Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Now you understand not every story shares the whole truth.”

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez

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By about 10% into the book, I was reminded viscerally of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. When reviewing that book I focused on the idea of there being a special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way. I’m firmly of the opinion that approaching storytelling that way – taking what has existed previously and viewing it another way – can lead to some inventive storytelling. There are any number of ways to approach it, and The Maiden […]

“So much of her life had been about escaping, in dreams and books and out of windows, that she didn’t quite know how to stay.”

The Geographer's Map to Romance by India Holton

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Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Monochrome CBR17 Bingo: Green (A book with a green cover) Official plot summary, because I finished the book in early April, and perimenopause is doing my powers of recall no favours: Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her—except her own personal disaster, that Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves. Gabriel is also an expert in magic disasters. And nothing fazes him either—except the walking, […]

No One Else Can Come in and Copy You

Patenting Life: Tales from the Front Lines of Intellectual Property and the New Biology by Jorge Goldstein

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Ok, keeping with the gene-theme this summer, I’ll now be briefly turning my attention to gene patents. Jorge Goldstein’s Patenting Life: Tales from the Front Lines of Intellectual Property and the New Biology is a great introduction to biological patents in the US (and beyond). It’s also a rather personal narrative; Goldstein entered the field of patent law at a time when biotechnology was experiencing some rapid advances (many of them mentioned in the previous book I reviewed), and he describes his career as like […]

How Grossly Do They Insult Us

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

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In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote this essay in response to the philosophers of the 18th century that were of the opinion that women were not only inherently inferior to men, but also lacking in reason compared to them, and would thus not need any kind of rational education. She argues that women need to be educated in order to truly fulfill their role in society, and to become more than mere ornamentation for men. Wollstonecraft is of course no feminist in the modern sense, and […]

“While I was killing him, I had to wipe my mouth with my sleeve every now and then because I couldn’t stop salivating.”

Mars by Asja Bakić

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Anything can become normal, if you continue to stick through it. War, murder, cults, doppelgängers, being deported to Mars- whatever world you are dropped into becomes your world. Asja Bakić is a master of normalcy in abnormal times and places. Her short story collection, Mars, is filled to the gills with the weird becoming common place. I was originally drawn to this collection for less than academic reasons: it is short and it has a pretty corner! I was looking to race through my Bingo card, […]

“Please tell me people who look like us can have happy endings.”

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

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I have been waiting for this book for months and am extremely happy to report that it does not disappoint. This is only my second Dade book (Teach Me was also highly enjoyable), but I can already say my favorite thing about her writing is how relatable and human her characters are. The two leads in Spoiler Alert are at a point of change in their lives – and actively seeking it – and the layers of their lives that push them towards, and in […]



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