Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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“Armageddon was a fire in the harbor, a box delivered on a cold day. It wasn’t one great tragedy, but ten million tiny ones, and everyone faced theirs alone.”

The Warm Hands of Ghosts: A Novel by Katherine Arden

July 27, 2025 by bjornsnipe Leave a Comment

They are fighting their war in the last world, but we’re dying in this one. January 1918. Laura Iven, a revered field nurse, wounded when the Germans bombed the munitions depot her field hospital was next to, is discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Months later, back home in Halifax, Canada, Laura lives assisting three elderly mediums after the deaths of her parents. On the night that Pim Shaw, a young widow seeking to connect with her son, […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Horror Tagged With: enemies to lovers, faustian bargains, Katherine Arden, Nova Scotia, nursing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the fiddler, World War I

bjornsnipe's CBR17 Review No:97 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Horror · Tags: enemies to lovers, faustian bargains, Katherine Arden, Nova Scotia, nursing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the fiddler, World War I ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Empty Smiles

Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden

October 8, 2022 by Classic Leave a Comment

Sorry but this was just a solid 3 stars. I think the biggest issue is that Arden tried to rewrite The Smiling Man and based on the first book in the quartet it never squared. We also didn’t get a lot of time with our trio of Ollie, Coco, and Brian together. The ending also just felt very rushed. Finally, the whole book was pretty short. I got to the 80 something mark and the remaining part of the book was excerpts from the first […]

Filed Under: Horror, Young Adult Tagged With: Katherine Arden, Small Spaces #4

Classic's CBR14 Review No:219 · Genres: Horror, Young Adult · Tags: Katherine Arden, Small Spaces #4 ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Life has thrown a lot at me recently, so here are all the reviews I forgot to write!

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Miraculous by Jess Redman

The Tea Dragon Festival by K. O'Neill

An Exchange of Gifts by Anne McCaffrey

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

The Sandman: Act I by Neil Gaiman

The Princess Spy by Larry Loftis

October 31, 2021 by crystalclear 2 Comments

The Bear and the Nightingale By Katherine Arden (Warning – the review of this book contains f-bombs!) I know this was supposed to be based on a fairy tale, and some parts seemed very fairy tale-like (especially the story the nanny told toward the beginning with the girls in the snow) but I did not correlate them to any story I already knew.  I appreciated the involvement of the Russian household spirits, and how the village did quite well combining their religion and their culture […]

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Biography/Memoir, Children's Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Young Adult Tagged With: #biography, Anne McCaffrey, audio version of a graphic novel, Bingo blackout, CBR13, cbr13bingo, Children's, Jess Redman, K. O'Neill, Katherine Arden, Larry Loftis, libations, Neil Gaiman, pandemic, people, shelfie, t kingfisher, they/she/he, travel, white whale

crystalclear's CBR13 Review No:42 · Genres: Audiobooks, Biography/Memoir, Children's Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Young Adult · Tags: #biography, Anne McCaffrey, audio version of a graphic novel, Bingo blackout, CBR13, cbr13bingo, Children's, Jess Redman, K. O'Neill, Katherine Arden, Larry Loftis, libations, Neil Gaiman, pandemic, people, shelfie, t kingfisher, they/she/he, travel, white whale ·
· 2 Comments

“If this is the last decision I can ever make, at least it is my decision. Let me go, Alyosha. I am not afraid.”

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

September 23, 2021 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

One of our #CannonBookClub prompts asked if there’s any special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way, and for me the answer is a resounding yes. Whether its something along the lines of Longbourn where characters who are merely set dressing in the original tale are given the limelight or something like The Bear and the Nightingale where history and folktales are put into a blender, metaphorically, and something new arrives there is more often than not an engaging […]

Filed Under: Book Club, Fantasy, Fiction, History Tagged With: book club, CannonBookClub, cbr13bingo, faintingviolet, fairytale adaptation, Katherine Arden, low fantasy, remade folktale, The Bear and the Nightingale

faintingviolet's CBR13 Review No:42 · Genres: Book Club, Fantasy, Fiction, History · Tags: book club, CannonBookClub, cbr13bingo, faintingviolet, fairytale adaptation, Katherine Arden, low fantasy, remade folktale, The Bear and the Nightingale ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Book Club Discussion Post: The Bear and the Nightingale

September 17, 2021 by faintingviolet 6 Comments

Welcome to our Fairy tale Adaptations book club! This go round we’ve selected four books that showed their author’s take on various fairy tales and folktales. Each of our books below have their own Discussion Posts and don’t forget, we’ll be having our Zoom Book Club on Saturday September 18 at 7 pm EDT. Other Discussions The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Deerskin by Robin McKinley Sea Witch by Sarah Henning Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson For those of you returning […]

Filed Under: Book Club, Fantasy, Fiction, History Tagged With: book club, CannonBookClub, Discussion Post, fairytale adaptations, Katherine Arden, Rumplestiltskin, The Bear and the Nightingale, the winter king, Twelve months

Genres: Book Club, Fantasy, Fiction, History · Tags: book club, CannonBookClub, Discussion Post, fairytale adaptations, Katherine Arden, Rumplestiltskin, The Bear and the Nightingale, the winter king, Twelve months ·
· 6 Comments

Still just OK the second time around

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

September 11, 2021 by Dome'Loki 4 Comments

CBR 13 Bingo Square: Landscape Genuine question:  It seemed when Cannonball Book Club was announced The Bear and the Nightingale was presented as a reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin, as that was the fairytale linked to for reading the original.  I don’t see a comparison?  Is there something I’m missing?  Or was I incorrect in that the two were paired together in that way?  Would love to know how others interpret as this feels more like “Cinderella” crossed with “The Twelve Months”. For Cannonball Book Club, I had […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction Tagged With: #fantasy, CBR13, cbr13bingo, cbrbookclub, Dome'Loki, fairytale, Fiction, Katherine Arden

Dome'Loki's CBR13 Review No:33 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction · Tags: #fantasy, CBR13, cbr13bingo, cbrbookclub, Dome'Loki, fairytale, Fiction, Katherine Arden ·
Rating:
· 4 Comments
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