octothorp – Page 30 – Cannonball Read 17

Go Fund Yourself. (illustrated, bingo)

Crowded by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, Ted Brandt

August 20, 2019 by octothorp 1 Comment

Let’s lead with this – this is the best book I’ve reviewed for CBR11. Go buy it, it’s good. I’m breaking one of my self-imposed rules for CBR here. I am a MAJOR comic book reader. I love them. I literally have three bookshelves devoted solely to my comics after having pared the collection down to just the essentials, my local comics purveyors know my life, I once started to estimate how much I spent on the comic books I have and shut that down […]

Fine enough for a short vacation (Travel)

The Infernals by John Connolly

August 15, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

I would never have known if it were not for cannonball read that apparently there is a whole slew of Samuel Johnson books – the hero of this book and its predecessor – as I purchased this for a buck at a library sale and only bought The Gates after learning this was not a stand alone book, as the amazon link specifically notes it as “a Samuel Johnson Tale.” Not trying to be too negative, but I’m having a real Ann Veal moment here. […]

I kind of don’t care that terrible people made problems for themselves (Pajiba)

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

August 12, 2019 by octothorp 2 Comments

I love Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and her non-fiction is so amazing that when I saw she had written a book I almost didn’t care what it was about, into the amazon cart it went, and it just happened to be a bonus that when I looked at the books eligible for the Pajiba category for bingo, it was on the front page of results. And then I read the cover blurbs. “Just the sort of thing that Philip Roth or John Updike might have produced in […]

“How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.” (Remix) (OH, and double bingo)

Revenge by Stephen Fry

August 9, 2019 by octothorp 1 Comment

(DOUBLE BINGO – corners and center, top left to bottom right I think the reason that this reworking of The Count of Monte Cristo works so well is because (at least per the afterword) Stephen Fry didn’t realize he was adapting the book until midway through writing it, thinking he was only writing a tale of the utter devastation of an innocent man and his revenge against those who had wronged him once he recovered from rock bottom. I tend to believe this as I’ve […]

And so it begins… again. (And so it begins)

The Gates by John Connolly

August 9, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

I enjoyed Good Omens immensely, so I found its non-union Irish equivalent pretty enjoyable too, if somewhat forgettable. That may seem like an unfair judgment, as comedic stories about the end of the world are going to share some commonalities, but this really felt like the SAME story. We have demons who aren’t especially fond of hell and are crazy drivers, an innocent young boy who is witness to the gates of hell being opened and his ragtag friends, threatening harbingers of the apocalypse having […]

I sure read a lot of books for someone who can’t flipping read. (History/Schmistory)

Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

August 1, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

So I picked this up thinking it was a history of Hip Hop, and after about two hundred pages of thorough descriptions of various gangs in New York city, the history of Reggae, the ramifications of the loss of social programs on urban youth, and a couple of paragraphs about Afrika Bambaataa, I stopped and looked back at the front cover. It’s a history of the hip hop GENERATION. It’s not what I was expecting and I have no one but myself to thank for […]

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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