Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About vega-table

CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Levels

Seattle area hermit, staying in with my video games, books, cats, and beer. Living the dream.

vega-table's Reviews:

Not Rebecca, Not Mexican Gothic

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

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I had heard of Isabel Cañas’s The Hacienda as Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, but in Mexico. When I found that it wasn’t literally a Rebecca retelling in Mexico, I put it down because I expected Mrs. Danvers, not priests. This probably says more about me than the book. But I did intend to check it back out when my expectations calmed down. (If I saw all the Mexican Gothic comparisons beforehand, I might have finished it the first time.) This review shouldn’t be about […]

Bewitched

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Bingo row 3 – B In my work circles, there’s a story that goes around sometimes where someone died in the automatic rolling stacks and that’s why the archives/records room has manual rolling stacks with a crank and not a button. Is that a story used to justify cheaper rolling shelving? Maybe, but it seriously happened to someone my friend’s friend knew (which I know makes it sound even more like an urban legend). There is a scene in the Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia where […]

The kids aren’t alright. In a funny haha way AND a funny “please see a dr” way.

Ouran High School Host Club, vols. 1-18 by Hatori, Bisco

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Bingo Row 1 – School Despite how much manga I read, I don’t read much set in high schools and I can only think of one I’ve read where the school setting is significant. Luckily for hitting the school bingo box, that one was read by me this calendar year. Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori is an early 2000s manga that is probably somewhere between cult and mainstream classic. I say this based on how available the volumes were at the library. […]

Not that Warren Ellis, yes that Nina Simone, maybe that Nick Cave

Nina Simone's Gum by Ellis, Warren

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Bingo Row 2 – Purple (There were three names on the cover of Nina Simone’s Gum that attracted me to the book. I put a disambiguation at the end of this review if that’s helpful.) One day, a five-ish year old Warren Ellis woke up to see his yard was full of clowns making burgers. His father acts like raccoons got in the yard again and grumbles about dealing with them when it’s time to hang the laundry. This is nonfiction. Nina Simone’s Gum, by […]

How people like me got to drink beer at baseball games

The Summer of Beer and Whiskey by Achorn, Edward

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Bingo Row 1 – Migrant When some other book challenge wanted me to read a nonfiction sports book, I found The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game by Edward Achorn. I didn’t expect it to crossover with the cbr17bingo because I didn’t expect to have anything to say about it. Clearly, I was wrong. The very long title summarizes the book. In the 1800s, baseball was reaching some sort of crisis due to […]

Spirals, swirls, and twirls

Uzumaki by Ito, Junji

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Bingo Row 4 – Favorite Someone recently asked me who my top 5 manga creators (mangaka) are. I struggled to find a 5th and eventually said Junji Ito to end the conversation. I hadn’t read enough Ito to say he’s honestly a favorite. I’ve liked what I’ve seen, but that’s not much. Just some short stories and I have a sweatshirt with his cats on it. And that King of the Hill crossover, if that counts. So that I wouldn’t be living a lie, I […]



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