Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

sometimes you just want to be in a low-fi band with your sister, but a literal battle between immortality and death gets in the way

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

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Absolutely perfect. No one can harness both the magic and ennui of being a teenager like Kelly Link. People will be handing this down to younger siblings for generations. Susannah and Laura are sisters. They are also band mates. The third member of their band, Daniel is their best friend and next-door neighbor. Oh, and Susannah’s friend-with-benefits. On the night of Daniel’s birthday, at a wild dive bar with a real carousel on stage, something happens: Susannah kisses Laura’s crush. Laura kisses Daniel. Susannah’s best […]

a lovely story of what it means to be human…

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

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…with a godawful cover and title. ARRRGH! This is a magical little slice of existence, but one would never know that based upon the generic title and messy cover art. Honestly, had I not been introduced without the cover, I can’t say that I would have picked it up! Adina enters our world at the same moment that Voyager (that of Carl Sagan’s Golden Record) leaves this very same world. There’s some sort of transference of energy and matter; one magical thing leaves and another […]

how much is folklore and how much is just a mad ramble?

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

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Alan Garner is a titan of British literature, but it took two other lions of language and a slow day in the shop for me to finally crack open one of his tales. Why did I wait so long? Treacle Walker is exactly the kind of woodsy weirdness that calls to me from the gloam. It was a snowy evening and dead quiet in the bookstore. Every task was complete, everything that could be tidied was tidy beyond tidy, and I had some time to […]

I know it may be wrong but, I’m in love with [Sadie’s] mom

Alice Sadie Celine by Sarah Blakely-Cartwright

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Fountains of Wayne, the poet laureates of New Jersey, wrote the eternal hymn “Stacy’s Mom” way back in the halcyon days of 2003: “Stacey’s mom has got it going on”. How could they have known that a cool twenty years later we would now be saying the same thing about Sadie’s mom?! Is this just a smutty book about an eternally messed up friendship and family? Yes and no. Alice and Sadie are best friends. Alice is a cypher and Sadie is an anal-retentive nightmare. […]

“I think you’ll find ‘in heat’ only applies to dogs. De Niro is a man, an acting man”

The Clementine Complex by Bob Mortimer

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Hey y’all long-time-no-see! I’ve missed this so! Much like our trusty narrator Gary, I also script entire conversations with local squirrels when I walk through town. I have a regular rodent repartee while walking to the bookstore (I KNOW!) every day.  Unlike Gary, I have not been pulled into a conspiracy involving novelty print socks, a shady detective agency, an elderly hacker, and a corn-cob shaped USB dongle. This certainly isn’t a complaint; I am quite happy in my lane at the moment and I […]

Thank You andtheIToldYouSos, and Happy Holidays!

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Oh my God, I love it! Thank you andtheIToldYouSos! I know I am a bit of a pain when it comes to the book exchange because I don’t really leave much detail as to what to get me—decisions are hard! But I love everything here from the two new authors that I have never read before, the extraterrestrial-themed cards and mask, the Spice Girls card(!) And the friendship bracelets! (And they did they put me in mind of a certain someone, was that deliberate?) I […]



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