Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

an overly-rosy wintry fairy tale

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

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The description of The Snow Child kinda intrigued me when it first came out, and I do love novels that put a fresh spin on old fairy tales. Then a friend mentioned loving it, so I thought, why not, and  put it on my digital library holds, because it’d be fine as a dog-walking read, probably. The novel focuses on an older couple, Jack and Mabel, who moved to Alaska and are homesteading there in the 1910s following heartbreaks in their former life on the East […]

Even from the windows of a prison, Rhodia was a beautiful place.

Aftershocks by Marko Kloos

The Instrument by John O'Hara

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Meaty by Samantha Irby

The Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton

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Aftershocks – 3/5 Stars This is a novel that begins a new trilogy by Marko Kloos (author of the Terms of Enlistment series, which I haven’t read). I bought it from Audible one day on sale for like $3, and while I am not entirely sure I am going to seek out further books in the series, I found that to be a pretty good deal. It’s structured similar to the Expanse series or Game of Thrones, in that there are several main characters, from […]

There Was Once A Girl Made of Snow…

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

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Wow. I don’t have much to say except that I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I have never read a book by Eowyn Ivey before and will definitely seek out more works. This book really made me want to crawl out into the woods under a starry sky in the middle of winter and just take a deep breath and let it just roll over me. I thought the character development of Jack and Mabel really worked. Also loved how Ivey dealt […]

“She Always Keeps a Part of Herself a Mystery”

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

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Bingo Square: Reading the TBR The Snow Child was in my top five reads the year I read it.  Given that, it seems like I should have run out to read Ivey’s follow up, but I didn’t even get the Kindle version of it until January 2018, and then didn’t get around to reading it until this week.  I’m not sure if I was hesitant after the magic of The Snow Child, or if I was worried about being emotionally gutted by this one as […]

Loneliness and magic in the Alaskan wilderness.

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I love modern takes on fairy tales, so this seemed like a good bet. We’re in the Alaskan frontier in the 1920s.  Homesteaders from Pennsylvania Mable and Jack have set out for a new life together–they can’t have children, and they need a new scene. Their second winter in Alaska is harsh, cold, and miserable, but during one evening of lightheartedness, they build a little girl out of snow. The next morning, there’s no snow child left, but they do see a little girl wearing the same scarf and […]

A Fairy Tale in the Alaska Wilderness

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The Snow Child (2012) by Eowyn Ivey is a book I had never heard of and wouldn’t have chosen to read if it weren’t for my book club. In fact, after reading the description, I was dreading it: “Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they […]



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