Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

In the middle of the night… and the beginning and even the end….

The Mixed-Up Owl by Marzena Sowa and Joanna Lorho

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cbr17bingo Bingo O  I admit it, I’m fudging the Bingo O square a bit. I couldn’t find an O title where the letter O started the full title, but there is the letter O in the word Owl, so I am counting this title to fill the spot. Yet, it is not just the title that is an O as the text is “Oh, that is interesting,”and “Oh boy this is going to be something your child will love.” At first, the idea seems like […]

The Male Loneliness Epidemic

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

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CBR Square- Red A friend of mine recommended I watch The Magicians, so I picked up the audiobook to see if I would like it in a general way. I had known that the book is pretty different from the tv show but I thought it would give me a general idea. A few years ago there was a big deal made about how men don’t really form deep friendships anymore and there was a male loneliness epidemic. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/17/1263527043/its-been-a-minute-male-loneliness-epidemic-real. I am not fully sure why […]

“…they and their deeds were dust and ashes, but this man and his words were immortal.“

Orlando A Biography by VIrgina Woolf

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CBR17bingo O I’ve wanted to read Orlando for some time. I knew it was a time travel novel about a character, Orlando, who not only lives for centuries but also changes gender. It was made into a movie starring Tilda Swinton back in the ‘90s, but I never saw it. Apparently, the movie is more “inspired by” the novel than a direct adaptation of it, which, having now read the book, makes sense. Not gonna lie, the novel, published in 1928, is unusual, and I’m […]

It was easier to read once I had the mental image of Robert Pattinson as Mickey in my head

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton

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3.5 stars Nowhere Books Bingo 25: Book adapted into a movie or TV show CBR17 Bingo: Diaspora (Mickey7 and the others on his crew are colonists on a hostile planet far from their original home) Mickey Barnes has, through some truly idiotic decisions, ended up acquiring so much gambling debt that he now has to leave the planet. Literally the only way he can do that is to go with the space expedition, which is setting off to colonise the far-off planet of Niflheim. Unfortunately, […]

Maisie Dobbs and the Case of the Dubious Highlighter

Pardonable Lies: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqqueline Winspear

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cbr17bingo Family Back in the day, I read quite a few Maisie Dobbs books, and thoroughly enjoyed them.  The first I read was Birds of a Feather, bought purely because of its wonderfully evocative cover art, and then went back to read the first of the series, and any others I could find in book stores.  She went off my radar for awhile, but she is definitely back on again now. The period is post WWI Britain up until the 1930s.  Maisie signed up as […]

The Murderbot Diaries – the novellas and the short stories. Some were re-reads, some were new to me

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Matha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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My original reviews and ratings for the first four novellas can be found here. CBR17 Bingo: Favourite (goes for the whole series, and the protagonist) All Systems Red Nowhere Book Bingo 25: First in a series   It’s been five years since I first read The Murderbot Diaries, and it was interesting to revisit the original novella. This was selected as the January selection for my real-life book club (with the option to read the other three if people had time). While a lot of the members really enjoyed […]



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