Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden
Sorry but this was just a solid 3 stars. I think the biggest issue is that Arden tried to rewrite The Smiling Man and based on the first book in the quartet it never squared. We also didn’t get a lot of time with our trio of Ollie, Coco, and Brian together. The ending also just felt very rushed. Finally, the whole book was pretty short. I got to the 80 something mark and the remaining part of the book was excerpts from the first […]
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
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 […]
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
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 […]
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 […]
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
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 […]
Discussion posts are live, see below. 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 Book Choices […]
