Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About andtheIToldYouSos

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Bookseller by day, book reader by night...and hopefully a reviewer somewhere in between. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: andtheIToldYouSos's Quick Questions interview.)

andtheIToldYouSos's Reviews:

“We’re not in Ghost Busters! This is real life!”

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

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I did not read Ghost Squad when I was young, as it did not yet exist! This is a 2020 release, and I feel that I would have liked it very much when I in third/fourth grade. There’s magic, monsters, hijinks, and plenty of cat-content that would have kept me giddy throughout. I worried at first that this tale might be “heavy” for a middle-grade reader; it starts with some genuine adult anxieties and perils. We open with the financial woes of Lucely’s father- the bank is […]

The Five-Hop One-Stop at the End of the Universe

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

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Well, not exactly the end of the universe, but definitely the Restaurant at the End of the Wayfarers Series! While we’re speaking of restaurants, allow me to share with you one of the best (outside of Redwall, of course) feast descriptions that I have ever come across: “grilled quickbread, a hurriedly made batch of whitefish salad, tiny wraps of grain paper stuffed with nut butter and edible flowers, and the last of his smoked eel and crackers.” So very tempting- and I can barely tolerate […]

out of the way, Mr. Hughes. Let the real stars shine.

Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood by Karina Longworth

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You’ve seen The Aviator, yes? If not, maybe you know that it’s about Howard Hughes? Yes- the Spruce Goose guy. Yes, the keep on failing upwards guy. Yes, the “keep your pee in jars” guy. We’ve all heard or seen at least a little bit about Howard Hughes. His reach was wide and heavy, and he swept away businesses, careers, and entire studios in his wake. Karina Longworth, author of Seduction and podcaster extraordinaire, covered Howard Hughes’s Hollywood during a whole season of her phenomenal podcast a […]

Murderbot is back and hosin’ hostiles once again, baybee

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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Murderbot, my misanthropic friend! Welcome back- back to the PAST! There had been a lot of scuttlebutt floating around telling us that this would be a novella (hooray- I think the novel format dragged the last entry down), and that it would be a prequel. Hmmm. A prequel? Right after a satisfying promise of adventures with returning beloved characters? Booo! Once again, I stand by eating my big ol’ helping of crow pie while Martha Wells proves, once again, that I should trust the author […]

all ABOARD!

Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi

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Mysterious and melancholy adventure awaits! Otto and Xavier, legally paired but not traditionally wed, receive a lavish not-honeymoon gift from a fabulously wealthy aunt: a trip on a strange and fabulous train. They don’t know where they are going, why they have been invited, or who is truly pulling the strings behind this event. They don’t know if the reclusive woman who lives full-time on the train (what a dream!) held up a sign that said “HELP” or “HELLO”, and they don’t know if they […]

this book has been kicking around for 30ish years and I just picked it up NOW?!

Possession by A.S. Byatt

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…and it’s been sitting in my own collection for a good decade or so? How did I keep stepping around this one? This book was written for me- or at least the me of ten years ago. DEFINITLEY the me of twenty years ago. 14-year-old-me would have swooned myself into an early grave with this one! A youngish academic is sinking further and further into classic British gloom. He’s in a dead relationship, putting in time in a dead-end job, researching crumbs on a long-dead […]



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