Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About GentleRain

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Your jack of all trades eccentric. Knows a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Tends to mainly read non-fiction (history, true crime, old gossip, etc), SF/F, horror, graphic novels, "genre" books. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: GentleRain's Quick Questions interview.)

GentleRain's Reviews:

One of My Top Books of the Year

The Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy (edited by Hugo Vickers)

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CBR15Bingo — History I love, love, loved this book. This is a highlight of my reading year so far and a real keeper for my library of royal books. I do wonder what it is about royalty that tends to attract gay men — glamour? — because I felt very in sympathy with Pope-Hennessy’s fascination with royalty as a separate species of human beings throughout (I related very much to him being described as unremittingly homosexual in the introduction). As someone with a not insubstantial […]

One of My All-Time Favorite Works of Art

Fruits Basket Collector's Edition Vols 1-12 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket Another Vols 1-4 by Natsuki Takaya

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CBR15Bingo: Strange Worlds (Tohru becomes involved in the strange world of the Sohma family and there are supernatural events throughout.) The problem with writing a review of one of my all-time favorite series is that I mentally become that clip from a Lady Gaga interview (“Talented, brilliant, incredible amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference…”) and it makes it hard to summarize my thoughts beyond an incoherent shaking of the person listening […]

Shocking News, Classic Author Wilkie Collins Wrote Another Good Book

The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins

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CBR15Bingo: Dwelling (the secret in the house is a major part of this book, and the house itself is a sort of character) I continue my tradition of one Wilkie Collins book a year with The Dead Secret, a fun and fast-paced read that cements Collins as probably my favorite Victorian writer (besides George Eliot for Middlemarch, but I’ve struggled to read Daniel Deronda about four times, whereas I’ve enjoyed every Collins I’ve read). I was especially impressed to note on the back cover that […]

“…evil is always essentially small and petty and mean and depraved, and in a limited life it represents a portion wasted, misused, and that can never be regained.”

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman

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CBR15Bingo: Sex (a lot of this book revolves around issues caused by sex) I found out about this book through Jo Walton’s monthly roundup of the books she reads, which I always enjoy. It’s fascinating seeing what goes into the mind of a favorite author, and she’s always reading things I’ve never heard of. I’m not usually a mystery person, but the plot and concept behind this one seemed interesting, so I picked it up. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late follows Rabbi David Small, the […]

Fantasy is Social Commentary and I Love It

Witch King by Martha Wells

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CBR15Bingo — Relation “ship” — This is a very relationship focused book and they spend time on two different ships as well. My first Martha Wells! And a nice way to start, as I fully enjoyed this book and am glad I went ahead and bought it at full price after dithering over it at the bookstore two days in a row. I got the B&N signed edition, which is a sturdy hardcover with her signature embossed in gold on the inside cover. I thought […]

“Towards the end of my first time in Indonesia I stayed in a house on the edge of the jungle and dreamed the worst nightmares I have known since I was a child.”

In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos by Richard Lloyd Parry

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CBR15Bingo: Asia & Oceania (all about Indonesia and experiencing the uprising that unseated Suharto) I picked this up because I loved The People Who Eat Darkness, Parry’s later work about trying to catch a murderer in Japan. It is such a great book that I’ve been wanting to read other work by him, so I was happy to find out that he’d written this part memoir, part on the spot reporting about the time he’d spent in Indonesia as a young journalist. I didn’t know […]



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