Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Try not to be too crabby that this does not come out until August

Crabapple Trouble by Kaeti VanDorn

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Due to the cover of Crabapple Trouble I was worried this might be some really bad acid trip. That fear continued when, I noticed heads did not always meet body in the illustrations and later, heads literally roll away after “popping off” of their bodies. I am assuming kids will be okay with Kaeti VanDorn’s realistic-abstract-unique characters which are sentient fruits and vegetables. But I can see some adults being unnerved by them. After all, the characters are Farmers which technically farm themselves (the lemon […]

I rather not, but thanks all the same

I Hate Reading: How to Read When You’d Rather Not by Beth Bacon

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I Hate Reading: How to Read When You’d Rather Not seemed like it was going to have a lot of potential for “I cannot put this down!” and “Look how fun reading is!” moments. Perhaps because I am a reader and not Beth Bacon’s young sons (Arthur and Henry who have been reluctant readers in the past) who helped her to write this let us say, we are not amused. This book is to help reluctant readers read but to me it seems like it […]

Too Cool For School

Shortcut Man by p.g. sturges

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You know a book you read and enjoy while acknowledging it’s not that good? I’m not talking about a “guilty pleasure” read, a term I’ve always found to be condescending anyway. I’m talking about something that you know is probably not well-written but it meshes with your taste and you wind up enjoying it? That’s how I feel about p.g. sturges’ (sic) Shortcut Man. sturges writes in an absurdist, Chuck Palahniuk-esque style that I don’t often enjoy. And he has no running plot, rather a series […]

When You Make a Deal with a Nixie, remember to find out if your wife is pregnant.

The Nixie of the Mill-Pond and Other European Stories by Kel McDonald

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Do not judge a book by the cover is probably the first thing I learned about books. However, sometimes you can, sometimes not and sometimes there are books that you do both. The Nixie of the Mill-Pond and Other European Stories is one of those books that you think you know what is going on (there will be a Nixie, which looks like a mermaid/banshee/fairy, that will do something in a mill-pond) but open it up and there is something completely different. On page one we […]

Teeth, Claws and Awww: CATS

Science Comics: Cats: Nature and Nurture. by Andy Hirsch

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I have tried to find a many First Second Graphic novels. While looking for the Science Comics for Dogs, I found Science Comics: Cats: Nature and Nurture. As far as I was concerned cooler than dogs, but a friend had recommended it. What was I to do? Get the Cat book until the dog book was available! (Really, did you have to wonder?) And Andy Hirsch started off this fun and factual graphic novel on the slow side. I was afraid that I was going […]

What to read if you just want to watch The Mummy again

Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase

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New, of course, being a bit of a misnomer since the book was published in 2005, but if you haven’t read it it’ll be new to you. It is impossible to read this book and not see the parallels to the Mummy. If you haven’t seen the Mummy, stop what you’re doing and go watch it. It holds up and this review will be incomprehensible to you otherwise. The book follows Daphne, one of the most renown language scholars in the world, as she gets […]



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