Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About octothorp

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I buy books faster than I can read them. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: octothorp's Quick Questions interview.)

octothorp's Reviews:

Same, Nora

I remember nothing by Nora Ephron

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Nora Ephron’s later works seem to exist so that I have something to read while killing time reselling my old books to the used bookstore. They take about 45 minutes to read, are pleasant but not taxing, and amusing without a ton of investment. They’re ephemeral as a result, and I am only 80% certain that I remember the essays correctly. Like, I just read something about how useless egg white omelets are and that the correct way to make one is to add yolks […]

Your mileage may vary

The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray

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I was not a fan of this one, but it has my absolute least favorite plot/trope as the main thread of its story: the pest that our protagonist can’t get away from. I hate stories that wouldn’t exist if one person just told the other something, and in this case it should have been “get as far away from me as humanly possible.” Paul is a failed novelist who approaches our protagonist Claude, a banker for an investment firm that is run by an enigmatic […]

How fitting that I’m experiencing reviewing this book again…

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

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It’s strange how CBR makes you realize the thematic similarities between the books you read. This easily could have come from one of the other books I’ve reviewed this year about loss: “No one tells you it’s all about to change, to be taken away. There’s no proximity alert, no indication that you’re standing on the precipice. And maybe that’s what makes tragedy so tragic. Not just what happens, but how it happens: a sucker punch that comes at you out of nowhere, when you’re […]

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you.”

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

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There was a lot about Curtis Sittenfeld’s reimagining of Pride and Prejudice that I liked, and a lot that I felt fell flat. In the pro column: The whole conceit about Bingley being well known as being in want of a wife due to his being on Eligible – the obvious stand in for The Bachelor – and walking away from the finale not ready to marry any of the finalists. Cute! Aging the characters up: teenagers being obsessed with getting married just sits differently […]

Throw the whole damn man away

Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult

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I have to admit some bias with this book, because a good friend of mine who is wayyyy too amazing to date the Jaydens, Braydens, and Okaydens that she usually goes for just got her heart broken by the most average basic cis dude doctor.  But even so, throw the whole damn man away Paige. Our heroine is not perfect, mind. She leaves her husband and three month old to go find herself by searching for her wayward mother for a few months. Because she’s […]

Glitter wrote a book

Space opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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I need to preface this by saying I liked it, but not as much as the tags might suggest. That said, I don’t think anything could live up to the premise – in the near future, aliens visit Earth and select an unlikely candidate for the singing competition that determines our fate as last place in the galactic showdown gets obliterated. As Yoko Ono is deceased, they settle for their only available choice – Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, only two of the three […]



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