Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Imagine Douglas Adams on Cocaine

Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente

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In Space Opera, we met Decibel Jones, former frontman for British glam band Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, and followed him as he was conscripted into a mission to prove humanity’s sentience – and thus save them from extermination – by placing anything but last in the Metagalactic Grand Prix. Think Eurovision, but in space! Spoiler alert, Decibel Jones succeeded, with the help of a time-traveling red panda and the resulting appearance of a younger version of his long-dead drummer, Mira Wonderful Star. As […]

A nostalgic, charming romp

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

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This was loaned to me by a friend who said he and his teen daughter loved the whole series, and it is delightful. As someone who grew up with the Oz books, it felt familiar, like a love letter to all our favorite childhood books.  September is 12, living in Nebraska and feeling bored. When the Green Wind calls her ‘somewhat irascible’ and offers a trip to Fairyland, she jumps at the chance. She feels a little bad about not waving goodbye to her mother […]

“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, […]

St. Oscars world

The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente.

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I did not think I would like the short novel; The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente. I felt I would never understand it and was going to stop reading as things felt disjointed, the narrator was bouncing all over, and there was stuff that was very off. The book felt like a translation that was not smoothly translated at that. However, once I understood the flow (there was one), the bounces between “really then, then, and now,” plus how reliable the narrative is […]

“Steve, I’ve been duped!” or, my experience reading Comfort Me With Apples *SPOILERS*

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

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This is the second of five reviews I’m writing at least 3 weeks after finishing the book, so my recollections may be hazy… However, one thing that is crystal clear in my mind is the feeling I had about 2/3 of the way through Comfort Me With Apples. To be fair to the author and the story, I should have seen it coming. I have a degree in literature, and all the signs were there. But nevertheless, I found myself duped. Before I get into what […]

Glitter wrote a book

Space opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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I need to preface this by saying I liked it, but not as much as the tags might suggest. That said, I don’t think anything could live up to the premise – in the near future, aliens visit Earth and select an unlikely candidate for the singing competition that determines our fate as last place in the galactic showdown gets obliterated. As Yoko Ono is deceased, they settle for their only available choice – Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, only two of the three […]



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