Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It worked!

Extreme Makeover by Dan Wells

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How many of negative reviews have I started saying “but the cover looked so pretty!” while making reference to the fact that there is an aphorism against making inferences about outward appearances that literally tells you not to judge a book by its cover? I don’t learn well, apparently, as I’m always doing the literary equivalent of picking up shiny objects and putting them in my mouth. (It’s so pretty! The picture doesn’t do the color intensity justice) Yeah. I bought this after seeing someone […]

You Keep Telling Yourself That, Pal…

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John Wayne Cleaver has some (most) indicators that he’ll probably be a serial killer one day: The superficial/not actual indicators:  His middle name is Wayne, his dad is named Sam (which makes him the Son of Sam), his last name’s Cleaver, he’s obsessed with serial killers. The real:  The “triad”–bedwetting, animal cruelty, and a compunction towards arson.  Oh yeah, and he’s a sociopath. But as much as John studies serial killers, he keeps telling us and his therapist that he’s studying them so that he […]

I mean, he *says* he’s not

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This is one of those books with a twist that will make it or break it for you. I personally felt hooked until the twist, and then thought it went pretty much downhill from there. Your mileage may vary, however. “I’ve been clinically diagnosed with sociopathy,’ I said. ‘Do you know what that means?’ ‘It means you’re a freak,’ he said. ‘It means that you’re about as important to me as a cardboard box,’ I said. ‘You’re just a thing – a piece of garbage that no […]

If Dexter Had A Baby with Supernatural

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 In theory, Dexter crossed with Supernatural sounds like an interesting idea.  In practice, it’s more like mixing chocolate with guacamole.  Of course, being being forewarned is forearmed.  I went into this book thinking I was going to read something more in a serious vein, like We Need to Talk about Kevin; the summary on the back doesn’t suggest any paranormal themes. John Wayne Cleaver (named after the cowboy, not the deranged clown) knows he is a sociopath.  He has rules for himself to fit in.  No […]

This anthology is so inside baseball.

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I think we can consider this experiment a success. I would definitely read more anthologies with insights into the writing and editiing process. It’s fascinating. Writing Excuses is a podcast hosted normally by writers Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler. (Sometimes they have other guests.) It’s a pretty cool podcast. They give writing advice, talk about all the different processes of writing, and even workshop stories on air. Some of the excerpts in this book were podcast segments. I haven’t listened […]

Genetic engineering, a nuclear holocaust, human identity, and twoo wuv?

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The first thing I will say is this: Ruins, despite its bleak title, had possibly the happiest ending in a YA dystopian trilogy that I remember reading in quite some time, and, admittedly, I was kind of relieved. I was getting the sense that many YA authors have been under pressure from publishers — and their own ambition — to write ‘shocking’ or ‘original’ endings, so they’ve been steered away from neat resolution and feel-goods. But an ending can be positive without being trite, you know? […]



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