Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Fairy tale villains and loving sisters

Into the Goblin Market by Vikki VanSickle

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Recently I located a list of books that were recommended by other booksellers across the country. I found the picture book section and said, “Online reading here I come.” And I was able to read most of them (I have one in physical form so I passed and I have two more to read), but one that really stuck out to me was Into the Goblin Market by Vikki VanSickle and Jensine Eckwall as the illustrator.  It is a contemporary folktale or fairy tale that […]

Follow Your Heart

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron by April Asher

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She needs a new place to live and he just happens to have some extra space. Forced proximity never leads to romantic shenanigans! I’m sure they’ll be respectful roommates who barely see each but always clean the bathroom. Just kidding, that’s probably a step too far into fantasy. Here we have the story of the last Maxwell triplet, Olive. Olive is a college professor who leaves the wild magical hi-jinks to her sisters in favor of a more low key life. When she assigns her […]

“Comedy is laughter in the face of death”

Wyrd Sisters (1988) by Terry Pratchett

Witches Abroad (1991) by Terry Pratchett

Lords and Ladies (1992) by Terry Pratchett

Carpe Jugulum (1998) by Terry Pratchett

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These are re-reads, these are beloved, these are–I suggest–suitable for the fanfic square because they are riotous and revelrous games with Shakespeare plays and fairy stories and Dracula and witch traditions, even while they question the logics behind them. For example, as Pratchett points out, witches would probably not be dancing around nude during their eldritch rites because it would get quite chilly. Wyrd Sisters (1988) Autocorrect keeps trying to make wyrd into ‘word’, which is fitting, because this is a book partly about the […]

Mission Be Funny While Stopping Duncan’s Murder

Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Weird Sisters by Olga Wojtas

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Bingo 3: Fanfic Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Weird Sisters is a re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; it’s definitely fanfic, both in that it’s a self-insertion into an established world/story and that it’s loaded with basically Easter Eggs that only a fan of the original would appreciate. The premise is that Shona McMonagle is a middle-aged librarian who is somehow capable of time-travel. The time travel thing is not really explained, and it doesn’t really matter as that’s not the point. When Shona was younger, she […]

This was disappointing

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman

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In 1662, a former mistress of the king of Denmark-Norway (Norway was a Danish colony for about 400 years, for those not big into their history trivia), Anna Rhodius is sent into exile to a fortress in Vardø in the very north of Norway. She convinces herself that she has been sent there to help root out witchcraft, and if she does a good job, she will be welcomed back by the king with open arms. Zigri is the young widow of a fisherman, who […]

Rather hip witches

Wacky Witches and Their Peculiar Familiars by April Suddendorf

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cbr16bingo Celestial  When I hear the word celestial I don’t think of Space or Stars, I think more spiritual, lofty, and Sun. The spiritual does lead to some religious aspects, but also more magical things. Like earth, and mother, and witches. The female theme comes together in a book for young readers/listeners. And while I think of myself as a feminist, I think we can “overdo” that sentiment. This  time, we are not getting it pushed too “hard” but it is not lacking. It does […]



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