Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“‘It’ll heal ugly.’ But most things do.”

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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First off, you MUST read the audiobook version of this, put that print edition down, the audio is where it’s at! West McCray is a public-radio type audio personality who specializes in stories about small nobody-towns in America.  One day at a gas station, he learns about a local girl who has gone missing. Sadie Hunter was grieving the recent and brutal murder of her sister Mattie when she disappeared. Local police believe it to be a simple case of a runaway not worth pursuing, […]

I have spent a good deal of 2020 in a cadaver-shaped hole.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

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And no, I do not mean an open grave. The more we hurtle towards impending doom- pandemics! global warming! world war!- the more solace I seek in, well, death. I didn’t set out on the morbid marathon on purpose, but here I am! It was not my intention to get down and dirty (ha!) with death this year, but I am enjoying the ride. I have been a long-time fan of Mary Roach since Spook, but for some reason I forgot to start at the […]

But I’m one of the good guys.

Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles

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Del has it bad for Kiera Westing, and he’s crushed on her almost his entire life, from kindergarten to high school. But the girl always has a boyfriend, and he can never seem to get the timing right to snag her during the in-between times. But this time when she finally becomes available, Del may have an in. See, Kiera doesn’t seem to be in a rush to find a new boyfriend – she is taking it so slow, she has joined the Purity Pledge […]

“This is how all Noirs end, with a hug.”

Cut and Run by Ben Acker, Ben Blacker

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Cut and Run was one of my free Audible Originals last month. It is an absurd little story about a rag-tag team of organ harvesting good guys down in Mexico. Honestly, its best not to care too much about the plot, because, as I said, it is absurd. But this thing has a murderer’s row of a cast! It was a delight to listen to from start to finish. The performers really raised the quality of the material. We have D’Arcy Carden as Sam, the […]

“Gully Foyle is my name, and Terra is my nation. Deep space is my dwelling place, and death’s my destination.”

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

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I did a little mini-binge of classic sf books at the end of February, and this one (which I’ve owned in audio for ages) was the first up. It’s also the one I’m the least sure about. The Stars My Destination is considered one of the most important works of sf, and Bester is nearly always mentioned in talks about the masters of the genre. This was the first book I’ve read by him, and his most well-known (although his other well-known book, The Demolished […]

After I finished this book, I needed a nap, a hug, and a warm plate of brownies.

Death's End (Remembrance of Earth's Past, #3) by Cixin Liu, transl. by Ken Liu

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Whoa, Nelly, I have such mixed feelings about this book. Part of me wants to give it five stars for sheer scope and ballsiness, and the magnitude of the ideas he’s working with here. (Also, Ken Liu is back as the English translator, and I vastly prefer his work to the guy who did book two.) The other part of me wants to plant my feet in the middle of the room, cross my arms, and just bellow the word “NO” into the air so […]



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