Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You don’t have to tell me you’re fine. I’m not fine. You’re not fine either. We can be honest with each other about that, can’t we?’

Paper Airplanes by Dawn O'Porter

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Bingo Square: Nostalgia (set in 1994, when I was 13) Flo is fifteen years old and living on the small British island of Guernsey, just off the coast of France. Flo’s parents have recently separated and she lives with her mum, sister and brother. Her best friend, Sally, is mostly mean to Flo, constantly putting her down and often flirts (badly) with Flo’s brother, Julian. Flo does well in school and mostly keeps her head down. Renee is in the same year but a world […]

I’m honestly curious… (CBR12Bingo 2 – Adaptation)

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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I’ve gone on at length about how I find much of the stylistic elements of the Series of Unfortunate Events books irritating – the interruption of the text to define words in particular – so it seems like the ideal book to adapt. The gothic stylings of the story, sets, and trappings of the Baudelaire orphan stories all are right up my alley, but I don’t like kids being talked down to – children’s books don’t have to explain everything to them once they’re past […]

The root of all evil (CBR12Bingo 2: Money)

The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

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Well, I liked this book quite a bit more than the first one, but given that it doesn’t revolve around a guardian attempting to marry his barely teenaged ward against her will, anything would be an upgrade. Since Count Olaf has now been unmasked as dastardly, the Baudelaire orphans have been placed with their uncle Monty, a reptile enthusiast with a menagerie of snakes and lizards, including the harmless Incredibly Deadly Viper, named as a joke. Since the placement is happy and Uncle Monty is […]

That’s what friends are for…. (CBR12Bingo 2: Friendship)

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

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I always enjoy reading Jodi Picoult books while I’m reading them, but after I’ve had a chance to think about them, I start having reservations. Usually because she writes about hot topics that feel a bit sensationalized, or because she writes about realistic situations that always wrap up a little too neatly. Or because she writes characters rather than people, if that makes sense. So I think I liked this book more than her past novels because while the characters are very much Book Characters, […]

“Name one hero who was happy” (CBR12Bingo2: Debut)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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I debated being cutesy about it and calling this my “orange” square since it won the Orange Prize, or a tongue in cheek “friendship” square, but figured I’d be more straightforward and go with the “debut” space. What a debut it was, too. I read Circe and enjoyed it quite a bit, but found it a bit detached. Undeniably great, but it just didn’t hook me like I had expected given the rave reviews here and elsewhere. This book? Blew me away. I loved Greek […]

cbr12bingo – How To!

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

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Randall Munroe, the engineer/author/cartoonist extraordinaire (most importantly- the creator of the excellent webcomic xkcd) is at it again with How To. He takes all sorts of simple questions and expands, explodes, and/or completely blows up the possible answers into a cacophony of hard science and absolute absurdity. Say you want to throw something really far- he starts out with an anecdote about George Washington hucking (technical term) a silver dollar across a river, which turns into a breakdown of how far silver dollars could be […]



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