Cannonball Read 11

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The truth is, men make terrible pigs

Circe by Madeline Miller

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I knew almost nothing of Circe before going into this. I remembered that she was in The Odyssey, and that Odysseus lived on her island for a time, but nothing more than that. She is the daughter of Helios, and is an unremarkable and naive nymph. Shunned by her siblings and dismissed by her parents, she finally discovers that her power lies in witchcraft. Because of this, and for how she uses it, she is exiled for eternity by her father to an uninhabited island. She (spoilers) learns to harness her power in a way her more powerful siblings do […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

  • Circe by Madeline Miller

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5/19/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:7 |

Circe – Mic Drop

Circe by Madeline Miller

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My knowledge of Greek mythology is minimal: I know only the broadest of strokes. I mean, I’ve read the Odyssey (bits of it at least?) and I’ve seen “O Brother Where Art Thou.” I was a bit skeptical that I would enjoy this book, but it had such rave reviews and a lot of ladies I know really enjoyed it, so I joined the pack and I’m glad I did. In fact, not really knowing about mythology made it even more fun to read and preserved the twists and turns of the story. Circe is the daughter of Helios, the […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

  • Circe by Madeline Miller

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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5/17/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:18 |

A (not so) funny thing happened on the way to writing this review

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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I was finally caught up with my reviews at the end of March, and then everything went to hell. I spent a week in Paris (yay!) but came home to what I thought was a simple but nasty case of jetlag + airplane cold but which turned out to be . . . THE FLU. And let me just say that jetlag and three days of crazy-loud home repairs and several days of high fever/chills/aches/lungs-filled-with-pure-evil are not conducive to being productive. Moral of the story: get your flu shot, kids.  I finished Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles five weeks […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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5/5/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:20 |

I came for the fighting, but stayed for the sweet, sweet love

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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I’m closer to 40 than I am 30, and I’ve never read The Iliad. I did, however, read The Odyssey in middle school, and quite liked it – though poetry has never been my thing, and the archaic formatting of the translation I read bothered me. Still. It was a good story, and I was in the florescence of my love for heroic fantasy, so The Odyssey kind of felt like the genesis for the types of stories I was reading at the time. So it’s a little surprising, all these years later, that I never picked up The Iliad. […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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4/8/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:6 |

The man, the myth, the legend

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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This is a version of the myth told by Patroclus, Achilles’s companion. Patroclus is a prince who accidentally kills another boy and is exiled, fostered to King Peleus whose son is Achilles. Initially feeling like an outsider, something about Patroclus catches Achilles’s eye and they become friends. When Achilles is sent to train with the centaur Chiron, Patroclus goes with him, against Achilles’s goddess mother, Thetis’s wishes. They spend a few glorious years cut off from the world, and their relationship deepens. Eventually they fall in love. Then Helen is stolen, or runs away with Paris by her own volition, […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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4/1/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:14 |

“When I was born, the word for what I was did not exist.”

Circe by Madeline Miller

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Circe has been topping a lot of people’s Best Of books this year and for good reason. It is a well written, interesting take on several well known Greek myths but doesn’t require an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology to enjoy (although Madeline Miller is obviously a Greek mythology fan girl). Nymph-turned-witch Circe is the daughter of Helios; she is never meant to rule kingdoms because while she is immortal she is not a God. She finds happiness being a nanny to her siblings but after they grow up and fulfill their destinies Circe is back to being largely ignored. […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

  • Circe by Madeline Miller

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

Share the post "“When I was born, the word for what I was did not exist.”"

12/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:127 |

Books I Want to Talk About with my Friend, the Classics Professor

Circe & The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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Thanks to all the Cannonball Read folks who raved about Madeline Miller this year.  Because of the accolades, I read The Song of Achilles back in May and Circe in November and both were books that engaged and transported me.  Thanks to my procrastinating ways, I decided to review both books together and because they’ve been reviewed by a lot of folks already, I thought I’d talk more about my experience reading them and spare you the plot summary. I read Song of Achilles on my kindle, which is not my preferred mode, but I needed books for a two-week trip […]

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12/18/2018 's CBR10 Review No:33 |

“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”

Circe by Madeline Miller

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The daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, a mighty Titan, Circe is a lesser god, or nymph. She does not hold the power of her parents and is often scorned for her odd voice and behaviour in the halls of the gods where she lives. Falling for a mortal, she discovers her own power lies in witchcraft, turning rivals into monsters. For this – and feeling threatened by her power – she is exiled to an island by Zeus. It is there that she hones her craft and crosses paths with famous mythological figures. Hermes, Daedalus, Odysseus, and […]

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12/9/2018 's CBR10 Review No:44 |


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