Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Old Fashioned Folk Tale Vibes

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

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The youngest girl in a family of nine children, she doesn’t even have a name and is called either Pika by most of the family or Lass by her favorite brother.  However, when her brother’s actions lead to an Isbjørn to come to their home, she agrees to go away with him and spend a year and a day.  But life in the ice palace is strange and the cost of unraveling the mysteries she finds might be high. East of the Sun, West of […]

A Complex Stepsister Grapples With Her Path Forward

A Spark in the Cinders by Jenny Elder Moke

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When Ellarose, Aralyn’s stepsister, asks her for help saving the kingdom, her first thoughts are of revenge.  After all, ever since Ellarose married the prince and stole the future that Aralyn and her mother had planned for Aralyn, her life has been nothing but a misery.  However, once she starts looking into the matter, she discovers a number of things that challenge everything her mother has taught her.  Working together with a lady knight, Aralyn sets off to find a fey weapon that might be […]

Beauty and the Beast with no Stockholm syndrome and more magic

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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In 2020 I read Naomi Novik’s, Spinning Silver, which I found to be an excellent reimaging of Rumpelstiltskin.  I finished the review with,  “Uprooted is going on my “wish list”.  Between then and now I got Uprooted in a Cannonball fundraiser but it has sat on the shelf.  I had this slated for the “Bird” square in Cannonball Bingo because of the bird on the cover.  However, I ran out of time and used Transmetropolitan volume 2: Lust for Life instead. I’ve long been a fan of […]

“If this is the last decision I can ever make, at least it is my decision. Let me go, Alyosha. I am not afraid.”

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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One of our #CannonBookClub prompts asked if there’s any special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way, and for me the answer is a resounding yes. Whether its something along the lines of Longbourn where characters who are merely set dressing in the original tale are given the limelight or something like The Bear and the Nightingale where history and folktales are put into a blender, metaphorically, and something new arrives there is more often than not an engaging […]



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