Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

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My mother wanted to take me to a summer, outdoor production of Twelfth Night for my birthday, which I thought was a great idea. My reading of Shakespeare is a little light. I’m very familiar with Romeo and Juliet and I’ve read Othello, but that’s about it. In order to adequately prepare for the show, I decided to read the play. My only knowledge of Twelfth Night before I read the play came from the end of Shakespeare in Love. Shakespeare is saying goodbye to Viola and says he’ll write a play for […]

It is only natural, of course, that each man should think his own opinions best: the crow loves his fledgling, and the ape his cub.

Utopia by Thomas More

Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Heloise and Abelard by Peter Abelard and Heloise

Fairy Tales by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm

Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault

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Utopia – 3/5 Stars Have you read Utopia? I hadn’t before this. I decided to read it because it’s one of those books that has always been in the periphery of my life and life’s reading because of how much I’ve read dystopian literature. But I avoided it. It reads a lot like Plato’s Republic and makes references to it, and it’s presented like a would be travelogue. Sort of like later books like Thoma Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia or Jan Morris’s […]

The play’s the thing

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CBR10Bingo: This Old Thing (The Tempest) and Birthday (Hag-Seed) I’m a big fan of Margaret Atwood’s novels. I haven’t read everything she’s written, but I have a shelf full of her books and have loved all but one (sorry, The Heart Goes Last). I always watch for her new releases, and she’s one of the rare exceptions I’ll make to buy hardcover. When Hag-Seed came out a few years ago, I was all excited and ready to buy, until I looked at the cover blurb […]

High School Seniors read Hamlet for you.

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I don’t know if you like teenagers, but I do. They’re great; they’re terrible. But I re-read Hamlet for about the 15th time with my AP students and instead of reviewing what I thought about it for the 15th time, here’s what they said about it. The best day of class was when we talked about the “get thee to a nunnery” scene and one of my students called Hamlet a “fuck boy”. I asked them to do a 25-50 word capsule review or an […]

It doesn’t get better than this

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Much Ado About Nothing is by far my favorite Shakespeare play. I love most of his others too (especially Twelfth Night, Macbeth, & Romeo and Juliet), but this play is special. It’s fun to watch/read but surprisingly complex. If you haven’t ever seen/read it, I highly recommend starting with the Branaugh movie version and then reading an annotated copy. I actually own the dramatized audio version with David Tennant and Samantha Spiro, so I really like listening while I read along in hard copy. They’re […]

David Tennant makes everything better.

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Here’s something strange: last week I picked up two books at the library without really knowing what they were about. I just knew I heard “about” them and figured they would be a good way to pass a cold, rainy April weekend. What’s weird is that were pretty much the same story…just that one was way, way better than the other. Spoiler/trigger warning Both of these books deal with the rape of a high school student and the repercussions that follow. First lets get the […]



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