Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Under His Eye

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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Aww. This was so good. I think Atwood did a wonderful job of showing us how Gilead came to be, how it was for those who lived there, and how it looked to others from the outside. Instead of staying with one POV throughout the story, Atwood allows us to to get fully immerse in Gilead via the POVs of a young girl named Agnes, an older girl named Daisy, and the fearsome Aunt Lydia. The character development works for these three characters as well […]

“The truth can cause a lot of trouble for those who are not supposed to know it.”

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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Bingo square: History/Schmistory (as in alternate history, given that – as with The Handmaid’s Tale – the book ends with historical notes from a symposium about Gilead in the year 2197). Set more than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments is told by three different narrators. There is the familiar Aunt Lydia who we saw through Offred’s eyes in the previous book; a young girl named Daisy living in Canada and unaware of her ties to Gilead; and Agnes, one […]

For she will surely need it.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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This will mostly be a spoiler-free review, unless you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale. So to say that I wasn’t looking forward to this book at all is to undersell how unnecessary I felt like this book was going to be. I have some significant issues with the television show because for me, it sheds light on what felt like purposeful shadow within which the original novel kept the narrative. The original novel was a collection of found tapes secreted away and found later, now […]

Not Quite a Worthy Sequel, But Still Good

The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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First, let me say that I devoured this book in one day. No matter it’s faults, and it does have them, this is obviously an extremely propulsive book. I couldn’t put it down. Despite it being a giant hardcover, I was carrying it with me everywhere around the house, even when it was inconvenient and even uncomfortable to do so. It’s been a long time since I spent hours doing nothing but just reading, but I spent basically a day reading this and the new […]

Oh Margaret. You can do so many things, but rapping is not one of them. (CBR 11 Bingo: Remix)

Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold by Margaret Atwood

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I love a good Shakespearean remix. I devour everything Margaret Atwood has to offer. I was delighted to come across Hag-Seed, as I am still haunted by her addition to the Canongate Myth Series (Penelopiad) 14 years after reading. Atwood sets her storm in the “summer-stock” theater world of world of far flung Canada. Our Prospero is a wrongfully toppled director of a prestigious theater; toppled by schemes, toppled by loss, and toppled by grief. His island takes the form of a prison, where he rises once […]

Margaret Atwood, prophet.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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CBR11 Bingo – Summer Read This category is pretty subjective, and I know that for most people this might not be classified as a ‘light summer beach read’… but I literally saved this for vacation and devoured it while in a lounge chair by the water, beverage in hand. So, for me, it works? I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I had never read The Handmaid’s Tale until this month – if that gets out, they may revoke my Canadian citizenship. I think it’s because […]



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