Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Commencing the Great Cosmere Re-read.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

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This was my first Brandon Sanderson book, and in retrospect I’m very glad I read it first, not just because it’s a good fantasy standalone novel (for now, he keeps threatening a sequel but it’s years out) and thus a good gateway to his writing. I’m glad I read it first because now that I’ve read so many of his books (nearly all, still haven’t managed to read the Alcatraz books), including all of his epic fantasy, it’s very obvious this was his first published […]

“War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who remains.”

The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1) by R.F. Kuang

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It’s super gross that this book was written by a nineteen year old on her gap year. I thought it was good before I learned that’s how old she was when she wrote it but now I’m straight up sickened. I’m just thinking about the kind of shit I was up to when I was nineteen, and it was basically attending classes, going to marching band practice, afternoon naps in my dorm, and eating infinity burritos from the burrito cart. Kuang was basically like, Oh, […]

cbr12bingo – Green (and another Bingo!)

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

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I wanted so much more from this little dusty sketch of the dystopian west. It had a helluva hook – outlaw lesbians! Gun-slinging sisters-in-resistance! Non-binary action heroes! Unfortunately, it ground to a halt far short of its potential destination. It begins as all westerns do: someone hanging taut at the end of a rope. There are western tropes a-plenty; rough-riding, chaw-spitting, howdy pardnering, thankya kindly ma’ams litter the landscape. This wild west is wild for a different reason, though: we’re in a thinly plotted dystopia. […]

cbr12bingo – Repeat (and TWO Bingos!)

Luster by Raven Leilani

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Raven Leilani has exploded into the scene like the chestburster in Alien. Fully-formed, unapologetic, covered in blood, and completely in control while annihilating the guts of a mediocre man. Luster has been racking up well-deserved accolades, and I truly cannot wait to see what she does next- although I am relieved that this is her debut, and there isn’t a back catalog waiting to destroy me hiding just out of view. Not only is her work fantastic, but it also allows me to knock two “bingos” (Money, […]

cbr12bingo – Happy!

Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman

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“Hey, it’s John Hodgman!” John Hodgman used to spend a considerable amount of time on TV. He’s played, in his words, all sorts of “sexless weirds” in TV and commercials alike. He spent time on The Daily Show as, among other things, a deranged billionaire. He left his Daily Show role behind as Trump rose to power, as there is nothing funny anymore about criminally insane rich people.  He isn’t spending too much time on TV at the moment; it’s been years since he was the PC of […]

The more books I read about high school, I feel like mine was weirdly not weird

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, read by Noah Galvin

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This is not what I thought it was going to be.  I mean, I didn’t look into it too much when I picked up the audiobook, but one of my coworkers said it was her favorite book, so I decided to give it a shot.  I think I thought it was going to be a high school story from the perspective of a quiet kid on the sidelines.  I mean, it kind of is, but it’s a lot more than that.   The book is […]



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