Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

An acclaimed Arthur Miller play with mixed results

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

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I never read The Crucible in high school, but The Chancellor’s taught it to his American Literature class before, and he’s talked to me about Arthur Miller and the ideas he wrote about in his plays. Plus, I’d seen the AWFUL adaptation that was quite thick on nakedness and a bit thin on thematic development, so I was curious to see how the play would stack up. And, let’s not forget that we’re living in a weird hybrid McCarthyistic/Nixonian era that I thought only existed in history books but our presidential administration decided to revive in an attempt to kill […]

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8/12/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:101 |

It doesn’t get better than this

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

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Much Ado About Nothing is by far my favorite Shakespeare play. I love most of his others too (especially Twelfth Night, Macbeth, & Romeo and Juliet), but this play is special. It’s fun to watch/read but surprisingly complex. If you haven’t ever seen/read it, I highly recommend starting with the Branaugh movie version and then reading an annotated copy. I actually own the dramatized audio version with David Tennant and Samantha Spiro, so I really like listening while I read along in hard copy. They’re both wonderful actors that bring a lot to the table. Tennant especially is perfect at […]

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12/31/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:82 |

Read this before the movie comes out, Part II

Fences by August Wilson

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The Chancellor, as a high school English teacher and aficionado of mid-to-late twentieth century American drama, is more well-versed in plays than I am in most time periods. When he heard that August Wilson’s Fences was being turned into a film with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis (also known as The Queen, can we just give her a damn Oscar already???), he freaked out. And then he was startled when I confessed that I had never read or seen it. So he put it into my hands and I devoured it in a winter evening. Read my full review to […]

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12/26/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:144 |

They’re Just These Two Guys, You Know?

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

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The Read Harder Challenge this year included a task to read a play. I  never really enjoy reading plays, and I have read quite a few over the years. In high school, as an IB kid, I read no less than 10 Shakespeare plays. It was… grueling? It is this particular understanding of myself that made me immediately turn away from the idea of studying to be a dramaturg while my friend Gina was in grad school at Yale. But, I signed up for the challenge, so I decided that reading something I had already seen and enjoyed was the […]

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9/14/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:61 |

There’s almost no way this book could have succeeded. But it mostly does.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany

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I won’t recount all the ways I love the Harry Potter books, but I will say that after having read this, I want to go back and read the series again. Barely a month after finishing it for probably the fifth time. My love for this world, and these characters, is indelible. Needless to say, I highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Don’t mistake my delayed review as lack of enjoyment or diminished excitement – I did everything I could to savor these pages. I would never be able to experience them again, and JK Rowling has sworn-off further […]

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8/18/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:71 |

A pleasant surprise

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

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I know I’ve seen My Fair Lady at least once before, but it was ages ago and probably when I was still in high school. My response to it was middling. The costumes and musical numbers left an impression, the story itself didn’t. I probably would never have picked up Pygmalion if it hadn’t been something easy to get my hands on and worked for a book challenge I’ve been doing with a friend this year. For plays, I prefer reading along with dramatized audio or filmed versions. I checked out the L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance audiobook from […]

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5/28/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:39 |

A Serious Play About Trivial Matters

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

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Most days I wish that I could create my own hybrid Algonquin Round Table and use my razor sharp wit to amuse my (fake/dead writer) friends.  While I wish I was a good person all the time, I’m actually “best” when scathing…it’s a blessing and a curse. As I’ve grown up, I think I’ve tucked away most of these tendencies but I still think about my perfect round table. My line up shifts here and there over the years but always at the table are Dorothy Parker and Oscar Wilde. Every year when my classes read The Importance of Being […]

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4/23/2015 | 's CBR7 Review No:31 |

By the Pricking of my Thumbs

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

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Let me shout it from the rooftops! I LOVE MACBETH!  Macbeth is my absolute favorite thing to teach all year…and my enthusiasm for the play must be catching because usually it’s my students’ favorite thing to read too.  Clocking in as Shakespeare’s shortest play, there’s a heck of a lot going on it in.  Rumor has it that King James I had a very short attention span (was prone to falling asleep at the theater) and loved the occult, therefore Shakespeare tried to write for his royal audience.  He quickly introduces the witches establishing that there is a supernatural element […]

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3/19/2015 | 's CBR7 Review No:19 |

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