Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.”

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

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My initial reaction upon finishing Comfort Me With Apples was “wtf was this.” I’m not sure what I was going to rate it or say about it before my book club meeting, but something one of the other members said during the meeting sort of flipped a little switch in my brain and clarified my feelings and thoughts about it. This was a weird effing book. Especially if you go in thinking you know what the main premise is, but you really don’t as it turns out, […]

Jumping on the bandwagon in the middle

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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I knew Cannonballers had enjoyed a book about djinn by an author named Clark, but I didn’t pay enough attention and accidentally started at book 2. It was all still easy to follow and I liked it, but I think there are a few parts that would make more sense if I knew the history of Fatma and Siti. Agent Fatma works for a magical Ministry where magic is real and djinns live peacefully alongside humans, after being let out into the world by al-Jahiz. […]

Bunny… I mean Buddy… Story

Bunny & Tree by Balint Zsako

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The publisher description of Bunny & Tree by Balint Zsako is around 140 words. Which is 140 more words than the book has. The cover does not even have the title on the front. And since I read it via an online reader copy from Edelweiss (due April 2023), I am not sure if it is on the spine. Of course, tht does not include the title page information. This book is a series of illustrations about a rabbit and a tree that have adventures. […]

Hopefully it’s just series sophmore slump

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Potentially unpopular opinion ahead: I did not especially like Harrow the Ninth. I loved Gideon the Ninth, but I don’t think all the narrative experimenting and the pacing worked out well here. After Harrow becomes a Lyctor and Gideon is gone, about 85 percent of the Harrow the Ninth is confusion. The narrative switches between second and third person (there’s also some first person but that is mostly later) and neither voice really knows what’s going on; on the one hand, this makes sense because […]

Let Down…But Not Disappointed?

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

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Have you ever read a book that was super hyped and thought it was…good but not as good as advertised? And you weren’t disappointed you read it but it still didn’t match the exaltations from others? Cloud Atlas is such a book for me. I appreciated what it was trying to do; I definitely got the 2666 vibes and 2666 is one of my favorite books of all-time so that’s a good thing. I like how it looked at the scope of history and the human experience. I like the […]

A Surprise, to Be Sure, but a Welcome One

The Sandman Act II (Audio Production) by Neil Gaiman; Dick Maggs

The Sandman Act III (Audio Production) by Neil Gaiman; Dick Maggs

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As I admitted during my review of The Sandman Act I, I am aware that these productions are really pushing the limits of what an audiobook is. But since they are such close adaptions of the original graphic novels, and are tied together with heavy use of a narrator (Gaiman himself), I think it is fair to say that they still count.  I loved Act I very much, but I really didn’t get around to listening to Act II until earlier this year, as part […]



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