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:

I did not know this was about space viruses when I started it

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

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I had never heard of Nancy Kress, but she showed up as one of the few female names on this list of 25 best hard science fiction novels my dad sent me. My library (which I miss so much!) didn’t have the specific one on the list, but had this one available. It’s fine, and weirdly about an impending global pandemic, but nothing super special. Marianne is a scientist, studying genetics and DNA and something called haplogroups. She discovers a new haplogroup, and all of […]

Doesn’t live up to the title or the author

The Way to Dusty Death by Alistair MacLean

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I have thoroughly enjoyed Alistair MacLean’s adventure books in the past, but this one was just kind of eh. A little too testosteroney, I guess, but I should’ve expected that from a book about race car drivers. Harlow is the best race car driver in the world. He drives for the Coronado company, which has grown in stature as he has. MacAlpine, the boss, has a beautiful young waifish daughter (Mary) who flirts with Harlow. Everything is hunky dory! Until another car explodes after a […]

Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: andtheIToldYouSos

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How long have you been volunteering with CBR, and what is your area of expertise? I just volunteered at the beginning of this year. My areas of expertise are mostly physical, if I am going to say that I’m an expert at all at anything, haha. I worked in theater for a long time – doing both props and set design- but it was a terribly stressful environment. For the last few years I have been teaching other adults behavioral and trauma informed interventions to […]

It’s sad when you outgrow old favorites

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

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Younger Me adored Guy Gavriel Kay. Older Crabby Me has tried reading him, but found him melodramatic. But when I saw one of his I’d never heard of on the library shelf, I decided to give it a try. It takes place in the same world as Sailing to Sarantium, but that one was never one of my favorites (Tigana or Fionovar all the way!), so I don’t remember aaaaanything about it except mosaics and melodrama. So I can’t even tell you if this one […]

A pox on novella cliffhangers!

Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

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I listened to the first Binti story as an audio book without knowing that it wasn’t a full-length book, and then had looooots of road trip left when it was done. So I was prepared this time, but it still ended very abruptly and left me in the lurch! I like Binti a lot, though, and I am very interested to see how she gets out of this latest cliffhanger. Binti and her jellyfish alien friend Okwu have completed their first year at university, and […]

Be careful what to wish for when trying to earn your Adventure badge in Scouts

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer

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This adventure story feels more on the Y end than the A end of YA, but with some thrills and dangers that might be scary for littler readers. The three children of General Matsika – brave Tendai, the oldest at 13, assertive sister Rita, and four-year-old Kuda – are not allowed to leave the family compound. They have everything they could ever need, including fancy futuristic school lessons and a live-in Praise Singer who acts as tutor and babysitter. Their father has spent his career […]



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