Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Mission Be Funny While Stopping Duncan’s Murder

Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Weird Sisters by Olga Wojtas

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Bingo 3: Fanfic Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Weird Sisters is a re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; it’s definitely fanfic, both in that it’s a self-insertion into an established world/story and that it’s loaded with basically Easter Eggs that only a fan of the original would appreciate. The premise is that Shona McMonagle is a middle-aged librarian who is somehow capable of time-travel. The time travel thing is not really explained, and it doesn’t really matter as that’s not the point. When Shona was younger, she […]

Very big thanks to andtheIToldYouSos for the heads up that this existed! Had a fun time nerding out.

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro

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This was extremely interesting. I am not deluded enough to think that it would be interesting for everyone. If you like historical analysis of notable literary texts, this book will be your jam. Especially if you are into Shakespeare. I have decided that this combination of historical context and literary analysis is something I really like. One of my favorite books of the last several years was Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, which did something similar, except across Austen’s entire career instead of focusing on only […]

“Thou art a boil, A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle, In my corrupted blood.”

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro

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The bile, the fire, the vitriol; do we understand now what King Lear meant when he assaulted his eldest daughter with these words? I certainly did not. I took it as an insult, sure, but I did not know the deeper meaning. Recently, I was driving to work and I heard James Shapiro on NPR. He was a guest because, despite the fact that he was promoting his latest title, a lot of people have been making a lot of headway with the statement that […]

Is this a dagger I see before me?

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  Another great Jo Nesbo book. This is not part of the Harry Hole series (which I absolutely love), this is more of a stand alone book. I enjoyed this book for a few reasons. Firstly, Macbeth is my all time favourite Shakespeare text. So I am always happy to read modern adaptations. Jo has done a remarkable job of making this a modern story. He has kept all of the main story lines, but adapted it to a police setting. The story begins with […]

Greatest Hits of Teaching…

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Because I teach the same books each year (sometimes twice a year because I teach different courses with some books that intermingle between the two), I write the same reviews for those books each year for CBR.  I don’t feel like writing reviews for the same books that I read over and over again, I present to you a literary clip show.  Kick back, relax and experience rehashed posts from the past! I promise I have other reviews to finish but here’s what I’ve been […]

And so, lesbian Macbeth.

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K, so first if you haven’t read Macbeth, um, why? Go do that. Second, this book is a pretty good adaptation of it, though not perfect. Talley translates the Scottish kings, lords, and various witches into the haunted setting of a boarding school that used to be a plantation in the antebellum south. Kings become teenage girls, witches become spirits, and what was straightforward murder in the original play becomes something more complicated here. Ultimately, this book was enjoyable, but I thought the first half […]



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