Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Dusty Highway

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To paraphrase Wynonna, books are my strongest weakness. I've been away for a few years. It's time to get back to it. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Dusty Highway's Quick Questions interview - as dAvid.)

Dusty Highway's Reviews:

Rainbow Rowell may have ruined me, but I’m not mad

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

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Last year was really the first time I read any YA books as an adult, aside from the first Harry Potter book my dad bought me for Christmas twenty years ago. Maybe I’ve just had a string of bad luck. Maybe I’m too much of a literary fiction snob (GAC) to get the same kind of enjoyment out of YA. Or maybe Rainbow Rowell, and to a lesser degree, Becky Albertalli, spoiled me for everyone else since their books resonated so deeply with me. I […]

I felt like I could see the wizard behind the curtain, pulling the strings

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

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 On a visit to London last year, I stopped by Foyle’s on Charing Cross Road a few times, and on one of those visits, I picked up three space opera books: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley, and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. The cashier’s face lit up when he saw my choices, saying that he’d read and loved all of them, especially Ancillary Justice. I’m not sure why it’s the last of […]

He was so unknown, he was still all possibility, unopened cupboards and drawers

The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

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I had a discussion with Classic a few weeks ago in the comments section of her review for The Paying Guests, which she said started off very slowly. At the time, I happened to be about 100 pages into Alan Hollinghurst’s The Folding Star, and I’d been worrying about how slowly it was moving until I thought back to the same time last year when I read his most recent novel, The Sparsholt Affair, which didn’t really click for me until the last 50 pages. […]

Everything changes in a Season

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

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Sometimes the weight of expectation is enough to keep me from reading a book I truly want to read. Case in point: I’ve had NK Jemisin’s The Fifth Season on my shelf for almost a year, even though I was sooo excited when I bought my copy. The timing was right, though, since I needed a win after a bit of a streak of so-so reads, and for the most part, this book delivered. The Fifth Season begins with a prologue that introduces the world […]

It’s official: I ain’t got no cooth

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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I’ve resolved to read more classics this year, and that puts me in a bit of a bind. There simply aren’t as many capital-C Classics by women (which does *not* reflect well on our culture), and I’m not that excited to overload on male writers just yet. I know this really means that I need to dig a little deeper and search a little harder to find the good stuff, but in the meantime, I have a few on my shelves, including one that I […]

Missed it byyyyy thatmuch

Sweet Fruit, Sour Land by Rebecca Ley

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I know I’ve mentioned a few (hundred) times that I’m a sucker for the Man Booker Prize, and I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of those lists for many years. I’ve finally started paying more attention to others, too, particularly the Costa (formerly Whitbread) Awards and the Women’s Prize, and I also found the cheeky Not-the-Booker Prize awarded by The Guardian from a blend of votes by the public and a judging panel. I thought the 2018 winner, Rebecca Ley’s Sweet Fruit, Sour Land, […]



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