Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

700+ words on how much I disliked this book

The Rose Field by Philip Pullman

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BINGO: TBR, even though it’s relatively recent, because for how excited I was for the launch it’s shockingly long before I actually forced myself to sit down and read this thing Maybe I will change the review for this when I’ve calmed down but for now WE RIDE AS WITCHES, perfectly serene and passionate and unbothered by the vagaries of humankind. Warning that at some point I do go off into a bullet point list which have some spoiler-y elements, but it is worth it […]

When Good is Evil and Evil even worse

The Subtle Knife The Graphic Novel by Philip Pullman

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cbr14bingo Snake  Level two Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass is a dark read and The Subtle Knife is even darker. Therefore, when either is in a graphic novel format, you are not only reading the dark you are seeing the dark. In all its nasty glory. The theme of religion becomes more center stage, and the violence of all worlds comes to a bloody ending (and start and middle) in this adaptation by Stephane Melchior. The Subtle Knife is not an easy read, and the […]

Now you know why it’s called His Dark Materials

The Golden Compass Graphic Novel by Stephane Melchior-Durand

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If you liked the novel, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, this graphic novel is a nice companion to “flesh out” parts. If you have not read the book, this might be a way to be introduced to it, but it will color your feelings about the pictureless novel. I did not picture the characters the way Clement Oubrerie has. It feels like it might be more authentic to what the author probably wanted, with the darker and bleak imagery. However, colors are used to […]

How does this child have the energy to do so many high-stakes things?!

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

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Since its release in 1995, there has been a movie adaptation and a TV adaptation of The Golden Compass (originally titled Northern Lights outside of North America), so I’m guessing that we all have a general understanding of the plot, but here is a brief overview. Lyra is a brash, headstrong, and fearless girl. She and her daemon Pan (a physical manifestation of the soul in the world Lyra is from) live at Jordan College in Oxford under the care of the Scholars of the college where she […]

The Show Improves the Faults of the Book

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

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The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is my second time reading this book and, just like the first time I read it, I’m conflicted about it. For the first half of the book I find the protagonist, Lyra Belacqua, obnoxious and unrelatable. I’m not a fan of the precocious child protagonist archetype. Maybe if I had read this as a kid and wasn’t looking at her through adult eyes it might be different. Once Lyra begins her quest […]

CBR Diversions – Dream Casting

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As a lover of all things pop culture, I love to read and watch book adaptations on the big and small screen. I first saw HBO’s True Blood series before absolutely devouring the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books. Same for The Golden Compass, which was panned by critics, but led to me reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The screen versions captivated me and I simply had to know the literary origins of the characters. When I read a particularly engaging novel, […]



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