Jack London – Cannonball Read 17

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London

October 10, 2025 by Classic Leave a Comment

I never knew that Jack London wrote something called The Scarlet Plague and it was futuristic fiction. He wrote this in 1912 and at times during the story I thought about what happened with COVID-19 and what could have happened if we at that time didn’t come together and actually do what we could to contain it. I think that parts of the book though were just confusing at times (random wording occurring). I got the free version of this story so I am sure that was […]

It ripped out my heart, returned it, then stole it again

Call of the Wild by Jack London

January 12, 2024 by Marcella Leave a Comment

Call of the Wild is based on the gold rush, specifically the dogs used in the dogsleds. This is because the main character Buck, is a dog. He lives the high life, lounging around, occasionally hunting, all in the sweet sun. Then, he gets kidnapped and sold to a dogsled. He has to learn to adapt, to fight back, because no one would let him live if they had the chance to kill him. I have so many favorite things about Call of the Wild. […]

Love it, but maybe not for everyone

White Fang by Jack London

January 10, 2024 by Marcella Leave a Comment

I’ve read this book maybe 20 times, and love it more each time. It’s such a comfort, although it is on the bleakest of topics. One of the first lines is “The land itself was desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit in it was not even that of sadness.” Yet, it makes me happy. It’s set within the Gold Rush era, everyone traveling on sleighs led by dogs. The main character of White Fang is a dog, well, technically a […]

I never read prologues.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

White Fang by Jack London

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

December 30, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

In the Dream House – 4/5 Stars This memoir came out a year or so ago, and because I was kind of mixed on the short story collection, I didn’t pick it up. Since then, I’ve been a little back and forth on reading it or not reading. Partly, because of the subject matter, I knew it would be rough going. And it is. This is a book that involves Carmen Maria Machado looking back and narrating being in an abusive relationship with another writer, […]

The prince is sleeping now.

Letters from Atlantis by Robert Silverberg

Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg

Nightwings by Robert Silverberg

Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi

Technopoly by Neil Postman

The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman

The Most Beautiful House in the World by Witold Rybczynski

Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

The Game of X by Robert Sheckley

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

White Fang by Jack London

The Man on the Balcony by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall

December 29, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Letters from Atlantis – 4/5 Stars In this novella, we meet a time travelling archeologist/anthropologist writing letters to his wife. Seems normal enough (well, minus the time travelling) but what we find out is that this narrator is actually 20,000 years in the past in Atlantis, the mythical or not mythical island country that existed pre-historically, and if the stories that go at least as far back as Plato go, was seemingly advanced. So the time traveler is observing, this society has electricity, as well […]

It was nine thirty on Christmas Eve.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer

No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase

Time and Tide by Frank Conroy

Nature Poem by Tommy Pico

A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

Inside Stories by Ben H Winters

The Dark Web by Geoff White

Latin History for Morons by John Leguizamo

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London

Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgard

This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich

Dr Doolittle by Hugh Lofting

Texts from Jane Eyre by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

Tom Sawyer Detective by Mark Twain

May 19, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Here’s a whole bunch of kind of (Sorry) short reviews for short books! Pandemic reading!!! The Woman in Black – 3/5 Stars I still think it remains a little silly that this movie had Daniel Radcliffe in it. He was too fresh off of Harry Potter and hadn’t yet made his real transition into adult movies. I think his show “The Young Doctor’s Notebook” was a more successful vehicle for him as it placed him in a transitional role. Anyway, I mention all […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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