Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I hope your bacon burns.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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This is a perfect little book. It’s a fantasy story that understands how perspective limits the ways in which stories can be told, in the very best of ways. It’s a lot like the movie (or more so the movie does a great job of translating the story to the screen) and the result is a beautifully visual novel with heart, intrigue, curiosity, and sense. The story begins in a fantasy kingdom and Sophie’s mother has decided to push her three daughters into apprenticeships. Sophie […]

A lovely old-fashioned fantasy for kids (Bingo Square: Birthday!)

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A little while ago, I read Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle after seeing the Miyazaki film. It was pretty much nothing like the film, but I adored it anyway. So I picked out Castle in the Air on my Overdrive app for a light read, expecting more of the adventures of Sophie and Howl. It wasn’t quite what I expected either, but was still a sweet, lovely story perfect for a kids (or, y’know, any adult). Sophie and Howl don’t feature much until the end, for Castle […]

I got to find my baby

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Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorite books ever, and I was over the moon when I found out Diana Wynne Jones had written a lesser-known sequel (or at least companion book.) As much as I enjoyed the way things came together at the end of the first book, I wanted more of Sophie’s fierceness and ability to cut through society’s nonsense, and I wanted more of Howl’s vanity and snark and never quite succeeding at being a truly terrible person. Unfortunately, Castle in […]

Easy and Breezy

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A magical little journey that was delightful but also didn’t quite have the teeth for me to really sink in with it. I am of course familiar with Hayao Miyazaki’s movie version of Howl’s Moving Castle, but heard that the novel was quite different. And it is in some ways, but also follows a similar plot in others. It really is fun and delightful, and not too serious which was great for me to read through at work while in the midst of some personal issues. […]

If you read this, see if you can spot the character DWJ based off of her friend Neil Gaiman.

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I love fantasy. I love stories about parallel universes or the multiverse. I love Diana Wynne Jones. So why, exactly, did I not hear about this book until February of last year? (Which is when Goodreads tells me I added it to my stupidly enormous to-read list.) I can only fathom that a Magid was at me, maybe effing around with my fate-lines or something. Oh, what’s that? You don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, I have a pretty easy way to fix that. […]

He May Have a Moving Castle, but She Has a Magic Stick!

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Of all the Miyazaki films I have loved before, Howl’s Moving Castle is not one of them. However, upon discovering that the original source material was a young adult fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones, I decided to give it a shot, as it is filled with the things my younger heart would have loved. Witches? Wizards? Magic? A minimal romantic subplot? Yes, please! Read the rest of the review here.



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