Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Nothing … was private: only secret, only silent. We ate our tears.”

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

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  This book is so wildly out of my wheelhouse that I don’t really feel qualified to assess it. I’ve almost never read science fiction and rarely read short story collections, and I’m sure I’ve never read a book that was both. There were some stories I loved and some I hated (luckily, the longer novella at the end hit a solid “liked a lot” on that scale), but without a doubt I now have tremendous respect for Le Guin as a writer. It’s astonishing […]

Being from Paris means filing her nails to a point and lacquering them to Hemorrhage Red.

The Strange Case of Rachel K by Rachel Kushner

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Also, $20 will buy you this book. This is a tiny hardback edition of three mediocre short stories. They are called “pieces” in this collection, but don’t let that fool you. They are stories, and they are utterly derivative, forgettable, and affected. I have to admit that Rachel Kushner has long been on my list of suspected con-artists when it comes to contemporary fiction. And for once, I don’t think this is a case of being out of my element or not being attuned to […]

The Saddest Bug in the World

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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I read The Metamorphosis under great duress during both high school and undergrad. I remember despising it both times, and only reading enough to get through class discussion. But my mentor is teaching it this semester, and I’ve had no choice but to revisit it. It’s amazing how much perspective a decade and a half can give. I loved this novella, and aside from general immaturity and lack of language skills, I don’t know why I was so vehemently against this story in the past. Gregor the […]

Little by little, sales went back down.

Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin

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I have a secret to tell you. I have a terrible gauge on whether or not I am enjoying a book as I am reading it. So I am likely to continue pushing myself through a book regardless of whether or not I want to be reading it at all. Partially this is because I have the ability (as a practiced English major) to force myself to get through books I am struggling with…I once “read” all of Henry James’s The Bostonians for a class by […]

In the Style of the Greeks

Mythos by Stephen Fry

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I think the title of this book and the name of the author tell you a lot about this book right from the start. It’s Stephen Fry telling you the Greek myths. And it does feel like he’s telling them to you. His tone is very Stephen-Fry-y and his style is direct, dryly witty, and interested. His love of alliteration does show up. “Her lines were sweepingly, swoopingly, swooningly smooth, supple, and sensuous.”— Galatea and Pygmalion If you’re very familiar with Greek Mythology, If you’re […]

Interesting Idea That’s Been Done Before

Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Eh. I am pretty much reading anything that costs me zero dollars, so I thought I try one of the Amazon Original Stories. I have read Taylor Jenkins Reid before so I thought this be at least a good read, even though it’s a short story. I liked the idea of writing letters back and forth, but though two of the characters were beyond boring, and hated the last letter that was sent. It pretty much makes one of the characters totally crap and actually […]



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