Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Who cared about sex, really? When what you needed was someone to talk to in the dark.” CBR BINGO – Smash (Cannonball!)

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

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“There is a desperation to a novel that is unsettling. The world so painstakingly re-created in miniature; this tiny diorama made of words. Why go to all this trouble, to create me, to seduce you, to enumerate so many different breakfast cereals? To make the cunning tiny apartment, the itsy-bitsy Jinx? It’s like going to meet your new boyfriend’s family for the first time and discovering they are all paid actors. It’s almost easier to believe I’m real than to understand what’s actually going on. […]

*Such* a weird book, but I could not look away from it.

Identitti by Mithu Sanyal

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 4 Book 24/30 A German professor who has been passing as Indian for her entire adult life is found to have been born white, and because she has placed herself in the public eye and has become a pop culture figure/icon, controversy explodes. (The author was inspired by the cases of people like Rachel Dolezal—who gets a couple mentions in the book—to write a story engaging with a fictional and heightened version of that story.) We see through the […]

“I was happy, but I also wasn’t. Something was missing, here. Or not missing, but sleeping. But nothing here could wake it up. It made me feel alone. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

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Well I didn’t finish this in time for book club (it was my pick 😂 ) but I did finish it! And it was excellent. [two and a half months later] Okay, so, I am largely incapable of writing reviews in 2024 it seems, but I wanted to say things about this! Firstly, I am going to lower this down to four stars because in the past two months, it really hasn’t stuck with me as much as I thought it would, the way that […]

“This is a love story to its blade-dented bone.”

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

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I have made a beautiful mistake. I stayed up waaaaay past my bedtime to finish this and my middle-aged body is so mad rn, but this book was so very good. [4 months later] I’m REVIEW AMNESTYing a bunch of books right now, but I really want to write a review for this one, because a) I loved it so much, and b) I want more people to read it so I should say some stuff to convince them, and c) I think it will […]

This never quite came together for me, but it was interesting along the way.

Flux by Jinwoo Chong

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This is an interesting book that is ultimately not really for me, though it has some things going on that made me glad I read it. Even though it left me unsatisfied and mostly puzzled as to what the point was, I never wanted to stop reading (listening) to it, and I was fully engaged the whole time, which is not something you can say for a lot of three-star books. I put off writing this review very much on purpose because I was hoping […]

“Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there’s no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It’s loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.”

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

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In another time or another headspace, I might have given this five stars. If I ever re-read, I probably will. Unfortunately, my brain was just not in the mood for a long, measured, thoughtful, historical literary fiction novel when I read this back in April (!). I should probably have done the audiobook instead. (Anyone know if it’s any good? I’ve never heard of the narrator before.) *Have I EVER been in the mood for a Margaret Atwood? 🤔 I somehow managed to read The […]



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