Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Nobody calls her Mrs. Tomanovich. She’s Mr. Tomanovich’s wife. Riva’s daughter. Irena Tomanovich’s mother.

Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin

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I am not sure how to be fair to this collection of stories. I liked the first collection of Lucia Berlin stories in general and thought they were good, entertaining, and refreshing in a lot of ways. They were a kind of lost gem. Then I read the “memoir” published last year, and started to realize that whatever her output as a writer, those stories were the best. She died too young and didn’t write nearly as much as the world could have hoped for, […]

Whelp, at least I know what I don’t like

A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley

The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley

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I thought I liked Robin McKinley.  I remember reading Deerskin and thinking it was really weird, but I thought I read other stuff by her that I liked.  I wonder if it’s a case of seeing her stuff around for a long time and assuming that I had read and liked it.  Well, I can now say I’ve read it, can’t say I’ve liked it. “The Healer” Lily is born mute, but with the gift of healing.  She can communicate some things by whistling, but […]

Trouble in FantasyLand

Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link

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The lovely faintingviolet turned me onto Kelly Link, and I’m here to report that her latest book of short fiction, Get In Trouble, is a delight and there was not a story in this collection that didn’t simultaneously charm and terrify me. As a whole, Link’s greatest achievement is her ability to build entire universes in 40 pages or less. It’s an incredible feat that includes massive speculative worlds and full character development, while still using beautiful prose packed with metaphor and description. Here’s the breakdown: “The […]

Science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

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I’d never read this one before, and it feels like I probably should have before now. It’s a good reminder that Bradbury’s writing (from my experience) isn’t often about space travel and other worlds. In the opening introduction, now reflecting back from 40 years since the original publication, Bradbury mentions how Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio is an impetus behind this book — not exactly an inspiration, because the novels aren’t very similar — but more so the motivation to write what he wanted. The book […]

Have you ever been turned down by a girl who afterwards married and then been introduced to her husband?

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

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This is the first of the Jeeves book and contains eight short stories, three of which are more or less about Bertie Wooster, in the early persona of Reggie Pepper. These earlier stories are good in their own right, and especially kind of dark and villainous in hilarious ways, but they lack two essential qualities of the rest of the series — Wooster’s affable ineptitude and Jeeves’s understated brilliance. The other stories include my first introduction to the characters, and also apparently the only story […]

How long ’til black future month?

How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

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I picked this book up purely on the strength of my love for N.K. Jemisin.  I’m generally not a fan of the short story format.  The only short story collections I’ve read cover to cover are the ones written by Neil Gaiman, who is very high on my favorite author list.  N.K. Jemisin is an incredible author who creates fantastic worlds so I anticipated enjoying the book, but I was blown away at how her short fiction thoroughly engaged me in a way that the […]



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