Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Scholomance Trilogy (and a Short Story)

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman

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What would you do if you were basically in a dark version of Hogwarts, where the semi-sentient school barely cares if you live, and you can’t leave for 4 years? If you’re El, short for Galadriel, you spend the first 2. 5 years of that letting your prickly, angry, bitter exterior prevent anyone from getting close to you. This is where A Deadly Education starts off, about halfway through El’s junior year at the Scholomance. We find out over the course of the novel why […]

bit of an omnibus for the year end

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow, Ann Friedman

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Buried Deep and Other Stories (⭐⭐⭐⭐ but for the ones I read) Did I get this only to re-visit the world of Temeraire? You bet! I felt, I think like many people, that Novik got a bit fed up of her Dragon + Napoleonic Wars world by the end, with the whimsy and joy taken over by staid descriptions of military marches and food depots. This was a way to return to the original joy, especially since one of the retellings was of Pride and […]

“All of Life Was Only Moments, After All”

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

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Uprooted and Spinning Silver are a pair of standalone novels by Naomi Novik, though they share some similarities in that they both seem to be set in a medieval version of eastern Europe and were inspired by fairy tales, though I would say that the fairy tale inspiration is much stronger and clearer in Spinning Silver. Uprooted is about Agnieszka, a 17-year-old girl who is chosen by a wizard named the Dragon to serve him for 10 years. He chooses a new girl every 10 […]

“READER, I RAN the f*** away.”

A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik

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CBR Bingo – Strange Worlds Our heroine Galadriel, aka El, a sort of magical Wednesday Adams, is fighting for her life at a teacher-less school of magic, only this Hogwarts is actively trying to kill its students. They attend classes, sleep in dorms, eat in a cafeteria, and are trapped there with no contact with the outside world as they make their way through this distorted high school experience. Everything is leading up to their graduation day, which tests the seniors’ mettle and skill and […]

This should have been my tenth review of the year – not sure what happened there

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

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This is the concluding volume in a trilogy. It won’t really work for you unless you’ve read the previous two books. Start with A Deadly Education. Also, this review will contain spoilers for the previous book in the series, so proceed at your own risk if you’re not caught up. Galadriel “El” Higgins has done the impossible. She has not only made it out of the Scholomance with her entire graduating senior class, but with every other student in the school as well. Everyone is […]

“My inner being is exceptionally cranky and I often don’t want her company myself.”

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

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CBR Passport Challenge: Books Recommended by Friends This is the second book in a trilogy. It doesn’t really make sense if you’ve not read the series from the beginning. So if you’re not caught up, go read A Deadly Education. It’s great, I’ll wait. El and Orion are now seniors in the Scholomance, and they have absolutely no way of knowing if their very dangerous mission just before graduation to fix the furnaces worked. Did they manage to clear the graduation hall of the majority […]



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