octothorp – Page 15 – Cannonball Read 17

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed”

Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang

April 22, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

To borrow from 30 Rock, I loved Arrival, as all right thinking people did, because I have two ears and a heart, don’t I? I had read the story that gives this collection its title in some science fiction best of collection shortly after its publication (it will drive me absolutely crazy that I can’t find where I initially read it to get an exact date, but it was at least ten years ago), and weirdly, about ten seconds into the movie before much happens, […]

Glass slipper not required

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

April 20, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know how a Cinderella Story ends, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much of Paul Rudnick’s Gorgeous managed to subvert my expectations. Becky Randle is given an unusual gift when her reclusive mother dies in the trailer home they share. She learns that her mother was once a fashion model for the designer Tom Kelly (a brand as much as a man in the Calvin Klein manner), and Kelly is offering to make plain Becky the most […]

There but for the grace of godtopus go any of us

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

April 17, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

The subtitle “One Name, Two Fates” is slightly contradicted by the highlighted quote “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” There may have been two different outcomes, but as the army veteran Wes Moore that authors the book acknowledges, the two were on similar paths for a large part of their childhood. Author Wes had the advantage of a more stable household at first, until his father died of a treatable […]

“We had visceral, rich memories of dull, interminable hours.”

Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

April 16, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

I’m lucky. I have the ability to work from home and am in a hyper-specific field so I can be secure in employment (knock on wood). But you guys, I miss going into the office. I miss making coffee or running to Starbucks if I’m feeling decadent. I miss hearing about my coworker’s unruly stepchildren, or my desk neighbor’s dating life. I miss rolling our eyes at meetings that could have been emails, or cooing over cute things that patients said during exams. I miss […]

Cannonball!

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

April 14, 2020 by octothorp 5 Comments

I had an odd experience reading this book; the plot is just similar enough to Knives Out that I had a weird superimposition of the setting. Despite this being set in the United Kingdom, as soon as they set foot in Mrs. Westaway’s house, I just immediately pictured the home in Knives Out. I picked this because I wanted a light read, and apparently my brain just went on autopilot. Anyway, we find our heroine Harriet – called Hal (I like Ware well enough, but […]

Reducing to poverty people born for better things

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

April 14, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

OK, this was the book I needed for quarantine. I’ve bemoaned my pre-shelter-in-place-self’s propensity to buy books that skewed apocalyptic or bore too close a resemblance to my current situation (damn you Past Octothorp, you couldn’t have known, but still!), and I’ve joked about it but honestly, the zombie spores and isolation books haven’t really bothered me. The depressing ones cut a little deeper. This wasn’t a reprieve from the darkness, but nothing makes sheltering in place seem like a privilege than reading about people […]

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.

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