Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Life has thrown a lot at me recently, so here are all the reviews I forgot to write!

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Miraculous by Jess Redman

The Tea Dragon Festival by K. O'Neill

An Exchange of Gifts by Anne McCaffrey

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

The Sandman: Act I by Neil Gaiman

The Princess Spy by Larry Loftis

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The Bear and the Nightingale By Katherine Arden (Warning – the review of this book contains f-bombs!) I know this was supposed to be based on a fairy tale, and some parts seemed very fairy tale-like (especially the story the nanny told toward the beginning with the girls in the snow) but I did not correlate them to any story I already knew.  I appreciated the involvement of the Russian household spirits, and how the village did quite well combining their religion and their culture […]

“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 […]

Book Club Discussion Post: The Bear and the Nightingale

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Welcome to our Fairy tale Adaptations book club! This go round we’ve selected four books that showed their author’s take on various fairy tales and folktales. Each of our books below have their own Discussion Posts and don’t forget, we’ll be having our Zoom Book Club on Saturday September 18 at 7 pm EDT. Other Discussions The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Deerskin by Robin McKinley Sea Witch by Sarah Henning Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson For those of you returning […]

Still just OK the second time around

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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CBR 13 Bingo Square: Landscape Genuine question:  It seemed when Cannonball Book Club was announced The Bear and the Nightingale was presented as a reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin, as that was the fairytale linked to for reading the original.  I don’t see a comparison?  Is there something I’m missing?  Or was I incorrect in that the two were paired together in that way?  Would love to know how others interpret as this feels more like “Cinderella” crossed with “The Twelve Months”. For Cannonball Book Club, I had […]

CannonBookClub Fairy Tales & Adaptations Announcement!

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September #CannonBookClub is here. Discussion posts are live! The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Deerskin by Robin McKinley Sea Witch by Sarah Henning Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson Book Club Details Continuing our feel-good goals with #CannonBookClub in 2021 we’ve landed on Fairy Tales and Adaptations as our theme for our September meeting. With that in mind our Book Club team has decided on a shortlist of four books to choose from, highlighting different genres and original tales. September 17-18, 2021 […]

The woods are lovely dark and deep

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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In a dark medieval Russian forest, the tomboy daughter of the local chief, Vasya, just wants to continue with her wild and pagan ways- running through the woods, riding horses, communing with the minor domestic and farmyard gods. These ways put Vasya at odds with her stepmother as well as the Church, personified by the local priest.  The stepmother and the priest push Vasya’s father to marry her off, which bodes ill for the village as a whole- the bonds that keep evil forces at […]



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