Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Short King

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King

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I’m never quite sure how to review a short story collection. Recapping each individual story would get rather tedious, and there isn’t a strong thematic connection between the twenty-odd stories presented here apart from the fact that they’re all very definitely Stephen King stories. The collection kicks off with its longest entry, the novella The Mist, which sets an appropriately eerie tone. As a bunch of Mainers ride out a bizarre cataclysmic event in a grocery store, their humanity is pushed to the brink. Several […]

“Pretend that you have free will.”

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

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If you love science fiction and want something really different, this might be the best thing you read all year. Exhalation is a series of science fiction short stories with inspirations ranging from ancient Arab storytelling traditions to Monty Python sketches. I know this because Chiang provides a brief commentary at the end of many of the stories as to how it came about. As you might imagine, this diversity of inspirations creates an enormous variety in the stories. You might follow a portal to […]

Not What I Was Expecting? Maybe?

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories by Karen Russell

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I absolutely loved Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove short story collection, but was really disappointed in Swamplandia!, so when I saw she had another short story collection, I was so excited to read more of her short works. St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves was….not what I was expecting? Granted, Vampires was published in 2013, and St. Lucy’s is her first collection, published in 2006, so I may just be running into my usual issue of having read an author in reverse. But where a […]

the great 2022 Bingo Catch-Up!

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

From Hollywood, With Love by Scott Meslow

The Companion by E.E. Ottoman

My Mother, She Killed Me, My Father, He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer

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It wouldn’t be CBR Bingo without me frantically catching up on everything I read but was too distracted to write about, now would it? Square: Cold – Fool Moon – DNF This is it, folks- my first DNF in YEARS! I just couldn’t do it. I started this book way back in JANUARY, and despite multiple formats and multiple tries, I just can’t do it. I know there’s a mythical “it gets better” carrot hanging out past the fourth entry, but I just don’t have […]

July 2022 Leftovers

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipies from Tha Boss Dogg's Kitchen by Snoop Dogg

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge

Stunt: A Mythical Reimagining of Nellie Jackson, Madame of Natchez by Saida Agostini

The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, A Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation by Rich Cohen

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook Files of Martin Ehrengraf by Lawrence Block

Voluntary Madness by Vicki Hendricks

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski: A Most Excellent Comedie and Tragic Romance by Adam Bertocci

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir by Daniel Barban Levin

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

My Summer Darlings by May Cobb

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

Firestarter by Stephen King

The Editor by Steven Rowley

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins

Lucky by Jackie Collins

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Here are reviews for the books I read in July that I didn’t have time or energy to do a full review on. Note: I was out of work in July so I read a lot. The Woman in Cabin 10 *** Read this while on a cruise ship and it definitely gave me some interesting feelings! A relatively entertaining thriller. I’d read another Ruth Ware book but wouldn’t rush out to do so From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes From Tha Boss Dogg’s Kitchen**** […]

They do jobs, for gold, so they can get drunk

Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins Library Edition Series I & II Collection by Matthew Mercer

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I only know the TV series of Vox Machina so my feelings are from hat incarnation of everything (and by everything, I mean the D&D game it is based on, the videos, and anything online or other book formats). The creators of this collection are Matthew Mercer, Jody Houser, Matthew Colville, Olivia Samson, and Chris Northrop. Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins Library Edition Series I & II Collection is a collection has the gang to be known as Vox Machina before they were The Gang. […]



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