Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

London is drowning and I live by the river

Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Peter Aaronovitch

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When pressed, I’ll tell people I don’t like fantasy. This claim is usually followed by a list of exceptions. I like Neil Gaiman. I like Harry Potter. I also like the Rivers of London-series by Ben Aaronovitch. The rest of the genre is, as they say, not my cup of tea. No offense to you fantasy lovers, but it just doesn’t do much for me. The suspension of disbelief required is, apparently, too big a leap. One of the reasons I do like these books, […]

“The first rule is don’t fall in love”…. guess what happens??

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

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I picked this up this afternoon as a cozy read during a snow day where work is cancelled and everyone is snowed in.   How To Stop Time is about Tom, a man who had a medical condition that causes him to age incredibly slowly. He’s not immortal, this isn’t played off as sci-fi or fantasy. He will eventually age and die, but in the meantime he is 439 years old and appears to be 41. The story takes us back and forth between present […]

Such a good book, giving me comfort in the (literal) dark times

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This is a re-read of one of my favourites. My original review (which is quite lengthy) can be found here. We’re pretty much in the coldest and darkest part of the year here in Norway now and it gets harder to motivate oneself for anything except hibernation, really. So with an ever more attentive and demanding baby and preparing to go back to work as a teacher for the first time in over a year, I’m not really up for anything very challenging to read in […]

How Long Can Hope Survive?

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Bingo Square Round 2: So Shiny lollygagger’s review of this one intrigued me, so I ended up picking it up.  I was reading this on my phone, and started another new book on my iPad but realized I was much more interested in this novel, and elevated it to my main read and thus Bingo selection. Before I got too far into this review, I checked the description on Amazon to see how much they give away, and this is one of the rare ones […]

Age, Gender and Culture in one London Community

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Bingo Square: Dream Vacation I honestly am not sure what I was expecting from this one but between Reese Witherspoon and positive Cannonball reviews, I knew I wanted to read it.  It had a darker underside than I realized while also focusing on all the themes I was expecting from the story, such as relationships, gender, cultural and generational divides, and different approaches to life as an immigrant. Nikki is the youngest daughter in an English Punjabi family.  Already being English speakers when they emigrated, […]

Dead Man Upright: An Elegy for Derek Raymond

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I read this one for the Cannonball Run Bingo, category: “This is the End.” It is the last book in the Factory Series. I first came across Derek Raymond’s work on a list of unheralded dystopias. He had written his A State of Denmark in the late-60s in response to British politics of that time. I liked his voice as a write but couldn’t connect with the main character and so I set the book aside. A few months later, I discovered the “Backlisted” podcast, where a […]



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