Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I got cabin fever, it’s burning in my brain”

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

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Well this book ripped my jaded, horror-loving heart out and showed it to me. This is the second book by Paul Tremblay that has hurt my feelings. The first being A Head Full of Ghosts published in 2016. While both books give us an intimate and ultimately heart rending family drama with ambiguous endings, they are very different stories. Cabin centers on seven year old Wen and her dads Eric and Andrew. The family has traveled to the titular cabin as part of a getaway […]

Only Enjoyed One Time Period

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

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Sigh. Well this was an okay story, I only enjoyed the past time period in the book (the Sarah and Martin sections) and didn’t like the present at all except for Ruth. The book fell down at the end too and I honestly didn’t find this too scary. “The Winter People” follows four people (Martin, Sara, Ruthie, and Katherine) in different time periods. Martin and Katherine’s narratives are from the 1908 and Ruthie and Katherine are from the present day. The book focuses on all […]

I’d long since known what was in those trucks.

The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

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Yes! It’s the book from the movie from everybody’s favorite “YOU’RE A BOT!” gif:  This is the classic sci fi novel from 1955. There’s a cover on one of the older editions of this book that reference it being part of a Stephen King horror series and that makes a lot of sense. This is the exact blueprint for so many Stephen King novels: small town, regular folk doing regular things, awful horrifying thing happens and changes everything, small town regular folk have to readjust […]

London is drowning and I live by the river

Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Peter Aaronovitch

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When pressed, I’ll tell people I don’t like fantasy. This claim is usually followed by a list of exceptions. I like Neil Gaiman. I like Harry Potter. I also like the Rivers of London-series by Ben Aaronovitch. The rest of the genre is, as they say, not my cup of tea. No offense to you fantasy lovers, but it just doesn’t do much for me. The suspension of disbelief required is, apparently, too big a leap. One of the reasons I do like these books, […]

Jane sees dead people

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

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I completely ADORED My Lady Jane a few years ago. It was so refreshing and funny and unique, with such a great audio narrator. I had high hopes for this next book in the series and HALLELUJAH it delivered. It’s not quite as shockingly quirky as My Lady Jane (nobody’s fiance regularly turns into a horse for one), but what it lacked in quirk, it made up in literary references and jokes. Most of the Bronte family gets roped into the narrative here and it’s […]

I hope this isn’t how I’ll be going on.

Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

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I’ve been seeing the phrase “start as you mean to go on” flying around a lot as we collectively, tentatively tiptoe into 2019. 2018 was an utter disaster for me, and although 2019 is better so far – touch would, knock on wood, hug wood – I’m afraid of jinxing myself. I can’t say that I’m glad I read Zombie, and I very much hope it’s not how the year continues in terms of reading or anything else. I want to add the qualifier, “It’s not a bad book,” […]



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