What is Signe Pike reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Signe Pike, author of Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World.

Her entry begins:

Perhaps it's my background as a book editor, but it seems I'm seldom able to just read one book at a time! Because editors are so busy reading and working on their author's manuscripts, we joke about never having time to read. Then I went straight from the editing world to researching my own book project, which required a lot of translated old texts, etc. so now that my own book is done, I am only just now getting the opportunity to read just for the fun of it... and I have a lot of catching up to do.

The first book I tackled was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safon. I was browsing the tables at a local bookstore when a customer saw it in my hands and and enthused, "You have to read that book." It's a stunning and gorgeously written gothic saga that takes place in 1950's Barcelona, and while it took me a good 50 pages to get truly sucked in, after that, I couldn't put it down. Safon does things with perspective and voice that most novelists would be hard pressed to pull off, and he does it with such an honest flourish - it's a story that stays with you long after you've turned the last page.

Now I'm caught between Little, Big by John Crowley and...[read on]

Among the early praise for Faery Tale:

“Pike writes of her various encounters with faery-believers and faery lands, from New York to Mexico to Ireland to Scotland, in a winning voice that roams freely from melancholy to mirth, incredulity to bright surprise.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“It’s hard to decide what is more enchanting, Signe Pike’s charming writing or the magical world she uncovers. This is a book for hopeful skeptics and believers alike. Proceed with caution, because Faery Tale may cast a spell that transforms the way you see the world forever.”
—Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

“Finding happiness is an adventure that everyone should take and Faery Tale inspires you to go on that journey.”
–Lucy Danziger, Editor-in-Chief of SELF Magazine and author of New York Times bestseller The Nine Rooms of Happiness

“Faery Tale is enchanting. I don’t believe in tiny magical creatures, but I do believe in a good story, and Signe Pike has given us one of those.”
–A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically

Read an excerpt from Faery Tale, and learn more about the book and author at Signe Pike's website, blog, and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Signe Pike.

--Marshal Zeringue