Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A heartbreaking but also heartwarming story

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

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This book was recommended by a friend. I don’t normally read books about war, because I usually can’t get into them. And the ones that aren’t super detailed and technical (that I can’t get into) are usually just relentlessly sad, and that’s not my jam either! This book was none of that. Of course it was sad, but it was so incredibly filled with hope, and family, and people relentlessly trying to do the right thing that it made it all worth it. This book […]

“Never before have so many been threatened with so much…Never has so much been promised to so many.”

The 9th Annual of the Year's Best SF by Judith Merril (Editor)

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This is a pretty long and comprehensive collection of good SF from 1963 (384 pages, so you’re definitely getting a lot). I enjoyed most of these stories and breezed through this on the Amtrak to and from visiting home. My mom also enjoyed the chunk she read while I was home, so it’s intergenerationally approved. However, nothing in here really blew me away and it all felt pretty standard and not hugely boundary pushing or subversive. Sometimes you do just need to read some classic […]

Classic Sci-Fi: Should you read it? Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

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Classic Sci-Fi: Should You Read It? is a self-imposed project in which I read pre-1990 science fiction novels and categorize them as “classis sci-fi you should read,” “classic sci-fi you should read if you’re all hardcore about it,” or “classic sci-fi you don’t have to read.” For background on my project, please see the introduction to my review of 1984. Fahrenheit 451 is inevitable for my classic sci-fi reading project because it’s on EVERY must-read list, I didn’t read it in high school like everybody […]

The Boy on the moon

Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo

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I am starting my review of Lunar Boy with: I have questions. None are about the story itself, which is, a child from the Moon is adopted by a woman from New Earth. They live on a space station until the mother, in the process of helping her New Earth friend deal with the death of his wife, falls in love, marries, and moves to New Earth. Then, Indu (the child) must deal with not just the stress of a move to a new home, […]

The struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of three women in three time periods

Weyward by Emilia Hart

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My book club knocked it out of the park this month with Weyward.  Coincidentally,  Barnes and Noble chose it as this month’s speculative fiction pick.  Clearly we have excellent taste.  Emilia Hart has crafted a moving narrative across time by telling us the story of Altha Weyward in 1619, Violet Aryes in 1942, and Kate Aryes in 2019.  Altha, Violet, and Kate are Weyward women.  Born with the gift of being in tune with and connected to nature. For Altha, raised by her mother, another Weyward […]

Different person, same love

Every Day: The Graphic Novel by David Levithan

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When you’ve worked in kids and young adult books as long as I have, you learn some “big names” of the biz. One I knew I never had to read (but probably should because they were good) was David Levithan. I recommended them on repetition alone. Therefore, when the opportunity came to read Every Day: The Graphic Novel I knew the Reading Gods were telling me to go for it. First, a graphic novel (a favorite reading genre for several years now) and second, David […]



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