Cannonball Read 10

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR Facebook Page. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Instagram. The CBR Tumblr CBR on Goodreads

My favourite book this year

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

by 2 Comments

Before this week, if you had told me that one of my favourite fantasy books I’ve ever read would be a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin of all things, I would have laughed in your face. But that is one way to describe Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver, her follow-up to Uprooted (which was far and away one of my favourite books from a few years ago). Tonally, Spinning Silver is similar to Uprooted. Both feature a non-traditional European fantasy world, in that the Polish grounding for Uprooted and the Slavic folklore for Spinning Silver aren’t as common as Vikings or Regency or knights in armor. Both feature the kind of […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "My favourite book this year"

12/14/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:43 |

Funny when you have to remind yourself about things that, not long ago, consumed your every thought.

Brass; Lethal White; The Friend; Black Powder War; And Still I Rise; Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now; Pedagogy of the Oppressed; The Ruin; How to be Creature; The Italian Girl: The Cost of Living by Xhenet Aliu; "Robert Galbraith"; Sigrid Nunez; Naomi Novik; Paulo Freire; Maya Angelou; Sy Montgomery; Dervla McTeirnan; Iris Murdoch; Deborah Levy

by Leave a Comment

Brass – 3/5 Stars So on the one hand this book falls a little into the generic kind of circa 1990s second generation immigrant American novel that was big for a good while. I recently read Charming Billy by Alice McDermott, which does this very thing. And then on the other hand, this book is a solidly written novel. Or rather, it is a novel, but it a challenging kind of narrative. For one, the story is good and interesting, but also a little typical and banal, if that’s possible to be both. Or maybe it’s banal and typical, but […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Brass; Lethal White; The Friend; Black Powder War; And Still I Rise; Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now; Pedagogy of the Oppressed; The Ruin; How to be Creature; The Italian Girl: The Cost of Living by Xhenet Aliu; "Robert Galbraith"; Sigrid Nunez; Naomi Novik; Paulo Freire; Maya Angelou; Sy Montgomery; Dervla McTeirnan; Iris Murdoch; Deborah Levy or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Funny when you have to remind yourself about things that, not long ago, consumed your every thought."

11/8/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:397 |

Novik’s books aren’t just about magic; they are magic

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

by 1 Comment

Uprooted was one of my favorite books of the last few years, and possibly ever. Since I’d never read Novik’s Temeraire books, I had no idea if it was a particular stroke of genius from her, or if she’s just always been consistently great and I never knew. I still haven’t read Temeraire, but now that she’s 2/2 for me with Spinning Silver, the imperative to do so becomes more pressing. Here is the summary from Goodreads: “Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Novik’s books aren’t just about magic; they are magic"

11/5/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:41 |

Naomi Novik is two for two in my book (I still need to read Temeraire!!)

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

by 4 Comments

I read most of this book in a day. It was so charming and lovely. In the vein of Uprooted, Spinning Silver is another loosely inspired retelling of a fairytale, this time Rumplestiltskin. I’m honestly not sure which book I liked better. It’s been a while since I read Uprooted, and this book is one of those that gets better in your head the longer you sit with it after you finish. Our Rumplestiltskin is actually one of our heroines, Miryem, the daughter of a moneylender (a historically Jewish profession, as usury was against Christian beliefs, though that didn’t stop them from borrowing […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Naomi Novik is two for two in my book (I still need to read Temeraire!!)"

8/27/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:101 |

Why is it always the deal breakers that end up the hero in fairy tales?

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

by 2 Comments

While I definitely grew up with all the normal fairy tales that inspired Disney movies, I also remember Rumpelstilzchen (German version) leaving a deep impression.  I can’t remember if it was because the story creeped me out (I mean, he tears himself in two when he loses the deal) or if I thought there was something unjust about the treatment of either him or the spinner’s daughter but I certainly thought it was an interesting choice when he became such a central figure in Once Upon a Time’s spin on fairy tales. At its most basic, Spinning Silver is a […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Why is it always the deal breakers that end up the hero in fairy tales?"

7/30/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:135 |

I am not your subject or your servant, and if you want a cowering mouse for a wife, go find someone else who can turn silver to gold for you.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

by Leave a Comment

This is a novel that I don’t really need to explain too much because I have to imagine for a lot of readers on this website, it’s already on their radar. The story here takes place more or less in the same world as her previous novel Uprooted, a middle ages version of Poland where the magic of myth and legends function alongside history and lived-culture. So in this world, there’s a fairy world, but there’s also Judaism, for example. The story is told initially through three main voices, or really two, but a third primary voice enters about 1/4 […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "I am not your subject or your servant, and if you want a cowering mouse for a wife, go find someone else who can turn silver to gold for you."

7/23/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:280 |

How he trained his dragon

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

by 6 Comments

Captain Will Laurence has spent his life in the Navy, and expects it to continue that way. However, being currently embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars, that life soon comes to an end – but not through death. Instead, having captured a French ship, Captain Laurence’s ship takes its cargo as a prize…a large dragon’s egg, whose inhabitant decides upon hatching that Captain Laurence will do nicely for a handler. In this alternate history, dragons that aren’t paired with handlers tend to go feral, therefore losing whichever country that claims it as their own a very valuable asset in the aerial […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Temeraire by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "How he trained his dragon"

6/19/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:42 |

Stay out of the forest…

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

by 1 Comment

I haven’t read any Naomi Novik before, but this was recommended on one of those ‘If you liked this, you’ll like…’ on finishing The Bear and the Nightingale, with which it shares a fairytale feel and a young woman coming of age and magic, surrounded by a malignant forest. Uprooted isn’t quite as good as The Bear and The Nightingale, but was good enough for me to note Novik as one to read more from. Agnieska lives in the village of Dvernik where, every ten years, the Dragon from a nearby tower comes and chooses a young girl to take […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Purchase Uprooted by Naomi Novik or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

Share the post "Stay out of the forest…"

2/25/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:12 |


Follow CBR on Instagram

Shop on Amazon and Support CBR

Buy Original Cannonballer Prisco's book and help CBR!

Ad Partner