Claire Badger – Cannonball Read 17

A meta tale of time and paradoxes

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

August 28, 2022 by Claire Badger Leave a Comment

You get the feeling that Emily St. John Mandel is not content to rest on her laurels. She not only one-ups herself with every book, she challenges the reader to accept that she’s not going to do what’s expected of her. These qualities make her a delightful author to follow. St. John Mandel has taken her usual formula of several characters spread out over geography, woven through time, effecting one another in ways they can neither perceive nor imagine, and inserted a version of herself […]

Joining the Club

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

August 28, 2022 by Claire Badger Leave a Comment

What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said about it by our community? It’s awesome? It took me too long to pick it up? The one advantage to waiting as long as I did, was that the spiritual sequel, Sea of Tranquility, was out by then and I could take in more of the characters from Mandel’s world as soon as I finished this one. Like all things St. John Mandel writes, The Glass Hotel is an intricately woven tale of […]

A fairytale for the end times

Borne by Jeff Vandermeer

August 28, 2022 by Claire Badger 1 Comment

Did it take me over two years to read this book? Yes, yes it did. Had I stopped reading at the point where it was just about to get really good? Yes, yes I had. Was it worth it to get back into it and keep reading? Heck yeah. I put it down two years ago because it was weird in a way I wasn’t interested in. I was used to Vandermeer’s more sci-fi edged fever dream style of writing, but Borne had an air […]

Toxic Air

the_atmospherians by Isle McElroy

January 7, 2022 by Claire Badger Leave a Comment

At times, this seems like a somewhat simple book about a disgraced influencer who starts a cult with her childhood best friend. When you step away from it and look at the balancing act McElroy pulled off though, you realize they pulled off the ultimate achievement of making something difficult look easy. McElroy throws so many balls in the air and keeps juggling, successfully introducing challenging and difficult elements to make this tight-rope walk of a book work. The book begins with Sasha, a disgraced […]

Like A Wes Anderson Psychological Thriller in Japan

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

September 7, 2021 by Claire Badger 1 Comment

I eagerly picked up Earthlings when I heard it was released. I loved Sayaka Murata’s English language debut, Convenience Store Woman, and was excited to see what the latest translation of her work had to offer. She has a unique and compelling style of prose, and a way of explaining the pressures of Japanese society that is sympathetic to her weird outsiders and totally rational in a slightly twisted way. The cover and back of Earthlings is full of praise for Convenience Store Woman, raving […]

The ever tricky space colonization genre

Do You Dream of Terra Two? by Temi Oh

August 18, 2021 by Claire Badger Leave a Comment

In an alternate Earth, where space travel began before the first World War, a manned trip to another solar system is now possible in the year 2012. Temi Oh uses this conceit to explore what it would be like for us, people of the early 21st century, to explore the solar system and eventually colonize a new planet. It’s a great conceit. We’re introduced in the pre-launch section to a world with a space museum, one that has beautiful traditions dating almost a century at […]

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.

About Claire Badger