Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The rented Toyota, driven with such impatient exuberance…

Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates

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So the world at large, and America in particular is an especially misogynistic place. And this novel explores one particular facet of that misogyny, the disposable nature of women and girls. Based on the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident in which Ted Kennedy drunkenly drove off into the water, escaped with his life, while leaving the 29 year old campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne to die in the car, this novel explores the ways in which specific power of a Senator, and the more generalized power of […]

The sky was almost black, but the snow shone a bright blue in the moonlight.

Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson

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Moomins! I’ve never actually read any of the Moomin books as far as I can tell, but it’s possible I did as a kid. I do know that that I’ve read several of Tove Jansson’s adult books including her collected stories. As an adult writer, she’s incredibly playful and funny and endearing, but like a lot of Scandinavian (and European writers) there’s a dark underbelly to a lot of the sensible kinds of joy her books are about. My favorite of these is The Summer Book […]

Why don’t you find yourself a new wife, Pops?

Audition by Ryu Murakami

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I guess I didn’t really like this one. I’ve never seen the movie and so part of that appeal is lost for me, and I ended up reading it because it was available on Hoopla and short and figured why not. The story begins with an aging filmmaker, a widower with a son, looking for a new wife or thinking about growing into old age in a relationship rather than alone. He and a friend come up with the idea to create a casting call […]

George Fisher was still lying awake, thinking of the accident which he had seen on 121st Street.

The People and Unpublished Stories by Bernard Malamud

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Most uncollected stories or worst unpublished stories collections tend to be curious and interesting, but often not very good. From my work in college and grad school reading what’s assigned to me and seeing the different ways that professor chose readings and my own choosing. So here I am looking at this giant book of Bernard Malamud short stories and it’s carefully labeled in terms of which stories go with which collection that he published in his lifetime. This is perfect for me so I […]

Very recent hiredness was its own liminal state, Verity reminded herself, on the Montgomery BART platform, waiting for a train to Sixteenth and Mission.

Agency by William Gibson

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So apparently this is a sequel or a prequel or both to the previous William Gibson novel The Peripheral, something I definitely did not know going in. I just put this on hold on Overdrive and starting listening. For the most part this wasn’t the most difficult challenge to follow the story because this series involves a lot of familiar science fiction tropes, and William Gibson tropes as well. So the novel begins with the “app whisperer” being assigned to a new AI app as part […]

“Not Even Camping Is Like Camping Anymore

What Burns by Dale Peck

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This is an odds and ends story collection by Dale Peck. It’s got everything you could imagine a collection that puts together 30 years of a writer’s, not know for his short fiction, short output. This is sometimes a good thing as Dale Peck is a talented writer, but also not a great thing at times, as he was never and still isn’t particularly invested in short fiction. So the structure here then is the handful of longer pieces that Peck put together throughout the […]



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