Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Highly intelligent cats and smack-talking dolphins. What’s not to love?

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

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Many people fantasize about an estranged relative dying and leaving them a fortune or a thriving business. Few people would indulge in this fantasy if the estranged relative’s business were villainy, and if, in addition to the job, they inherited a long list of enemies. This is the situation Charlie Fitzer finds himself in when his Uncle Jake dies and he’s visited by his uncle’s second-in-command, Mathilda Morrison. Even before Morrison shows up, Charlie has problems. Once a successful journalist, he’s now an underemployed substitute […]

Ted Chiang is our best argument for a STEAM education

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

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CBR16 BINGO: Celestial, because the first story is about humans building a tower into the heavens Four years ago I fell in love with Ted Chiang’s short story collection Exhalation, and I’ve finally made good on the promise to myself to read Stories of Your Life and Others. If you’ve read any of his work, you won’t be shocked to hear that this is the most moving, inventive, and thought-provoking collection I’ve read in years. Ted Chiang, a graduate of Brown University with a B.S. […]

Time, Time, Time to See What’s Become of Me

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

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The Ministry of Time is structured as a confessional narrative from the perspective of a rather ordinary British civil servant entrusted with an extraordinary responsibility. The U.K. has been cautiously experimenting with time travel, and they’ve brought five people from the past to present-day London, hoping to observe the toll that time travel and living in an unfamiliar era take on their bodies. Our unnamed narrator, a half-English, half-Cambodian second-generation immigrant, has been deemed a good fit to serve as a bridge for one of […]

Second Verse, Same as the First! But a little bit louder and darker

Haru Book 2: Summer by Joe Latham

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In February 2024 I read book one of Haru by Joe Latham (or Haru 1: Spring). In August of 2024 I read Haru Book 2: Summer still by Joe Latham. Both were read via an online reader copy but I was thinking I would purchase copies of both when book two came out. However, it is not due until October 2024 and I am glad I did not wait. This is because Book Two is much darker than Book One was. Things are more layered […]

Fairy tale villains and loving sisters

Into the Goblin Market by Vikki VanSickle

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Recently I located a list of books that were recommended by other booksellers across the country. I found the picture book section and said, “Online reading here I come.” And I was able to read most of them (I have one in physical form so I passed and I have two more to read), but one that really stuck out to me was Into the Goblin Market by Vikki VanSickle and Jensine Eckwall as the illustrator.  It is a contemporary folktale or fairy tale that […]

Defender of the cosmos! Vanquisher of evil! Failure at frisbee!

Mr. Muffins by Georgeo Brooks

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Mr. Muffins by Ben Kahn and illustrated by Georgeo Brooks might not be due until mid-January 2025, but I think people should know about this graphic novel now. Not because I have read several books by Kahn or Brooks and loved them all (I haven’t) but because I think now I might see what I can find and that this book is going to be a fun read for most people. This is not a new idea. The theme is “You are afraid, but it’s […]



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