Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The bonds of war are powerful and deadly

Bonded in Death by J. D. Robb

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The latest book in J.D. Robb’s futuristic In Death series, Bonded in Death, centers on a dapper Italian man whose story began decades earlier during the Urban War. Giovanni Rossi is found poisoned to death in the back of a limo. He is clutching Eve Dallas’ business card which has a cryptic note on the back.  Eve Dallas soon discovers that the message references The Twelve, a secret group of freedom fighters who were instrumental in ending the Urban War in Europe.  The threat ties […]

Introducing: Miguel O’Hara

Spider-Man 2099, issue #1 by Peter David

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Peter Parker wasn’t my first Spider-Man. He’s one of my favorite characters, don’t get me wrong, but Peter Parker’s origin story was collective knowledge, it wasn’t new. It was picked over turkey with all the baggage of a holiday meal. I knew going in that 2099 would be different, but I didn’t know what that meant at the time. I was twelve, eating lots of Brooklyn pizza, and guzzling Arizona iced tea at a rate surely to put me on the diabetes fast-track (thankfully, it […]

Fauxschizzle vs. 2099: An Introduction

Marvel's 2099 Series by Various

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I was an easy mark. Overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of stories, art, subject matter that filled my local Brooklyn comic store, and limited by a $5-per-week allowance, I had no idea where to enter the world of comic books. Even at a young age I was a story junkie. I loved Spider-Man, Batman, the Silver Surfer, and had a huge crush on Jubilee from the X-Men. I was interested in so many more… Wolverine, Sandman, Martha Washington Goes to War, Tank Girl, Ghost Rider, […]

Be careful what to wish for when trying to earn your Adventure badge in Scouts

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer

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This adventure story feels more on the Y end than the A end of YA, but with some thrills and dangers that might be scary for littler readers. The three children of General Matsika – brave Tendai, the oldest at 13, assertive sister Rita, and four-year-old Kuda – are not allowed to leave the family compound. They have everything they could ever need, including fancy futuristic school lessons and a live-in Praise Singer who acts as tutor and babysitter. Their father has spent his career […]

A love letter to video games

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was a more recent CBR9 book exchange gift. The backlash for the book was pretty intense, but with the recent film adaptation, I was curious to read it for myself. Thus, I was glad my Mocha Girls Read book club picked it for our white male author theme. I ended up finishing it over 4th of July and surprisingly enjoyed the pop culture filled story. The story follows Wade on an epic quest to essentially save the internet from a […]

John Scalzi is reliably fascinating

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This was my second attempt to read this book, and I’m glad I gave it another go. I haven’t been let down by Scalzi before, and Lock In was no different. This is a fairly typical Scalzi novel, in that the world is well developed and multi-layered. From what I’ve read of him (Redshirts, the Old Man’s War series, and The Dispatchers), he’s very adept at centering his stories around a big idea, and this is no different. Set in the future, a disease has […]



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