Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Only Room for One Goat at the Top

The Feast of the Goat / La fiesta del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa

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This is my first go-around with Mario Vargas Llosa, and this book was the month’s choice for a world literature bookclub that was held back in May.  I had known for weeks that this was the chosen book, so I thought I had plenty of time to track down a copy to read. However, when I checked the local e-libraries, none of them had any of Vargas Llosa’s books available—in English. Interestingly, Harris County’s online library seems to have almost his entire back catalog in […]

“I liked protecting people and things. I liked figuring out smart ways to protect people and things. I liked being right.”

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells

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My Murderbot re-read continues with the introduction of my favorite character, ART (which, side note, it has taken me over five years to notice that ART is in the title Artificial Condition). Book two picks up quickly after the events of All Systems Red, with Murderbot having left Mensah and her team to figure out what it wants with its freedom, now that it is off inventory from the company, but not wanting to be a “pet robot”. Quickly, Murderbot realizes it wants to get […]

Two Star Romance Roundup

Trust (London Love Book #5) by Sophia Soames

You Can Count on Me (Christmas Daddies Book 2) by Fae Quin

Not All Himbos Wear Capes (Villainous Things Book 1) by C. Rochelle

Omega on the Run (Bangers & Mash Book 5) by M.M. Farmer

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CBR16 Bingo: Liberate Characters in the books are seeking liberation from their past mistakes, their families, their fears, or their obligations. Trust (London Love Book #5) By Sophia Soames Reuben has a steady job and is well-liked by his colleagues. He works as a doorman, along with his father and his cousins, at the Westminster Clouds hotel. After a rough adolescence, he is grateful to have a stable home and job, and he owes it to his father. Still, he wishes he could break out […]

Trans and Transitions

Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: liberate. Carlotta is coming home from prison, which is some sort of liberation and she’s trying to find her way as a trans woman in the world, seeking her own path to liberation. I’ve written before about my beef with contemporary writing and how smarmy it’s become. Every villain has to twirl their mustache, every hero has to overcome a specific obstacle to warm the audience’s heart, everything is so boringly Manichaean. There’s little space for complexity, imperfection, growth, […]

Beautiful, harrowing and oh so sad

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

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CBR16 Bingo: Liberate (our protagonists are fighting in World War I to keep the world safe from the Germans) Official plot summary, because I finished this book in early April: It’s 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they’re too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle – an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, […]



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