Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Alien Invasion! (Or how I learned how to “wear hat”)

We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang

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The visitors in We Are Definitely Human are odd, but adorable. Okay, maybe not adorable-adorable, but they are really nice and friendly, especially after how the humans, ah…other humans… are so friendly to them when helping them fix their “car.” The act of kindness has never been so humorous!  X. Fang’s story is as clever as it is cute. The idea of just being kind, just because, is not a new story, but one that bears repeating. And of course, if you can add some […]

Skillful Language, Elusive Impact

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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You can read this book quickly, but don’t. Take your time. This book calls for attention. There is so much wordplay, sometimes intricate and subtle, which calls for re-reading sentences or paragraphs. I’m sure that I missed quite a bit both because of the depth of wordplay and because I only have so much patience, but the authors are just so skillful in their use of language (e.g., “Who’s infecting whom? We know from our hoarse Trojans, in my time”). The novella follows Red and […]

“There was something wrong with Gaea Station. There had always been something wrong with Gaea Station.”

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

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I actually really liked this, and I’m really surprised about it. This book deserves a longer, more thorough review, but I’m just not capable of doing that at the moment. I can see how this book wouldn’t work for some people, but if it doesn’t, it seems a matter of taste to me. I feel like Emily Tesh knew exactly what she wanted to do with the story, and pulled it off. The concepts, characters, plot twists, and everything else this book was wanting to […]

May 2024 Leftovers

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Batmanga: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga, Vol. 1 by Jiro Kuwata

Magic: The Life of Earvin "Magic" Johnson by Roland Lazenby

Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald Westlake

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

The Curse: The Colorful & Chaotic History of the LA Clippers by Mick Minas

Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon by Roland Lazenby

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses

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June already? Sheesh. The Brass Verdict**** Ever since John Grisham lost his fastball in the late-90s, I’ve mostly forsaken legal thrillers. But I like the Bosch series and I wanted to read something LA-based and this delivered. It’s a fun plot with some legit exciting twists. Will probably go back to it at some point or maybe watch the show. Interior Chinatown*** I wish I liked this one more than I did. The satire is razor sharp, the story is deep and the pain is […]

Why So Unserious?

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

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I read Starter Villain after my hold came up in the library. That’s always fun, it’s like winning a small lottery, especially if the book has many holds. I liked this; I try not to read other people’s reviews of the same books I read before writing the review, but I did read one for this where the reviewer didn’t like the end and felt like it made the entire thing feel unreal. Which I can understand, but I did not feel that way. There […]

I read two fun books

The Chilling Ice Rink Escapade by Michael Anthony Steele

Willa and Wade and the Way-Up-There by Judith Henderson

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Two books I recently read to help cleanse the palette some more (I was still working on a horror book I thought was Young Adult, but would lean a bit more adult, and therefore, more graphic , so maybe it was “new adult?” But regardless it was a lot to take and I needed “happy time” to clean my brain) and to see if one of them was good for the nephew. I picked up (as an online reader copy) Willa and Wade and the […]



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