Merryn – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

A master distills fantasy down to its essence

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

The Owl Service by Alan Garner

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner

Boneland by Alan Garner

August 4, 2023 by Merryn Leave a Comment

Bingo (In order): Guide, Relationships, Nostalgia, Europe, Adulthood Passport: England When Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize I was surprised, not because I don’t think he’s a brilliant writer worthy of a major literary award, but because awards like this don’t seem to take fantasy seriously, despite the depth of the ideas and the beauty of the prose, and I hadn’t realised that this author I loved in my childhood was still alive and still writing. Treacle Walker is not […]

On the road to nowhere

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

August 4, 2023 by Merryn 2 Comments

Bingo: On the Road; Passport: USA Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland documents several years of immersion into the subculture of vandwellers, people who call themselves houseless rather than homeless, living in their vehicles and moving between seasonal jobs such as camp hosting in national parks, Amazon’s Camperforce, and harvesting crops. The narrative follows a number of members and leaders of the vandweller community, but the focus character is Linda May who lives with her dog Coco in a 1974 ten-foot trailer towed behind a Jeep. Like most […]

A charming story about a girl and her dog

Runt by Craig Silvey

July 29, 2023 by Merryn Leave a Comment

Bingo: Taking Flight; Passport: Australia In the tradition of Roald Dahl, Runt is an absolutely charming story about a girl and her dog overcoming adversity, finding community, spreading positivity, and being celebrated for being their deliciously odd selves. Annie Shearer lives in the down-on-its-luck rural Australian town of Upson Downs, where local baddie Earl Robert-Barren is hoarding water to drive his neighbours off their land so he can buy up their properties. Her family of oddballs struggles on. Annie hatches a plan to save the […]

Getting paid to stand around being scary

Standing Heavy by gauZ'

July 29, 2023 by Merryn Leave a Comment

Bingo: Africa; Postcard: Côte d’Ivoire In Nouchi, the popular slang of the Ivoirian city of Abidjan, standing heavy means a lowly paid job that keeps the employee on their feet. This witty novel takes us into the heads of young men from Côte d’Ivoire at the end of long chains of Parisian subcontracted security services, their lack of papers overlooked so long as they meet the racist morphological profile – heavy-set, tall, strong, deferential, and scary. Getting paid for standing is not as easy as […]

A book to read in bed

Cockroach and Other Stories by Jane Cornes Maclean

July 24, 2023 by Merryn 2 Comments

Bingo: You are here – the author lives in my city and my friend circle. Jane calls this collection of short stories ficto-memoir, created by slicing off little pieces of her life and frying them up in the spice of fiction to make something delicious. Within the span of twenty-one tales, some don’t stray far from the woman I know, an Englishwoman who has lived in Australia most of her life, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, who looks at life with insight, […]

Multiple dimensions of disappointment

The Dark Forest by Ciuxin Liu

May 5, 2023 by Merryn 5 Comments

** some thematic spoilers ** I loved The Three Body Problem and had high hopes for the sequel. But I found this book so hard to get through. It’s dense. The first half or so is so slow. I persevered, because I also found the first book hard to get into and all that critical acclaim had to have some justification. But as the pace started to pick up, more dimensions of disappointment unfolded. Even before the nihilistic Battle of Darkness took place and the […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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