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:

“I looked and listened:” Two Photojournalism Books

World Press Photo 2021 by World Press Photo Foundation

Below the Line: Living Poor in America by Eugene Richards

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World Press Photo 2021 was an interesting one for me because it made me think a lot about what I like about photojournalism and why this particular volume wasn’t clicking for me. There’s a bit in the book where they talk about how the field has switched to focusing more on the photographer having a particular personal vision and trying to capture a photo that sums up some sort of larger issue or event, versus earlier photographers who were trying to capture an exciting photo […]

Sometimes you just need to read a gay fish isekai comedy novel

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish (Volume 1) by Xue Shan Fei Hu

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This was such a fun treat! I saw this on TikTok and then looked at it a couple of times at the bookstore until I couldn’t resist anymore and gave in. I’m glad I did because I really did enjoy this and am looking forward to the next three volumes. I like a complete series and this one is done and just needs to be translated and published over here. This was the first danmei novel I’ve read, but I knew about some of the […]

“…his own losses were irreplaceable:” The Life and Times of a Private Secretary to Royalty

End of an Era: Letters and Journals of Sir Alan Lascelles 1887-1920 by Sir Alan Lascelles (Edited by Duff Hart-Davis)

King's Counsellor (Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan 'Tommy' Lascelles) by Sir Alan Lascelles (Edited by Duff Hart-Davis)

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I’m glad that I read these out of order, because going from reading the last volume, where Tommy is fully mature and in his element to the first volume, where he is a child, really drove home to me how much growing up and having the time to think and experience life can make someone less annoying and more thoughtful. I think if I’d started with the first book, it would have soured me on him because he is very of his time and class […]

“I realized I didn’t want to carry them around for the rest of my life.”

Nude Model and Other Stories by Tsubasa Yamaguchi

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This is a very interesting and striking manga collection of three pretty dark short stories. I haven’t read the author’s other work, Blue Period, which is about a teenager discovering art in high school, but I had looked at it before and liked the art style, which convinced me to pick this up. Since it’s a standalone consisting of three short stories, I figured it would be a good insight into her style and I liked the striking cover a lot. I liked all three […]

“She seems to be doing fine somewhere. But no, she’s actually nowhere.”

I Wish I Could Say "Thank You" by Yukari Takinami

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I Wish I Could Say “Thank You” is an autobiographical manga about the author’s mother dying of pancreatic cancer and how she and her family deal with this transitional phase in their lives. I got this from MoCCA Fest and haven’t seen it for sale in any bookstores around me, which cements why I like going to comic-cons. You get to see stuff from smaller presses that you might overlook or might be unavailable depending on distribution, and that’s often the material that I find […]

March/April Manga Review Grab Bag

Our Torsos Align by Ryo Sumiyoshi

The Blue Wolves of Mibu (Vol 1) by Tsuyoshi Yasuda

March Comes In Like a Lion (Vol 1-2) by Chica Umino

Sketchy (Vol 1) by Makihirochi

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Here’s a fun review grab bag of manga that I read in the last week or so. I have been trying to think about cutting down my collecting, but then I ended up in Kinokuniya, so…we can all guess what happened (three more volumes of manga for the double stacked shelves). Sketchy is by the same author as Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live?, which I’ve reviewed here previously and really wish would be put out in print editions instead of digital only. As […]



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