Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If you have a chronic illness, you’ll see yourself in this story. If you don’t, you need to read it anyway.

Unseen by Jacinta Parsons

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As with most of my favourite books, Unseen found me, rather than the other way around. A few months ago I was searching the app of my local radio station for ‘Crohn’s’ hoping to come across interviews that would help me understand more about this disease as I go through my own process of diagnosis. An interview with Jacinta Parsons appeared and I immediately listened, captivated for an hour. Obviously the interview was to promote the book, but at the time I didn’t pay much […]

Deadly! (It’s a good thing)

Top End Girl by Miranda Tapsell

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Miranda Tapsell is a proud Larrakia and Tiwi woman from Australia’s Northern Territory, growing up in Darwin and the small town of Jabiru in the Kakadu National Park.  Her memoir is fairly light and breezy, but doesn’t shy away from the complexities of being a biracial Indigenous woman in a country and industry with a lot to learn about treating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures with the respect they deserve. Miranda always loved to perform, but it wasn’t until Arrerente and Arabana […]

Lies can’t survive mini-golf tour of Queensland’s glitter strip

The Fix by Nick Earls

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The Fix is very much a Nick Earls novel.  Set in Brisbane, with a side trip to the Gold Coast, and rich in textural detail of the inner city and West End.  More up the serious end of his comedy-drama range, but plenty of humour for those who like their Earls funny. This time the misfit everyman protaganist is Josh Lang, driven home to Brisbane from London by the Global Financial Crisis.  He still holds hopes of making it as a journalist, backed by a […]

The Yucky One

The Lucky One by Caroline Overington

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In theory, The Lucky One should have been an easy 4-star review from me. The parallels between this book and my life are numerous. Australian author (I’m an Aussie! Tick) Story that takes place in Southern California (most of my family lives there! Tick) Complex female characters (Love them! Tick) Inheritance strife, mystery, and possible foul-play (Topical! Tick) Sympathetic female protagonist (That’s my jam! Tick) Despite all those ticks…. OHDEARGOD this novel was boring trash. The main storyline is this: a family trust is set […]

The scariest book I’ve read this year.

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Do you think genetically engineered invasive parasites are scary? How about child kidnapping and mind control? Prehistoric spider swarms? Nefarious tunnels in near-pitch black darkness? Shape shifting murders? Well, I can safely tell you that none of those terrifying topics compare to the content of the Troll Hunter. The book, written by Australian investigative journalist Ginger Gorman, starts by setting the scene. In 2013, and she’s a reporter doing a lighthearted and feel-good story for her local media outlet about a same-sex couple and their […]

The end is the beginning

Clade by James Bradley

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Clade: “a group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor, according to the principles of cladistics.” Told over decades, Clade is a bit like a short story compendium of characters from the same family. Adam and Ellie start a family in the shadow of global warming and the catastrophes it will unveil. As they age and grow apart, the narrative shifts to other family members as they live through different iterations of the same problem: how to survive a world with closing […]



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