The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest

 

This one was actually donated to the library, for a small section where we sell used books on the cheap to help fund programs. I was helping to sort the donated books and was immediately intrigued, and my money can go to help fund programming as well as anybody else's. 

This is not a novel, but a collection of short stories, edited by Fantasy greats Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, with illustrations by Charles Vess. All three of these names tend to promise good stuff, so I was duly excited. 

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite, here. The stories range from modern-day magic, where faery rubs elbows with our busy cities, to ancient mythology. Possibly the one that rang closest for me, though, was 'Somewhere in My Mind There is a Painting Box' by Charles de Lint. It's about a painter who found faery, in the pursuit of Art, and it rings of Appalachia. Everything about this one just struck true and right in my mind, like all the best stories do.

If you can get your hands on this one, I highly recommend it. The list of author's reads like a who's who of well known talented Fantasy legends, and none of the stories in it were anything I remember seeing anywhere else. A perfect read for a green summer day.