Our community at the Bitchery is full of warm & fuzzy moments and as the person who puts together the Books on Sale posts, sometimes we get some kickass, budget-endangering comment threads. For example, KateB alerted us to a mega Mary Stewart sale!
You can view Mary Stewart’s ebook editions, sorted from low to high prices, all of which are $3.99 or lower, at this Amazon link.
Here are some Stewart recs from that particular comment thread.
Airs Above the Ground and The Ivy Tree are particular favorites. I also love Touch Not the Cat. Really you can’t go wrong with anything Mary Stewart, though!
I think my favorite might be The Ivy Tree. Currently re-reading MoonSpinners, the book is better than the movie. Gosh, I read all of these between eight and 13 years old, did not get all the sub-text and still loved them. Love them all now, too.
PamG:
Personally, I favor This Rough Magic and back in the day, when I first read Mary Stewart, I loved Wildfire at Midnight. Her later romantic suspense–post Touch Not the Cat–seemed a little bland to me, but the rest of it was golden.
Do read the rest of the comments for more recommendations, and please let us know which books the Bitchery should be during this awesome Mary Stewart sale!
@gloriamarie — there was a discussion about the differences in the GH versions over on Dear Author. At least one US version has them as second cousins. But the Kindle version (at least the US one I just got) sticks to the UK version.
http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/b-reviews/review-the-gabriel-hounds-by-mary-stewart/
Gloriamarie @ #39: Noted! Huh. I’ll need to look for this.
I’d be real curious to know whether this difference in editions of Ivy Tree reflects how the UK edition has been all along, which would make more sense than changing the ebook releases now.
@Evelyn M. Hill, I am not familiar with Dear Author
I am getting confused… In the version of the Gabriel Hounds, I read bacj when it came out, I could have sworn they were first cousins and their fathers were identical twins because there is a bit at the end when one of the fathers turns up and there is some question which twin he is.
Is it the UK version that has them as second counsins?
Thank you for the heads up about the Mary Stewart sale. They raked in sales from four more people today
@Gloriamarie – the Kindle version describes their relationship as first cousins. My American hard copy (Book Club Edition, M.S. Mill & Co, New York, 1967) describes their relationship as second cousins.
Thinking about thes books ( and having rebougt a couple on kindle, even in the uk the prices aren’t bad…) I think my favourites might be because of some of the minor but crucial characters. Timothy inAirs above the ground, Philippe in Nine Coaches Waiting, David in Madam will you talk… the heroine develops very strong maternal / big sister feelings for them, and that is conveyed so well. My favourite is probably Timothy, who against a difficult family background is clearly growing into a delightful and confident young man
@Evelyn M. Hill,it’s been quite a while since I read The Gabriel Hounds.
According to the Product Details on B&N, the e-books are published by Hodder & Stoughton, who are Stewart’s UK publishers, so they are probably based on the UK versions. HarperCollins is the current publisher of the paper version in the US. I’m not at home at the moment to check, but IIRC all of my 60’s paperbacks were published by Fawcett, so were probably edited for a US audience. I know my copy of The Gabriel Hounds has the h/h as second cousins.
It’ll be interesting to do a side-by-side reading of the two formats.
My grandmother and aunt introduced me to Mary Stewart when I was a pre-teen in the early 80s. I moved on the Victoria Holt, Madeline Brent and Jane Aiken Hodge from there. I have almost all of Stewarts books in hardbacks (some were my grandmother’s, some I got at library sales), but I couldn’t resist buying several of my favorites for my Kindle. Madam Will You Talk, This Rough Magic and Wildfire at Midnight are probably my top 3, but I don’t think there is one I don’t like. And like many of you, Mary Stewart made me want to see the world. The covers make me want to go visit some of those places again!
Thank you for passing along the information about the Mary Stewart books on Amazon. How wonderful. I have been slowly tracking down copies of her books to reread. She was my first romance, suspense writer I read as a preteen and early teens. She also wrote a wonderful children’s story titled, ” A Walk In Wolf Wood”. If you can find a copy I highly recommend reading it. Her books I will keep on my bookshelf. I am also huge Victoria Holt fan as well.
[…] Namely: Mary Stewart’s novels have finally come out in digital format. And as covered over here at the Bitchery, goodness gracious, the covers on those are gorgeous. And I do love me some Mary […]