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:

“Are there really public servants out there sucking terrorist tongues for my freedom?”

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

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I love movies. I love watching them, talking about them, listening to other people talk about them, and eating too much popcorn while watching them. Is there really such thing as too much popcorn? YES! In our home, we call it “pop corn belly” and it is a scourge against humanity. I am an equal-opportunity movie watcher: good, bad, ugly- I don’t care. Give ’em to me and I’ll find something to enjoy. I can be a snob when I have to, but really? I […]

“A kiss might be blameless, so long as it was the other person doing the leaning. Was it your fault, really, if someone else kissed you?”

The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

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What if A.S. Byatt’s Possession popped up again in the internet age? The Portrait of a Mirror answers that question with a heaping helping of Greek mythology to boot. Diana, Wes, Dale, and Vivien are spoiled obsessives staring at themselves into eternity. They are slimy people, but you know what? I don’t care! I want them to be happy in their clandestine adventures, and I want them to be miserable in their public falling outs! Wes and Diana are married. Their relationship is a constant sparring match that […]

“something that combines the majesty of enya with the mystery of…enya”

Giant Days, Vol. 4 by John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar

Giant Days, Vol. 5 by John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar

Giant Days, Vol. 6 by John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar

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A really fun thing about failing to write reviews in a timely manner means that I get to go back and re-experience the joys of comics in order to accurately recount my thoughts! Hooray! It’s harder when I procrastinate with novels, but digging back through volumes of comics is far from the worst way to kickstart a writing project! Unluckily? Luckily? I have nearly a dozen Giant Days to catch up on, so I can relive their adventures while I hunch over my keyboard on this […]

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

I Would be Doing this Anyway by Jia Tolentino

Rewards by Emma Cline

Crewelwork by Justin Torres

The Tomorrow Box by Curtis Sittenfeld

If You Are Lonely and You Know It by Yiyun Li

The Summer House by Cristina Henriquez

Me and Carlos by Tom Perrotta

Simplexity by Kiley Reid

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Ahh, Lester Bangs. Or at least, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs via Cameron Crowe in Almost Famous. Did I just grab this quote because it features the word “currency”? Well…yes and no. Currency, my latest dive into Amazon Original Stories (but not the latest collection released) describes itself as being about “friends, trends, and dividends”. The link between these eight stories is the currency between people; social, professional, and personal transactions made when money is too much to offer or not enough to cover. The players […]

dreams fill in where memories fail

Space Invaders by Nona Fernández, Natasha Wimmer

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If you too are seeking respite from this surprisingly hot Saturday, I whole-heartedly recommend spending an hour curled up in front of a fan while reading Space Invaders from cover to cover. This is the second fictional account of being a child in Pinochet’s Chile to rise through my TBR pile this year; How to Order the Universe offered one girl’s story, while Space Invaders  trades dreams and memories from a chorus of children who grew up too soon against the terror of the 1980s. Unlike the precocious […]

Dramarama (and a delayed CANNONBALL)!

Giant Days, Vol. 1 (single issues 1-4) by John Allison, Lissa Treiman

Giant Days, Vol. 2 (single issues 5-8) by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin

Giant Days Vol. 3 (single issues 9-12) by John Allison, Max Sarin, Jim Campbell, Lissa Treiman

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I started this review back in March (EEP!) and it has been my albatross now for nearly two months. Double EEP! I adored the web comics, and when I was feeling down around the Covid-aversary I dug into some good- old- fashioned- comfort- comics. What began as a pick-me-up purchase of the first volume became a “tune it all out” obsession once I realized that more volumes were available on both Scribd and Hoopla. My diversion turned into a marathon reading of volumes 1-12 with […]



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