Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Holy Moly

Circe by Madeline Miller

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When (I read it): Late night treat-time only, when the pull of the book matched the pull of (spoiler warning) my bed. Where (I read it): In bed, where my cocoon allowed me to sink in without expectation or judgment. Why (I read it): A long-ignored predilection for mythology combined with a general crowd gaga-factor. How (I read it): With great anticipation, bought many months ago to read when I could appreciate it. Finally got there. In preface, I’m three books read by the first […]

Humanizing a Goddess

Circe by Madeline Miller

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I bought Circe last year after it won a few awards. I finally read it because a friend from work read it and recommended it to me. We were both changing jobs so I wanted to read it while we still worked together so that we could discuss it. It was fantastic. It reminded me, thematically, of Grendel by John Gardner in that the premise is the book is the POV from a character that is considered an antagonist in a different, famous story. Like […]

A witchin’ re-imagining

Circe by Madeline Miller

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Oh, how I loved this.  I saw everyone’s glowing comments on it on last year’s Cannonball Read, but my TBR pile was so big I couldn’t justify buying a new book.  Luckily I made an exception and once I picked it up last week I couldn’t put it down.  I have a backlog of reviews I need to write for other books I finished before I finished Circe, but I wanted to review this one first, before my feelings faded. Miller’s novel is a modern […]

Sometimes the stories we know are actually just the footnotes in another (better) story.

Circe by Madeline Miller

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I picked this up because I was seeing it evvvvverywherrrre.  I had low expectations because I am a contrarian and, in general, I don’t trust people’s opinions of books (except for Pajiba readers’, of course.)  But this book was so good!  It immediately became my new buy-it-for-everybody’s-birthday book. First, this book has it all: mythology, complex heroines, curses, potions, love, betrayal, exotic lands, gods and humans, bloodshed, magic, and monsters.  It also has an awesome female protagonist, “empowered” in the best way, by which I […]

“Maybe the real question is why are your friends so turn-into-pigsable?” BINGO

Circe by Madeline Miller

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#CBR11 Bingo: Remix  (Would also work for Award Winner, Listicle (was on a ton of Best of 2018 lists) and/or Cannonballer Recommends) Official book description: In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe has neither the look nor the voice of divinity, and is scorned and rejected by her kin. Increasingly isolated, she turns to mortals for companionship, leading her to discover a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft. When love drives Circe […]

The truth is, men make terrible pigs

Circe by Madeline Miller

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I knew almost nothing of Circe before going into this. I remembered that she was in The Odyssey, and that Odysseus lived on her island for a time, but nothing more than that. She is the daughter of Helios, and is an unremarkable and naive nymph. Shunned by her siblings and dismissed by her parents, she finally discovers that her power lies in witchcraft. Because of this, and for how she uses it, she is exiled for eternity by her father to an uninhabited island. […]



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