Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a mermaid’s tail made of donkey skin (a dual cbr13bingo and #cannonbookclub adventure!)

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

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well, not exactly. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s  also unsettling The Little Mermaid. Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. […]

“My heart is so much more than it once was, even if it now beats outside my chest.”

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

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BINGO – MYTHIC Angrboda is a thrice burned witch, and a thrice survived witch at that. She once was a seer for the gods, but she was ultimately burned for refusing to tell Odin, king of the gods, of knowledge beyond what anyone should know. After burning thrice and surviving, she escapes to the woods but leaves her heart on the pyre. She finds a cave and makes a home for herself. She strikes up a friendship and trading partnership with a giantess name Skadi […]

“A kiss might be blameless, so long as it was the other person doing the leaning. Was it your fault, really, if someone else kissed you?”

The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

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What if A.S. Byatt’s Possession popped up again in the internet age? The Portrait of a Mirror answers that question with a heaping helping of Greek mythology to boot. Diana, Wes, Dale, and Vivien are spoiled obsessives staring at themselves into eternity. They are slimy people, but you know what? I don’t care! I want them to be happy in their clandestine adventures, and I want them to be miserable in their public falling outs! Wes and Diana are married. Their relationship is a constant sparring match that […]

In which we have an abundance of evidence that Tolkien *really* had a thing for eagles.

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

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This is a book, like The Lord of the Rings, that I think I will appreciate more each time I read it. The only time I’d read it before this was my senior year of high school during the height of my LOTR fervor, and it entirely overwhelmed me. I remember I had to have a notebook near me while reading on which I drew a lot of family trees. I had a need to keep all the elves and endless descendants of Beor straight. […]

A fun read with gods and goddesses right up until the end– groan

The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

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Selene is an off-the-books PI who protects women in NYC. It is her sworn-duty to help those in need since she isn’t just a former police officer but also happens to be the goddess Artemis. Her powers are waning, as are the powers of most of the pantheon, but Selene pushes onward doing what she can to keep women safe. But she can’t save everyone; a woman is found murdered in Central Park. Upon further investigation into the details of the crime, Selene realizes there […]

A retelling of a classic, but are these the right secondary characters to focus on?

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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This is the story of Achilles and his companion Patroclus. Companion here should absolutely be read in the way that we all had that one uncle in his 80s and 90s who lived with a roommate. If you remember any part of your high school English classes, you probably know the over all plot. Trojan War, fated warrior, death, destruction, etc. What Madeline Miller has done in this book is really taken a deeper dive into the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. Which, by the way, […]



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