Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a mermaid’s tail made of donkey skin (a dual cbr13bingo and #cannonbookclub adventure!)

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

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well, not exactly. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s  also unsettling The Little Mermaid. Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. […]

CannonBookClub Fairy Tales & Adaptations Announcement

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Discussion posts are live, see below. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Deerskin by Robin McKinley Sea Witch by Sarah Henning Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson Book Club Details Continuing our feel-good goals with #CannonBookClub in 2021 we’ve landed on Fairy Tales and Adaptations as our theme for our September meeting. With that in mind our Book Club team has decided on a shortlist of four books to choose from, highlighting different genres and original tales. September 17-18, 2021 Book Choices […]

Whelp, at least I know what I don’t like

A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley

The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley

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I thought I liked Robin McKinley.  I remember reading Deerskin and thinking it was really weird, but I thought I read other stuff by her that I liked.  I wonder if it’s a case of seeing her stuff around for a long time and assuming that I had read and liked it.  Well, I can now say I’ve read it, can’t say I’ve liked it. “The Healer” Lily is born mute, but with the gift of healing.  She can communicate some things by whistling, but […]

Revisiting a foggily-remembered classic

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Does it count as a reread if you don’t remember anything about the books? These have been on my shelf for years, but I remembered nothing but dragons. Aerin is a princess, but not the Disney variety. Her mother was a commoner and a witch, and the people of her father’s kingdom don’t like her much. She keeps to herself, feeling alone and useless, until one day she decides to take fate into her own hands and rides off to become a dragon hunter. She […]

How can I keep leading when the people I’m / Leading keep retreating?

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Chalice might be my favorite book by Robin McKinley.  I say might because, generally speaking, I really love books by Robin McKinley.  Sunshine is another contender for the favorite spot and Pegasus might be too, someday, if McKinley ever get around to finishing it*.   What I’m saying it, Robin McKinley is a really good author and if you have not read anything by her, you can pretty much pick any book to start with because with the notable exception of Pegasus** all her her books […]

McKinley does it again

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I’ve been a long-time fan of Robin McKinley, so I requested this new one through my Online Library and was excited when it became available days later. It is nice to know that the library requests can work and I wasn’t disappointed by the effort. I hadn’t even heard about Shadows and since McKinley doesn’t often do sequels, you never really know what you are going to get. Unlike many of her books, Shadows doesn’t have a fairy-tale land setting. It is more like our […]



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