Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Cool Characters and Fantastic World-Building

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

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What a lovely book. Becky Chambers came across my radar because so many Cannonballers have reviewed her books, and I’m glad I finally got around to reading them. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is bookended by the POV of Rosemary Harper, a human woman from Mars who has joined the crew of the spaceship Wayfarer as a clerk for the captain. The ship creates wormholes to aid in space travel. However, the POVs throughout the novel shift among the rest of the […]

One of My Top Books of the Year

The Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy (edited by Hugo Vickers)

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CBR15Bingo — History I love, love, loved this book. This is a highlight of my reading year so far and a real keeper for my library of royal books. I do wonder what it is about royalty that tends to attract gay men — glamour? — because I felt very in sympathy with Pope-Hennessy’s fascination with royalty as a separate species of human beings throughout (I related very much to him being described as unremittingly homosexual in the introduction). As someone with a not insubstantial […]

To be homeless is to be ignored when people walk past while still being in full view of everyone.

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

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“To speak is to stumble, to hesitate, to detour and hit dead ends. To listen is straightforward. You can always just listen.” ― Yū Miri, Tokyo Ueno Station CBR15Bingo: Asia & Oceania CBR15Passport: The story takes place in Japan. Based on the gold medals on the book cover, the charming cover art, and the synopsis of the book, I was expecting a quirky, sometimes weepy, ghost story set in one of my favorite places in the world. To put it simply, this book is bleak. […]

“No one survives a war’s front lines without ghosts clinging to them.”

Angels of the Pacific by Elise Hooper

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CBR 15 Bingo – Hold Steady: To survive the war, Tess and Flor have to make a stand and hold steady in their efforts to undermine the Japanese occupiers. After Japan invades and occupies the Philippines during WW2, American nurse Tess and Filipino university student Flor must do whatever they can to survive and help those around them. In my ongoing quest to find WW2 historical novels which don’t simply rehash the experience of the London Blitz or the French resistance, I have looked to the […]

One of My All-Time Favorite Works of Art

Fruits Basket Collector's Edition Vols 1-12 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket Another Vols 1-4 by Natsuki Takaya

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CBR15Bingo: Strange Worlds (Tohru becomes involved in the strange world of the Sohma family and there are supernatural events throughout.) The problem with writing a review of one of my all-time favorite series is that I mentally become that clip from a Lady Gaga interview (“Talented, brilliant, incredible amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference…”) and it makes it hard to summarize my thoughts beyond an incoherent shaking of the person listening […]

Doin’ No Harm

Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak

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Read as part of CBR15bingo: edibles. The plot centers around a large shipment of marijuana, which I guess is technically edible though you can use it in things that are actually edible. Admittedly, I’m reaching here but the suggestion on the OP did include “drugs.” Hixploitation (the author’s words, not mine) — like blaxploitation and other specified identity genres — hit a frenzied peak in the 70s. It was the era of the Film Brats and just as they influenced studio Hollywood, the Bs were […]



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