allisonata – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

These Virtues are Formed in Man by His Doing the Actions

Severance by Ling Ma

February 25, 2019 by allisonata 2 Comments

“I couldn’t see myself as a product coordinator forever, coordinating Bibles, shaving razors, Nike sneakers, or whatever, from my desk in New York to various plants across Southeast Asia. Just because you’re adequately good at something doesn’t mean that’s what you should do.” On the surface of it—introverted young woman absorbed by her career struggles to survive a plague-ridden world—this book’s premise isn’t particularly innovative. Turns out it’s all in the execution. This finely crafted novel fully deserves the flotilla of awards it gathered in […]

Undiagnosed Mental Illness Will Wreck Your Life

Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey

February 25, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

“…You are very lucky. Not everyone can feel things as deeply as you. Most people, their feelings are…bland, tasteless. They’ll never understand what it’s like to read a poem and feel almost like they’re flying, or to see a bleeding fish and feel grief that shatters their heart. It’s not a weakness, Grey. It’s what I love about you most.” Our man Greyson, a successful Hollywood executive with a wife and an eight-year-old daughter, has an undiagnosed mental illness. It’s an unescapable, nameless issue that […]

Meg Ryan Rom-Com: I should have bought the Kindle edition (now $1.99!)

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

February 10, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

Picking out a book is like dating before computers: all you’ve got to go on is cover and genre. Let’s say bleak non-fiction is your wheelhouse. Today you’re not feeling it—hundreds of pages about the Holocaust is enough for one week—so you think, hey! time for something new. Look at this handwritten recommendation on the bookstore shelf. Look at that cute paperclip…aww, it’s a workplace romance. Not my type, but maybe I’ve changed! Maybe there’s still feeling left in my pessimistic soul! I breezed through […]

Don’t Say We Didn’t Try

Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe by Rebecca Erbelding

February 10, 2019 by allisonata 1 Comment

Due to extensive documentation in all manner of media, World War II is an enduring object of fascination. Just when we think we’ve heard everything, the inexhaustible well comes up with something new. In my favored stories of resistance, espionage, politicking, and propaganda, the Holocaust—Nazi Germany’s systematic genocide of Jews in occupied Europe—is impossible to avoid. (Yes, other minority groups were targeted, too. This book is not about them.) It’s a favorite pastime among WWII buffs to finger people, besides the Germans, who ought to […]

A Brief Word from Your Friendly Sentient Killing Machine

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Beck

February 9, 2019 by allisonata 2 Comments

Though I adore me some sci-fi, I’ve muddled through so many mediocre novels that I tend to wait for awards season to come around. Last year this aerodynamic novella won everything (Hugo, Nebula, Alex, Locus) so here we are. Since the title contains the whole premise, it’s no spoiler to say that Murderbot—a hacked security construct—is our narrator. It is self-aware, competent, and thoroughly bored guarding a scientific expedition on a remote planet. (Luckily, it has hacked its systems so that it can watch future […]

“Richard knows he’s one of very few people in this world who are in a position to take their pick of realities.”

Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Susan Bernofsky)

February 4, 2019 by allisonata Leave a Comment

Time does something to a person, because a human being isn’t a machine that can be switched on and off. The time during which a person doesn’t know how his life can become a life fills a person condemned to idleness from his head down to his toes. Go, Went, Gone is a carefully crafted, meticulously researched novel that feels as natural as walking down the street. Protagonist Richard is a newly retired professor of Classics and a childless widower. As a former East Berliner […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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