Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Bothari43

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When writing a genre-based lim'rick / Avoid lengthy 'post-apoc'lyptic' / Though CB reviews / Have broadened my views / My fave is still chick-written sci-fic (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Bothari43's Quick Questions interview.)

Bothari43's Reviews:

Another good one to thank #CannonBookClub for

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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This was so good, but so hard. I did not go into it expecting fluff, but damn. I started reading it right after watching the first episode of the Snowpiercer TV show, and finished it on the last night we had a city-wide curfew because of protests and riots. An interesting cocktail of race/class topics. I usually use fiction as an escape, but knowing that so many of the awful things that happened on the ship happened for real, and then surfacing from the book […]

Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: KimMiE”

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You read a wide variety of genres. How do you decide what to read next from your TBR list/stack? It’s really just based on my mood at the time. I try to alternate between fiction and nonfiction, or between something pretty dense and lighter fare, but it depends. Often, I just stand in front of my bookcase and see what grabs me. Right now, I’m reading Frankenstein because I recently watched National Theatre Live’s production, which they are currently streaming, and that put me in […]

I will begrudgingly be grateful that I learned the word ‘pseudopodinously’

Preternatural by Margaret Wander Bonanno

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When an author who likes to do cheeky asides uses a big word and tells the reader “Look it up,” which is more insulting: when you DO know the word, or when you DON’T? I cogitated on that during the whole book, and couldn’t decide. I do know that when the cheeky asides tell you “Now pay attention here,” it is pretty much always insulting. This book was a clever idea, nearly drowned by an author who got too preoccupied with the idea of being […]

“A man without rights in this world is not freed from his responsibilities.”

Amnesty by Aravind Adiga

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My mom is an unrepentant fast-forwarder. Any movie montage, car chase, fight scene, or any extended section of a movie with no dialogue is gonna get fast-forwarded through. (I grew up thinking this was totally normal and acceptable, and have had several boyfriends go “WAIT, what are you DOING?!?!” when I started fast-forwarding through a scene I thought was skippable.) This book, while totally lovely, could definitely have used a fast-forward button. Danny (Dhananjaya) is from Sri Lanka, living illegally in Australia. He came on […]

Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: blauracke

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Where does ‘blauracke’ come from? When I decided to sign up for CBR I had just read a newspaper article about the Blauracke (the European roller), which is a beautiful bird but unfortunately almost extinct here, so I chose it as my handle for CBR. It was really just a spur-of-the-moment decision. You have been reading some heavy stuff lately! (Lots of plagues; Chernobyl…) What author/genre do you turn to when you need a comfort read? One of my favourite authors is Leo Perutz who […]

A realistic look back at surviving the zombie apocalypse

World War Z by Max Brooks

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I started reading this before the world jumped headfirst into its own virus apocalypse, then got a bunch of library books and put it aside, then came back to it in the midst of everything. What a difference a few months makes! First of all, I need everyone to know that the author is the son of Mel Brooks. That totally blew my mind. What interesting dinner conversations that family must have! The zombie apocalypse has come and gone, and the world is recovering. A […]



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