Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When I got home from the supermarket, my husband was watching a boxing match on TV.

The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya

by Leave a Comment

This is a recently translated collection by the Japanese writer Yukiko Motoya. You should read the first story and just decide from there. The tone of that story and the weird, curious, funny, and subtle tone of the lead story will basically sell you on the book or usher you aside. In the opening story, a married woman who feels like her husband is no longer paying attention to her takes up an offer for 100 free gym lessons not to lose weight as the […]

Snap, Crackle, but no Pop

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

by 3 Comments

As I am catching up on reviews, it surprised me to remember that I read this. And I read it just last month. That gives you immediate insight into the impression it made, which was weak. I’ve gotten into short stories in the past few years, starting with T.C. Boyle and falling for the vocal recitations by LeVar Burton. I have read some great collections but this one for me was a dud. My experience seems to be similar to many on Goodreads which is […]

It ends with a text, friend to friend: I’m out.

And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks

by Leave a Comment

The opening story of this collection involves in the complicated mess of modern friendships which can be as impactful and hurtful as romantic relationships, but are missing the defining boundaries of those so a ghosting between friends is harder to process. And I think this becomes a model through which most of these stories find their defining shape and quality. A short, snappy collection of stories that both flows and reads really quickly and interestingly, and almost instantly fades as quickly. This book reminds me a […]

Dark and quirky fairytales

What is not yours is not yours by Helen Oyeyemi

by 1 Comment

Helen Oyeyemi’s short story collection creates an interlocking and fantastical world that is hard to look away from.  The characters live in slightly different realities, but cross over into each other’s worlds- a side character in one story becomes the main character in their own story next.  Thematically, the stories are connected by imagery of locks and keys which felt fresh- what is behind that door? Who are you keeping out? What are you keeping in? Her imagined worlds are also wildly creative- a hidden […]

One day in my young youth at high summer, lolling with my lovely companions upon a haystack, I found a needle.

The Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark

by Leave a Comment

The collected stories of the Scottish writer Muriel Spark, most well known for her slim novels like The Driver’s Seat, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Mandelbaum Gate, and The Girls of Slender Means. I have to admit, there hasn’t been a single Muriel Spark novel that I’ve absolutely loved. For whatever reason, her use of language feels refracted to me in the sense that I look at it and see it and read, but my brain can’t a hundred percent process what exactly is going on. […]

Hero School Shenanigans

My Hero Academia: School Briefs (v4) by Kohei Horikoshi, Anri Yoshi

by Leave a Comment

I have realized something about novelizations and short story collections based on manga/anime: I prefer the episodes that don’t refer to something directly from the main series. Just for the record, stories that started as novels and then got turned into the other forms are something else entirely, not this. This is My Hero Academia: School Briefs 4. Basically it’s a series of short stories mainly linked to episodes from the manga; at least I’m pretty sure since I’m not totally caught up with the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo