Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When I told my nephew the zombies were looking for brains and we were safe, he didn’t get it

Plants vs. Zombies Volume 1: Lawnmageddon by Paul Tobin

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One day I was with my oldest nephew and I thought I’d take him to the library and pick up a few books to read. I was having trouble getting him to engage (he’s special needs and this was way out of his routine, so it was expected). After I started grabbing a couple titles on a whim (covers do make a difference), we wandered to the checkout desk.  It was then I realized that maybe I had missed his interest level (one never knows […]

Well Halloween is coming up so this is a good time to talk about this book

The Last Halloween, Book 1: Children by Abby Howard

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When you like Halloween, the title The Last Halloween, Book 1: Children will catch your attention. It didn’t hurt that this was a big ol’ fat book. So, “Abby Howard” (I said) “you have yourself an interesting book. Okay that cover is a bit funky, but I’m a big kid, I can handle it.”  I’ll let you decide how well I did (or did not) handle it. Man! Is this one screwy book! There is nothing about it that is likable….yet it is a GREAT […]

really, truly didn’t expect to be so engrossed by a book that plaintively does not offer any answers

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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SO this is a book for Book Group, aka the book club I always assumed would be a fundamental part of my adult life along with “day to night” outfits (except this did happen). We got the recommendation actually from our Guest of Honor, Emma van Straaten (author of Creep, which we read last time), a solid win given the complications of finding a book that appeals to a group of 6-8-ish women and also hasn’t been read by more than one person. It is […]

Scuttlebut

Network Effect (Murderbot #5) by Martha Wells

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Murderbot is at it again. Once more, he is keeping his favourite humans (or at the very least, humans that it doesn’t hate) safe as they do exploration work. On the return, though, their ship is hijacked and dragged into a wormhole by none other than ART (short for Asshole Research Transport), Murderbot’s erstwhile friend and companion. ART is a research transport with massive computational capabilities, able to outsmart virtually everyone – so why has it been hijacked by a strange lifeform? Once again, Murderbot’s […]

Size does matter

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

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The Shrinking Man is a science fiction novel first published in 1956, written by Richard Matheson. You guessed it: the story follows a man who is shrinking. The novel opens with a detailed description of a fight between the protagonist, Scott Carey, who by this point is about an inch tall, and a spider. He is trapped in the basement. Scott fights the spider with a pin, and the narrative describes in depth the difficulties of navigating the terrain of the basement. It makes for […]

Cracking Open the Universe

The Egg and other stories by Andy Weir

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This was an audiobook called The Egg and Other Stories by Andy Weir. I was already familiar with The Egg — there’s a very well-known YouTube retelling of it, which my husband showed me not long before I started listening to this short collection. It’s a great listen, particularly in this moment in human history, and I’d recommend everyone look it up. 👉 The Egg – A Short Story The collection of stories here is extremely high quality overall. I really, really enjoyed them. They […]



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