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:

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. But they’d still be charged. (CBR12Bingo2: I wish)

Point B by Drew Magary

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This is a really weird book for the “I Wish” square on its face, given that it involves a dead sister, an alcoholic best friend, a stalker, an even larger economic equality gap, and the ennui that comes from the hedonic treadmill rendering the magical prosaic. But you guys, it’s about teleportation! Can you imagine getting BORED of being able to instantaneously port to a tropical island? To hem and haw about having an outdated teleportation device, or having to pay a teleportation bill in […]

You get five made up words per story, and ideally zero rapes. (CBR12Bingo2: Fresh start)

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

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I will gorydamn post this comic every time I read a book that conspicuously changes language to show that we’re not in Kansas anymore. I get it. Distant future. Mars. Different classes differentiate themselves by the way they speak. Read you loud and clear.  I need you to not with the slang. It’s so frustrating, because there was a lot about this book I enjoyed, but the slang was just one of the affectations of the book that became distracting. The Roman gods, the Roman […]

I’m honestly curious… (CBR12Bingo 2 – Adaptation)

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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I’ve gone on at length about how I find much of the stylistic elements of the Series of Unfortunate Events books irritating – the interruption of the text to define words in particular – so it seems like the ideal book to adapt. The gothic stylings of the story, sets, and trappings of the Baudelaire orphan stories all are right up my alley, but I don’t like kids being talked down to – children’s books don’t have to explain everything to them once they’re past […]

The root of all evil (CBR12Bingo 2: Money)

The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

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Well, I liked this book quite a bit more than the first one, but given that it doesn’t revolve around a guardian attempting to marry his barely teenaged ward against her will, anything would be an upgrade. Since Count Olaf has now been unmasked as dastardly, the Baudelaire orphans have been placed with their uncle Monty, a reptile enthusiast with a menagerie of snakes and lizards, including the harmless Incredibly Deadly Viper, named as a joke. Since the placement is happy and Uncle Monty is […]

That’s what friends are for…. (CBR12Bingo 2: Friendship)

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

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I always enjoy reading Jodi Picoult books while I’m reading them, but after I’ve had a chance to think about them, I start having reservations. Usually because she writes about hot topics that feel a bit sensationalized, or because she writes about realistic situations that always wrap up a little too neatly. Or because she writes characters rather than people, if that makes sense. So I think I liked this book more than her past novels because while the characters are very much Book Characters, […]

“Name one hero who was happy” (CBR12Bingo2: Debut)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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I debated being cutesy about it and calling this my “orange” square since it won the Orange Prize, or a tongue in cheek “friendship” square, but figured I’d be more straightforward and go with the “debut” space. What a debut it was, too. I read Circe and enjoyed it quite a bit, but found it a bit detached. Undeniably great, but it just didn’t hook me like I had expected given the rave reviews here and elsewhere. This book? Blew me away. I loved Greek […]



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