Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Relay-Reading Murderbot

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

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As far as I know, my dad doesn’t read a lot of fiction; the one exception to this is science fiction, at least of the what you might now call classic or vintage variety, as in William Gibson and Isaac Asimov. I was home visiting recently and Dad made a comment about not being sure what to read next after he finished whatever he currently had in his hands; I had Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries 2) in mine, so I let him have a look […]

Weird. Just Weird.

The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits

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CW: mention of suicide One of my favorite jokes in the final season of the tv show 30 Rock was Liz Lemon’s revelation that she did a one-person play in college of which her student newspaper reviewed as “too confusing to be offensive.” Switching the word “offensive” to “appreciate” and you’d have my feelings on this book. There’s a lot to like about this one. Heidi Julavits has a healthy understanding of relationships, maternal-child bonds and how difficult they are to sunder. I appreciated the ambiguity she allows […]

Many Americans right now are acting like Jeevan in the snowstorm. Life is imitating art.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I didn’t really know what to expect going into this.  I knew that Cannonball peeps (and other people I know) had raved about it, so I assumed it was going to be good.  And it still wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. (I need to stop going into things with expectations.)    Station Eleven has a linear story that’s been cut up and rearranged with one character being the lynchpin that holds it all together.  We start with a Toronto production of […]

“And how many times have I prayed the angels would speed me away”

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

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  Deathless Divide is the much anticipated follow up to Justina Ireland’s 2018 YA novel Dread Nation.  In this alternate history of Civil War era America, the dead rise up during the Battle of Gettysburg and the North and South are forced into a hasty truce.  Our main characters, Jane McKeene and Katherine Devereaux are sent to combat schools to learn to be attendants which is sort of a combination of a lady’s maid and a bodyguard. The events of Deathless Divide pick up right where […]

“The truth can be seen. Directly. The question is, are you willing to accept what it tells you?”

The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel by The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel

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Man, what a fun ride this was! The Secret History of Twin Peaks is technically a book, in that it’s a bound collection of pages. But what you’re buying is really more of a mystery kit. Rather than reading like a novel, Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost has assembled a collection of photos, news articles, top secret files, journal entries, letters, and a mysterious dossier. The reader sorts through all of the documents side by side with an FBI agent whose presence is made known […]

Poetry and Politics Can Be Interesting

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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I am starting to wonder if my local library hasn’t hired someone new in charge of new purchases who might not be my reading twin. The library has suddenly started getting in new books that I personally want to read not long after they are published. A Memory Called Empire is among those titles. The premise is pretty normal sounding: a new ambassador to the capital of the Teixcalaanli Empire (which spans planets and systems) arrives at her new job to discover that her predecessor […]



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