Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“All whiteboards are magical.”

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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From Goodreads: Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the […]

I will begrudgingly be grateful that I learned the word ‘pseudopodinously’

Preternatural by Margaret Wander Bonanno

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When an author who likes to do cheeky asides uses a big word and tells the reader “Look it up,” which is more insulting: when you DO know the word, or when you DON’T? I cogitated on that during the whole book, and couldn’t decide. I do know that when the cheeky asides tell you “Now pay attention here,” it is pretty much always insulting. This book was a clever idea, nearly drowned by an author who got too preoccupied with the idea of being […]

Station Eleven-a surprisingly optimistic apocalyptic story

Station Eleven by Emily Saint John Mandel

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I admit, when I saw this come up as a featured book for Cannonball Read, I was a bit wary. Not because I was not a fan of the book, I was. However, reading a book about society rebuilding after a devastating plague seemed a bit masochistic during these days of isolation due to COVID-19. But I am glad I did. This books speaks to the resiliency of our species, both from a physical, as well as a cultural standpoint. One of the keys to […]

Reminder! The Future is Queer #CannonBookClub is Coming Soon!

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We’re a little more than two months out from our next book club on June 19th and 20th. For our June book club  we’ll be celebrating Pride Month the Cannonball way with a The Future is Queer book club focusing on speculative and science fiction written by queer authors and/or featuring queer characters.  Since the world has gone into a more protective mode in response to our current pandemic, books might be a little harder to come by, or you may have found your reading […]

An excellent adaptation of a classic novel

Kindred by Octavia Butler

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Some stories hit you harder than others. Reading this graphic novel, shortly after watching the film Harriet, struck like a thunderbolt. Some people, mostly belonging to a certain political party, have attempted to make slavery seem not so bad. Which is why works like Kindred are so important. In Kindred, Dana, a young black woman, married to a white man in 1976, finds herself transported back the mid 1800s to save a white ancestor of hers. She bounces back and forth between the time periods […]

Using Lovecraft Against Himself

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

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I have to admit: I tried to read N. K. Jemisin’s Fifth Season but had to put it down. The world and premise was good, but something about the style bothered me. I then picked up The City We Became which has an equally interesting premise. I still had some issues with the style, but I did manage to finish it. The City We Became is set in a world where major cities eventually develop avatars, people who represent the spirit of that place incarnate. […]



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