Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Komi has to fight for her school, her friend, and maybe her boyfriend too

Komi Can't Communicate vol. 29 by Tomohito Oda

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Palate cleanser was needed so I went for a volume of Komi Can’t Communicate (v.29). In yet another improbable (and stupid if you think about it too hard) situation, Komi and pals’ school is in danger of being shut down because the 20-something nepo-baby in charge got drunk and made a wager. Now, Komi, Tadano, et al. have to compete in a trivia game, and go to camp to do it. That’s plot thread 1. Plot thread  is that it turns out that the star […]

The LONG Long Goodbye

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

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I picked this up thanks in large part to Megan Abbott’s review. It’s not her fault, though, that I didn’t like it. For Goodreads, Abbott talked about the book’s similarities to Robert Altman’s movie The Long Goodbye, mostly in terms of aesthetics, a forgotten Los Angeles, as well as the narrator’s anxiety. The Long Goodbye is one of my all time favorite movies, Chandler but better. So I had to grab this. And yeah, she is right that it gets the aesthetics well. I deeply felt […]

The wilds of high school social interactions

Komi Can't Communicate vol. 25 by Tomohito Oda

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Bingo 22: In the Wild Komi Can’t Communicate is set in high school (kind of the wilds) and Komi and her familiar group are separated in the beginning of their last year of high school, so Komi suddenly is faced with the challenge of taming a whole group of new friends (which is likely going to help her with her goal of making 200 friends since she’s only got a year left to do it). That and a good chunk of volume 25 is a […]

Different tune, same story

Battle of the Bands by Eric Smith and Lauren Gibaldi

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There’s a thing that happens when you totally crush out on someone. It’s like you can feel your heartbeat in every part of your body. There’s a euphoric kind of excitement mixed with sadness and terror. It’s hard to explain, but it happens in an instant and then just explodes and grows from there, consuming your every waking thought and sometimes your dreams. You can’t escape from it. It takes over and runs the controls that make you . . . you. Suddenly, you aren’t […]

One of My All-Time Favorite Works of Art

Fruits Basket Collector's Edition Vols 1-12 by Natsuki Takaya

Fruits Basket Another Vols 1-4 by Natsuki Takaya

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CBR15Bingo: Strange Worlds (Tohru becomes involved in the strange world of the Sohma family and there are supernatural events throughout.) The problem with writing a review of one of my all-time favorite series is that I mentally become that clip from a Lady Gaga interview (“Talented, brilliant, incredible amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference…”) and it makes it hard to summarize my thoughts beyond an incoherent shaking of the person listening […]

Too tropey high school survivalist story makes me feel old

Classroom of the Elite vols 1-5 by Yuyu Ichino, Syougo Kinugasa

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Classroom of the Elite might be a sign that I’m getting too old for some things. In particular, the high school set manga in which the kids are allowed to rule their schools, even to the extent of life and death (kind of but probably not really) competitions for status. The Advanced Nurturing High School (ironically named, at least to me) seemingly encourages a cut-throat atmosphere where the graduates are basically guaranteed good college, good job, etc. Naturally, most of our characters are in the […]



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