Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“It’s not unlike filtration, a move that blatant, deliberate. “

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

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In the near-future, we lucky Americans are eyeball-deep in a new terror: we can’t sleep. Every day, thousands more become unable to reach REM. They die after days of restlessness. The only thing that can help? Donations of sleep from “healthy” dreamers. Not unlike a blood drive, people like Trish Edgewater are cold-calling sleepers, begging them to give some of their life to the lifeless. Etiquette is a powerful programming, however, and easily exploitable. I sneeze. He sneezes back language at me, reflexive generosity: “Bless […]

The Swamp Will Eat You

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

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Since reading Russell’s short story collection, I’ve had her novel on my to-read. As always, bingo is a great time to knock a bunch of books off the TBR pile, so I finally made space for Swamplandia!. Sadly, I was underwhelmed. Russell’s writing is beautiful and there’s a ton of descriptive gems throughout the story, but plot wise, this book felt all over the place. Swamplandia! is an alligator themed adventure park run by the Bigtree family where they wrestle alligators and do stunts above the gator […]

Doctor Ain was recognized on the Omaha-Chicago flight.

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr

Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen

Orange World by Karen Russell

The Fall by Albert Camus

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield

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CBR12Bingo – Gateway (Author) Her Smoke Rose Up Forever: 4/5 Stars This is one of those books that I spent multiple years trying to get myself through. I read one of the stories “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” awhile ago and really liked it. It’s almost like a play on a kind of Twlight Zone type stories with a big twist, but it’s longer and more nuanced and more realized than one of those stories. Instead, it feels like a heavy influence on someone like […]

Snap, Crackle, but no Pop

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

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As I am catching up on reviews, it surprised me to remember that I read this. And I read it just last month. That gives you immediate insight into the impression it made, which was weak. I’ve gotten into short stories in the past few years, starting with T.C. Boyle and falling for the vocal recitations by LeVar Burton. I have read some great collections but this one for me was a dud. My experience seems to be similar to many on Goodreads which is […]

“When you’re a kid, it’s hard to tell the innocuous secrets from the ones that will kill you if you keep them.”

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

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Karen Russell was just 25 when this collection came out; a fact that is plastered all over the cover, festooned in blurbs throughout the opening pages, and the header on almost every piece of criticism that was launched at the same time as this collection. Her youth is/was impressive, and most certainly made me look back at my 25-year-old self with pity, but her youth is not the spark that sets this fire. She may have been young, but her ability to give voice to […]

Teetering on the Edge of Fantastic

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

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While buying a copy of Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble, Amazon alerted me that I “might also like” Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I’ve never read Swamplandia (although I’m totally going to now), and I knew nothing of Russell and her work, but the title sounded awesome and I’m always looking for quality speculative short fiction. I was not disappointed. Russell’s fabulous and her collection is as varied and weird and wonderful as the title suggests. Her work runs the gambit from vampires subsisting on lemons in […]



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