Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Immense beauty and infinite kindness

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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I first read Susanna Clarke in my senior year of undergrad. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a new release, and I decided I could not wait for the paperback edition to read it: I lugged that fat hardback around for two weeks as I slowly worked my way through it, savoring it, never wanting it to end, which I suspect is how many of us who read it felt. Clarke created a world that felt so real, right down to the prose style, that the […]

“The nameless slave shall wear a silver crown.”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

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The first time I read this way back in 2008 I gave it five stars out of reflex, and then later I downgraded to four (I even deleted my Goodreads review because it just seemed excessive and ridiculous). My instinct upon finishing the second time was also to just smack five of ’em on there. It’s just so well-written, and so comprehensive, and so epic-feeling. It’s practically got it’s own gravity. And then I stepped away from it for a while, again (in this case […]

Ain’t she sweet

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There was a post going around tumblr for a while referencing “the knowing eye contact women make when men are talking,” which someone else helpfully supplemented with this illustrative gif from Carol* (and if you’re looking at this opening excerpt from the CBR top page, you do have to click through to see it, I’m afraid):   The Ladies of Grace Adieu, by Susanna Clarke, feels like the prose manifestation of that post. Set in the world of her popular novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. […]

I was astonish’d at how greatly I admired the writing of this book

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The title of this post will be my one attempt at a pseudo-19th century style–I won’t inflict such an atrocity upon you any more, dear readers. I’m rather late to the game when it comes to reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell–after all, there’s already a miniseries adaptation (which I have not yet seen)! But so deeply was I affected by… ahem! I’ll just say that the writing style blew me away. I’m certainly not the first to describe this book as ‘If Charles Dickens […]

Magic as Science. And a way to get the ladies.

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Someone suggested we read this as a book club selection but figured “they were the last person on Earth to not have read it” but I was apparently living under a rock as I hadn’t even heard of Clarke’s magical read. With the pending BBC miniseries I was eager to see what all the buzz was about and was not disappointed. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are two magicians in England in the 1800s who are destined to bring magic back to England, the premise […]



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