Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Side Quest Central

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

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Carl’s Doomsday Scenario is a pretty good continuation of the Carl and Donut dungeon crawl. The characters and seat of the pants problem solving are still there, the dark humor that’s both tragic and still entertaining is still there. Plot-wise this volume gets thin; much like the side quest emphasis (new feature of this volume), there is not a lot of progress in the main overall situation. There’s also isn’t  a ton of character development beyond the “game character” that everyone has to perform to […]

I hit the 7th Cannonball with pun and fun

Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Grave: Epitaphs to Die For by Anthony Martignetti

The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood

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I like to read and I enjoy writing reviews. But sometimes a book is not able to produce a long review. There isn’t a lot to say, or if you do, there are more words in your review than the actual book. These below titles fall into that category as well as the category of sometimes you cannot find a theme to link books together in a review other than they don’t allow for longer reviews and they have nothing in common. And that is […]

Much Tragic. So Drama.

The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales by Thomas Hardy

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Must confess.  In my late teens, I went on a Thomas Hardy binge.  British lit wasn’t new to me, but something about Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd just hit my tragic drama queen teen heart.  Read everyone I could get my hands on, and in those days, there was a fair bit to be found, in school libraries and even public ones.  Inevitably the protagonist (and it was usually a heroine) came to a sad end, and I was there […]

An extremely unexpected new favorite.

Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong

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This book spoke to me. Katrina Kim is the most lovable, vulnerable mess of a human. I would find it concerning how much I identified with her* if I wasn’t too busy enjoying every bonkers moment of this book. I was worried as I approached the end, given how I’d lost my mind over it so far, that the ending wouldn’t do Katrina justice, but I shouldn’t have been worried. I cried happy tears and felt much resolution. *I have OCD and she does too, […]

I am not HO HO HOing about this book, but it’s worth the read.

Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike

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I just want to type out the entire review from the publisher copy for Twelve Terrors of Christmas (or) 12 Terrors of Christmas. This John Updike book is a “Your Mileage Will Varey” depending on your sense of humor (or lack thereof) and your appreciation or dislike of Edward Gorey as an illustrator. The publisher copy says things like, “depictions of Yuletide mayhem” by Gorey. And Updike has “wryly jaundiced [examinations]” of each theme. Nothing is sacred, from Santa and his red suit, to sitting […]

the only Scream sequel I need

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

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Take the meta-horror-commentary of Scream and dial it up to eleven; there at the top of the stairs, silhouetted in moonlight and brandishing a rusty machete, you will find The Last Final Girl. Stephen Graham Jones is leaning hard into the tropes of teen slasher movies, and if you aren’t in on the joke it will fly over your freshly-severed-by-garage-door-head. The story is presented almost as a film treatment; close ups, pans, POVS, and audience responses are all written in and used with cheeky abandon. […]



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