Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Bloody Chamber

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

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I recently decided to re-read The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (it was my choice for my book group). It was as fun as I remembered. Carter’s sexy takes on traditional fairy tales like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Puss in Boots” is at times over-the-top in its prose, humor, and horror – which suits her feminist takes on damsels in all sorts of distress perfectly. She delivers a great vampire tale, “The Lady of the House of Love,” too.  But I think […]

Demonology

Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

Fiend by Alma Katsu

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I read two books last week, both horror, both the kind of horror that used its tropes to tell a larger tale… Play Nice**** I’ve confessed my love for Rachel Harrison’s work many times in this space. If you don’t count Stephen King — who I don’t exclusively read for horror — Harrison is my favorite horror writer. I love her textured takes on womanhood and the decisions women have to make at critical moments of their lives. I’m glad I was cued into her […]

“But not everyone has dreams. Some people just are, the way that trees and rocks and rivers are just there without a reason, the rest of the world moving around them.”

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

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CBR17 Bingo: Citizen – Though Cora is a citizen of the United States, her race – as well as the race of the many murdered Asian women in this book – makes everyone around them perceive them as foreigners to the point that they are stripped of the safety that their citizenships were supposed to have given them. Cora works as a crime scene cleaner during the COVID-19 pandemic – after witnessing her sister pushed in front of a train, the gore doesn’t bother her anymore. […]

The Past Is a Different Country

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan by Ivan Morris

American Monsters by Adam Jortner

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CBR17 Bingo: Favorite – Both books are history books about fairly specialized, off beat topics – my favorite kind. The World of the Shining Prince by Ivan Morris – 5 stars For about a century about a millennium ago, a strange era flourished in Japan where a series of boy emperors were ruled by their in-laws (who were also their grandparents, cousins, and aunts), beauty was virtue, and the failure to catch the vaguest conversational allusion to a poem spelled social ruin. This book is […]

Chuck Tingle writes another book you just have to experience for yourself.

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. I’ve been having such a hard time writing this review, and that’s because I know I need to re-read it in order to actually convey my thoughts. The second half of this book, listening to it felt like a fever dream, and I probably wasn’t paying as much attention to it as I should. And unfortunately, I think the second half is when the book is really crucial […]

“There’s something peaceful about your worst fear coming true.” CBRBINGO – Work

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

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I’ve been looking forward to reading this book since it was published, and it didn’t disappoint. Bat Eater* is about Cora Zheng, a half Chinese, half white young woman living in NYC as the pandemic kicks off. She lives with her sister, Delilah, with whom she has a troubled relationship. Delilah is full Chinese, and they are half sisters, and Cora has been in her shadow their whole lives. The opening chapter kicks off the book appropriately with Delilah’s violent death on a subway station platform. […]



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