Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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vel veeter's Reviews:

Playing catsup

Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich

Girl by Edna O'Brien

You'll Never Believe what Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

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Several Short Sentences about Writing – 4/5 Stars I find this small book to be a very clear, direct, and helpful book about writing. As a writing teacher, I find that students generally are unimpressed with the idea that the only way to learn how to write is to write, get feedback, work on writing and go from there. Students want a frame and format to plug in sentences and go from there. That’s not exactly true for students who are more natural in their […]

Billy Summers – Stephen King (2021)

Billy Summers by Stephen King

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A very tightly-focused Stephen King novel that I think will end up being among his best, mostly because he’s able to avoid one of his biggest problems, shunting in supernatural elements into a mostly character-driven narrative. Billy Summers is a for-hire killer, a former Army sniper, who because of a childhood trauma, has a penchant for killing, but only if they’re “bad people”. It’s a year before the pandemic and his new job has him setting up shop for weeks before the job as a […]

The Innocents Abroad – Mark Twain (1869)

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

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Like almost all of Mark Twain’s books (though the novels tend to be more focused, and I don’t generally like his short stories), this book is at times the funniest thing I’ve ever read, and other times either a little boring, a little too mired in contemporary reference, or a little meandering. This book is also pretty long, so combined with those other possible issues it can be a little trying, if rewarding as well. It’s 1866 or so, and Mark Twain decides to take […]

The End of Education – Neil Postman (1995)

The End of Education by Neil Postman

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The End of Education title is a double-entendre meaning not only the possible ending of education as we know it, and also an exploration of purpose of education. He anticipates the way in which teachers generally plan for education now, with the end in mind with this second meaning. Neil Postman writing in the 90s is among the most 1990s things I can conceive of. What this means is that while he’s very very on to something about the failures of contemporary education, that focuses […]

Ok, but don’t make a Hobbit of it — Three by Robert Heinlein

Glory Road by Robert A Heinlein

The Star Beast by Robert A Heinlein

Podkayne of Mars by Robert A Heinlein

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Just a full balls to the wall Robert Heinlein novel. This means strong opinions about gender roles! Weird comments about sex! Being American in other worlds! Etc! But more than that, this book is a reaction to the Vietnam War. Rather than making a book that covertly criticizes the war, or worse, making a book that openly supports it, this book looks at Vietnam and questions some core ideas from it. It’s clear that Heinlein knew the war was not like other American wars. This […]

My Soul to Take – Tananarive Due (2011)

My Soul to Take by Tananarive Due

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The final novel of the African Immortals series (or I suppose, final so far), and apparently, though I didn’t know it going in, a sequel as well to Due’s other book, Joplin’s Ghost. Phoenix is a now retired musician/singer who is approached by Johnny Wright with a proposal. He works for a large corporation that has recently achieved a large amount of scrutiny and infamy as the producer of “glow” what is seen from the outside as a new drug that is both promoted as […]



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