Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The novel doesn’t quite live up to the magic of the setting

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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CBR 17 BINGO: “N” (for Night) Double BINGO! Across: B, I, N, G, O, Down: Black, TBR, N, Family, Citizen The Night Circus is a much beloved novel that, on paper, seems like it has everything that should appeal to me: a Victorian timeframe, a magical setting, an air of mystery, an understated romance. I admired the author’s creativity, particularly in the way she weaves fantastical elements into the circus; yet, I felt a bit let down by the fact that I wasn’t eager to […]

“All Stories Are the Same Story.”

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

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I was a little worried when I started reading this immediately after reading The Night Circus because the latter was still on my mind, and I knew I was likely to make comparisons, but this is when it became available from the library. I needn’t have worried. The Starless Sea gripped me right from the start. The novel tells the story of Zachary, a graduate student who finds a book called Sweet Sorrows that has its own stories in it, and one of those stories […]

Captivating, Evocative, and THERE’S A TEA!

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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This is a book that’s going to be on my mind for a little while. I just finished it last night, and I’m not ready to leave the world of The Night Circus, so I’ve been looking at reviews and went on the author’s Instagram, which is how I discovered that she collaborated with the Old Growth Alchemy tea shop and there’s a Night Circus loose leaf tea you can buy – I’m a tea drinker, so I couldn’t help but place an order, and […]

A Sugar Spun Fantasy

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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I don’t normally use the word exquisite to describe a book, but Erin Morgenstern’s book The Night Circus is exquisite. Thanks to the generous Ale, who sent me this book for the holiday book exchange, I got to read one of my favorite books of the year. The Night Circus is about two talented enchanters, Celia and Marco, who have been brought up since childhood to engage in a mysterious challenge with each other. Both take part in creating the night circus, a magical circus […]

Playing Catchup

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Night Train by David Quantick

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang

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Listen, sometimes you graduate from college, panic about your future, land a job, and move to a new city and even though you’re reading a couple books a month you forget about the whole reviewing part. I’ve still got 6 more reviews to write from May-September reads, but here are a few from May and October. (I wrote half of the May ones in May so they might be a little outdated. A group of housewives in a suburb of Charleston, SC in the 90s […]

Not another Night Circus

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

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Normally I review a book right after I read it, but I had to sit on this a few days.  I’m not sure I can do the book justice in a review. This read is magical, much like her last book.  Its set in a world of stories with a labyrinth of underground libraries you can only access through magical doors and guarded by a secret society.  The members of this society guard the stories and the Starless Sea. “A boy at the beginning of […]



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