Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

yes, yes, I should have read this already

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

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My first thought while reading this: there are authors and there are Authors, whose reach is seen everywhere. I think there’s been a large number of books I’ve read this year or in recent time that owe a large debt of gratitude towards Le Guin’s short (some 30 odd pages) story on the society of the Omelas. If you’ve never read it, then steer clear if you really want to avoid spoilers but Le Guin does give away the punchline in her author’s note (the […]

The Return Journeys (The Road Trip, #1.5)

The Return Journeys (The Road Trip, #1.5) by Beth O'Leary

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Wow. Only 10 pages long, but this actually made me like Marcus. Who knew. Seriously though, this was funny. If you haven’t read “The Road Trip” you won’t get this at all, but this takes place after the wedding. A great way to follow up with Addie and Dylan. I seriously wanted to read more when I was done with this. The main reason why I didn’t give this one 5 stars, is it just feels like a very abrupt ending. Think another chapter with […]

Tiffy and Leon’s Christmas Letters (The Flatshare, #1.5)

Tiffy and Leon's Christmas Letters (The Flatshare, #1.5) by Beth O'Leary

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Great letters showing us Tiffy and Leon after they get together. It really does bring me back to “The Flatshare” and how much I loved that first book. I also loved the little nods we get about Richie and someone “you know who” that he ends up sleeping with. I really wish that we had gotten more extras, but cannot be greedy.

My year, I fear, ends with a whimper

People of the Dark by Robert E. Howard

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I had intended this to be the start of a review dump of short stories. It’s ended up being a review of a single story: “People of the Dark”. I haven’t been reading very much this year. Anyway. Published in 1932, this is the story of John O’Brien’s attempt to kill his victorious rival for the affections of Eleanor Bland. His target is Richard Brent, and John has followed him into Dagon’s Cave, hidden away in the English countryside. Before he can let loose his […]

“The making of this book was thus a process of discovery; as I think the reading of it will be.”

Interfaces by Edited by Ursula K. LeGuin and Virgina Kidd

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I was hoping that Ursula K. LeGuin being one of the anthology editors would counterbalance the fact that this anthology came on the tail end of the 1970s (published in 1980), but I still felt like the overall quality was iffy and reflective of all my prior stated issues with this era of SF/F. LeGuin and Kidd’s taste did lead to more stories that I enjoyed, but I still skimmed in sections and this wasn’t a keeper for me. Interfaces is a themeless anthology, and […]

A wonderful SF/F anthology for young adults (and really anyone!)

Firebirds by Edited by Sharyn November

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In retrospect so many of the books I loved from a young reader until today were published under the Firebird imprint, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been contemporaneous with what were clearly great years for their publishing program. Just looking at the list of books that takes up the first two pages here — Lloyd Alexander, Nancy Farmer, Sylvia Engdahl, Brian Jacques, Robin McKinley,  Tanith Lee, etc — and then considering the additional star power of this anthology — Charles Vess, Garth Nix, […]



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