Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Fanfic — Classics Edition

The Song of Achilles: A Novel by Madeline Miller

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Cbr12bingo Gateway BINGO horizontal (Gateway to Shelfie) I first read The Song of Achilles for CBR4, and for me, it is the gateway to a genre that I will call “reimagined classics” or perhaps “fanfic: classics edition.” This is the first book I can remember reading that is based on a classic story, in this case The Iliad, expanding on a part of it and telling it from the perspective of a minor character. Re-imagined classics allow authors to go into more detail on aspects […]

One of the few times I will say to watch the movie first.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

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I probably chose the wrong time to read this one, as so many of my friends like it quite a bit, even ones who don’t like Thomas Hardy as a writer. But it nicely filled a challenge for Read Harder, and because it’s been on my TBR for over a decade, and it was available on SCRIBD, I did it. And I didn’t not like it, I just found it hard to finish, and it never really caught my attention. I missed soooo much while […]

cbr12bingo – The Roaring 20s (and two more “bingos”)

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

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Oh, Hemingway. You dirty old dog. I have a soft-spot for the Lost Generation, and a sentimental attachment to The Sun Also Rises. While plenty of this novel- and his writing in general- has aged poorly, there is still value to be found. Hemingway was plenty of things as both an author and a man, but here I will choose to focus on the story and the broken people within- and the story of my attachment to this book. My first read was back in […]

Pretty people doing not pretty things

The Great Gatsby: The Graphic Novel by Fred Fordham

The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by K. Woodman-Maynard

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cbr12bingo The Roaring 20’s The Roaring 20’s probably would not be the Roaring 20’s if not for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I am not going to go all English Lit on you and say the meaning of the story but will tell you it is about several 20-to 30-something rich, spoiled, brats (editorial comment) and their boredom. You can say that our narrator is unreliable, judgmental, the whole works. Or not. But in the end, what it is all about is people […]

Take Me Back to Narnia Y’all (Bingo – I Wish)

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

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My 11 year old is just getting into the Chronicles of Narnia and I’m nudging him on the journey by doing a simultaneous reread of what for me was a childhood favorite. I am sure I haven’t read them since I was his age, so it’s an interesting time traveling exercise to be reading them now, as an adult. I remember them feeling formidable, foreign even, rich in both action and description, wherein I have to actively try to slow myself down in order to […]

It’s the Chronic (WHAT) cles of Narnia

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

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Can anyone in their 30s talk about The Chronicles of Narnia without now recalling the SNL Digital Short Lazy Sunday starring Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell? Because the minute I say the name of the series, that’s all I hear, them yelling about going to watch the movie version of the first book. As I started to write this review, I went and looked up the video and it still got a giggle, so well done to the future Mr. Jake Peralta. Buuuut anyhoo. Why […]



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