Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The TV Series is Better

The Umbrella Academy Vol.1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

The Umbrella Academy Vol.2: Dallas by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

The Umbrella Academy Vol.3: Hotel Oblivion by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

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Cbr16bingo Earth Day, bingo I really enjoyed The Umbrella Academy series on Netflix and just did a binge of the first three seasons before watching the fourth and final season. Overall, I thought it was excellent. The resolution to the series was great and made sense of a lot of stuff that had been unresolved. I knew it was based on a graphic novel series and decided to pick it up and see how the the TV series compares to the original, and surprisingly for […]

Still relevant 75 years later

1984 by George Orwell

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Despite being 75 years old, this novel holds up remarkably well. I think people can relate 1984 to a variety of things in their lives – an abusive family life, an impossible workplace, or even the society in which they live. But the book is actually about a dystopian future society (which was 1984 according to Orwell, who wrote this novel in 1949). After an atomic war in the 50’s, the world condensed itself into three nation states: Eurasia, Oceania, and East Asia. Airstrip One, […]

“I know now that what’s tragic isn’t the moment. It is the memory.”

Another Brooklyn: A Novel by Jacqueline Woodson

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Cbr16bingo Disco, bingo  (1970s New York, marginalized communities) In the author’s notes at the end of this novel, Woodson writes that her inspiration came from her thoughts on “what it means to grow up a girl in this country,” particularly in 1970s Brooklyn. Those familiar with Woodson’s novels — read Brown Girl Dreaming and Red at the Bone, both excellent — know that she has an incredible talent for writing about the experiences of Black girls in specific points in US history such as the […]

Saucy!

The Duke Who Didn’t: Wedgeford Trials Book 1 by Courtney Milan

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cbr16bingo And Also —for the Part 1 square  For CBR15 I read Courtney Milan’s The Brothers Sinister series (based on recommendations from fellow Cannonballers) and loved it. When I initially asked for advice on where to start with Milan’s work, The Duke Who Didn’t came up frequently. While The Brothers’ Sinister series deals a lot with women’s rights and the suffrage movement, this start to the Wedgeford Trials series has a focus on minorities in England, discrimination, and appropriation. Milan, as ever, is careful and […]

A Guest in the House: a twisty, turny, graphic novel

A Guest in the House by E.M. Carroll

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mood music: Crazy – gnarls barkley The last graphic novel I read was Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, a dark and gritty telling of the Joker’s origins as a failed comedian turned violent criminal. This seems to be a pattern with the graphic novels that I gravitate towards, including Watchmen and Maus, and this novel is no different. Written and illustrated by E.M. Carroll (formerly Emily Carroll), the story tells the tale of Abby, a recently married discount store clerk, and follows her day-to-day with […]

“Comedy is laughter in the face of death”

Wyrd Sisters (1988) by Terry Pratchett

Witches Abroad (1991) by Terry Pratchett

Lords and Ladies (1992) by Terry Pratchett

Carpe Jugulum (1998) by Terry Pratchett

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These are re-reads, these are beloved, these are–I suggest–suitable for the fanfic square because they are riotous and revelrous games with Shakespeare plays and fairy stories and Dracula and witch traditions, even while they question the logics behind them. For example, as Pratchett points out, witches would probably not be dancing around nude during their eldritch rites because it would get quite chilly. Wyrd Sisters (1988) Autocorrect keeps trying to make wyrd into ‘word’, which is fitting, because this is a book partly about the […]



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