My Favorite Books in the Whole World

"Oh, come and see! It's back! All of it!" --Ever After: A Cinderella Story

My creativity! It's creeping back, slowly but surely. It's been months, maybe even a year, since I drew anything, or wrote anything. Well, yesterday, I made a few sketches and today I've written several pages of one of my stories. And I feel great! What I drew was poor, what I wrote was drabble, but they're both starts. I owe this latest surge in creative potential to the book "Child of the Prophecy," the third in the Sevenwaters trilogy by Juliet Marillier. It's probably the tenth time I've read it, if not the eleventh or more, but it never gets old. The trilogy is set in Ireland, though the exact time is never even so much as hinted at. The tales follow one family, from Sorcha in Daughter of the Forest, to her daughter Liadan in Son of the Shadows, to her niece Fainne in Child of the Prophecy. Magic, folklore, legend, danger, sword fights, quests, betrayal, loss, pain, adventure, bravery, good, evil, druids, and above all, Love, mark these stories. The characters are so intricate, so real, so close you feel as if you know them. My favorite is the third book, Child of the Prophecy, for reasons that might become obvious if you read it. Forgive me for sounding sexist, but these books were written for women, for indeed they are told from the perspective of three exceedingly strong women, and their quests that take them from the land of Erin to Northumbria and back, through this world, and the world of the fair folk, through tales steeped deep in Celtic lore and custom. If ever a book could move me, if ever a tale could make me weep and smile at the same time every time, this is it. Of course, I can't expect everyone to share my opinion, but if you can, read the books and tell me what you think.