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:

You were supposed to be the chosen one!

Letters From Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi

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I’m mixing movie metaphors here, but you either die a hero or live long enough to watch yourself become a villain. It was weird buying a book a few years back for two bucks at goodwill to better understand the situation in myanmar/Burma written by a Nobel peace prize winner and now read that same book that’s by the ruler of a country that denies its military acted with undue force and that turns a blind eye to the genocide of the rohingya people. I […]

Perfectly fine about sums it up, yeah.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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I felt the same way about Confederacy of Dunces – I don’t need a likeable main character, and I don’t mind unreliable narrators, but I don’t think awful people with superiority complexes are in and of themselves funny. The humor in this book seems to revolve around Eleanor’s judgemental attitude about everyone around her save herself (I’ll save the spoiler but even at the “big reveal” that wasn’t all that shocking, she doesn’t really reflect on how damaging her attitude is or how her actions […]

You know, for kids!

Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks

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The cover sold me on this one.  Not just the art, which I’m an easy target for, but the fact that it was endorsed by Rainbow Rowell. I think I might buy a Hayes manual for a 1988 Chevy Nova if Rowell gave it a blurb. Here’s the thing though; I kind of forgot that even though young adult books are often enjoyed by (nominal) adults such as myself as well as teens, the majority aren’t written for adults.  There was nothing really wrong with […]

Chekov’s Clique

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

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Let’s start with the positives.  This was a pleasant enough read, brisk enough. Our protagonist’s point of view as a mother of an infant was beautifully written and the mundane day-to-day joys and frustrations of parenting a six month old were relatable.  I’m paraphrasing badly but the metaphor of an invisible string that connects her to the baby was more poignant than I’m conveying here. I think Ware has an interesting novel about motherhood in her; the relationship between Isa and her baby is the […]

An interesting appetizer

Take big bites by Linda Ellerbee

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I love reading about food, I love reading about travel, and I REALLY love when books include recipes (Hey there Ruth Reichl; your carbonara recipe from Garlic and Sapphires – I think- is a household favorite and my future cardiologist thanks you). This book may have been written for me. Appropriately enough, I read it over several lunch breaks at work, and this is probably the ideal way to read it. Despite the title, the chapters are probably best read with space in between; Ellerbee […]

Guatemalan insanity pepper: The Book

The Hike by Drew Magary

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You guys, Magary has been hiding the good drugs. This book was TRIPPY.  In more ways than one it reminded me of “El viaje misterioso de nuestro Jomer,” The Simpsons episode where Homer hallucinates a coyote instructing him to journey to find his soulmate, but there’s a bit of Twilight Zone twistiness and, yeah, Chuck Palahniuk darkness. I’m impressed a book this weird was conceived, written to book length, edited, and published.  The weirdness was highlighted for me having gone into it blind on the strength […]



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