MermaidBrandie]

Literally commenting so I get updates on this thread.


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[Mermaid Neri Elvina]

Im a teenage girl so here wa go...
I'm obsessed with these 'water song' books by Amanda Hocking :$

They're AMAZING !
Merlia merlia merlia yussss! I freaking love those! Quite dark and de-fin-itely amazing!

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[Mermaid Neri Elvina]

I can recommend Ingo too, and Amanda Hocking❤. Also Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs is good too! Quite different from other mer books I have read

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[SweeteSiren]

It may be a bit of a stretch to call this "mer-related", but has anyone read "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters"? It's a re-writing of Jane Austen that includes a version of Victorian London on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

[siren_selene]

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I just finished the painted maidens trilogy it was pretty good. And the first book is free on the kindle

[SeaGlass Siren]

Whoever pulled this thread up, thankyou! I'll be adding these books to the online library I'm creating

[SeaGlass Siren]

i should probably mention that 'the sea house' has changed it's title to 'secrets of the sea house.'