Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

There was joy for having arrived, and sorrow for having left, and no way to even pretend this was home.

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

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It’s called the illusory truth effect. If you hear something often enough, for long enough, you’ll believe it. Even if you originally knew that the information was false. ― Natasha Pulley, The Mars House It made January angry too, when people declared that giving someone poor some basic human consideration was the same as being Stalin. It was the kind of argument deployed by people who were saving up for their own private golf course. ― Natasha Pulley, The Mars House CBR17 Bingo: Migrant We […]

Boldly going where no potential underwear had gone before

Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars by Jonathan Roth

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History, CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge Who knew that a piece of muslin cloth would have such an adventurous life? Reads as fiction, Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars by Jonathan Roth is a  non-fiction story that is humorous and educational. Great for a classroom and a way to grab kids’ attention. After all, what kid doesn’t think underwear is amusing? When I first read the title I thought it was going to be about underwear. […]

Science Fantasy at Its Best

The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itaranta

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I was in a weeklong writing class recently where they interviewed various authors. One of the more interesting  was Emmi Itaranta, a Finnish author, and I ordered her latest book, The Moonday Letters, after hearing her discuss her process. She writes in Finnish and English simultaneously as she had beta readers in both languages. I can’t imagine writing in two languages at the same time. Writing in one is difficult enough. The Letters are an interesting format: epistolary. The protagonist writes unsent letters to her […]

“The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land…”

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

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CBR14Bingo: Hot This is a book I kept out of the library so long as a kid that I accrued a $75 fine (do I currently have two books out of the library that are also so overdue they’re going to charge me for them if I don’t return them — yes, I haven’t learned my lesson). I can’t even imagine how many times I’ve read it and I’m happy to say it holds up yet again. It has been a few years since I’d […]

Meet the friends of, and Planet, you are standing on

Ocean! Waves for All? by Stacey McAnulty

Our Planet! There’s No Place Like Earth? by Stacey McAnulty

Earth! My First 4.54 billion Years by Stacey McAnulty

Sun! One in a Billion? by Stacey McAnulty

Mars! Earthlings Welcome by Stacey McAnulty

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Stacey McAnulty has caused me great stress. I cannot decide which of her books I liked best in the Our Universe series. Was it Ocean! Waves for All? Or was it Our Planet! There’s No Place Like Earth? Or even Earth! My First 4.54 billion Years (the first in the series)? Or the Sun! One in a Billion? Or even Mars! Earthlings Welcome. Each one is a lovely, funny, and educational way to learn about the planets, stars and more. Each subject tells their own […]

My general feelings for this book can be summed up as UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) by Kim Stanley Robinson

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I think I am allergic to Kim Stanley Robinson. Loved the idea behind this book, extremely disliked the execution. I tried reading 2312 years back, and similarly, any cool tingly science feelings I got from that book (which if I’m remembering right, starts with a moving, mechanized city on Mercury) was completely murdered by the boring as hell characters and lack of emotional through-line. I just remember the boredom with that one, but here I was not only bored but frustrated and annoyed by KSR’s attempt […]



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