Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Short story review dump (Part III)

Mono no aware by Ken Liu

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

The Hofzinser Club by Michael Chabon

The Baboon War by Nnedi Okorafor

Childfinder by Octavia E. Butler

The Five-Forty-Eight by John Cheever

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Mono no Aware by Ken Liu (5 stars) Mono no aware is a Japanese phrase meaning “the pathos of things”. It’s the bittersweet feeling of sadness at the impermanence of things, a careful blend of appreciation and sadness that nothing can last forever. It’s the phrase I didn’t know that I needed in my life – but I think I do, because I experience it fairly often. I think it’s one of the reasons I love Haruki Murakami’s work so much. There is a delicate […]

We are being pursued by guys.

Coyote Doggirl by Laura Hanavalt

LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorofor

Black History in its Own Words by Ron Wimberly

FTL, Ya'll by C Spike Trotman

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Coyote Doggirl This is a comic book/kind of graphic novel by one of the animators of Bojack Horseman. This story as it is takes place in a Wild West setting and our hero Coyote Doggirl is being pursued along with her horse by “guys” as she states. She takes off running from them, and as they pursue more and more weird little occurrences happen to her. The humor in this is book is subtle and weird and kind of arbitrary in funny ways. There’s no real […]

Interesting ideas but needed more space to grow

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

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Binti is a novella starting a series about a young woman leaving her home in Africa to travel to a distant world – Oomza University. She is the first of her people – the Himba – to leave their homelands but she is an incredibly gifted harmoniser who even as a teenager is capable of building complex instruments called astrolabes. Basically she is gifted at the complex and advanced mathematics that are used to propel this future society. The book introduces intriguing concepts such as […]

There’s a strange feeling I experience before I can go into the ocean.

Broken Places and Outer Spaces by Nnedi Okorafor

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This is a long memoir essay or short memoir written by Nnedi Okorafor author of several sci fi and fantasy novels, of which I’ve only read the Binti trilogy. This book is published by TED books and the audiobook which came out this week is narrated by Okorafor, and given the subject matter and length of the book is perfect. I don’t know or didn’t know much about Okorafor before this, but did enjoy the Binti books. One of the primary focuses of this book […]

Angry Space Jellyfish

Binti by nnedi Okorafor

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I hated the first thing I got from a list of must-read sci-fi/fantasy series; I was not optimistic about the second. Thankfully, this one turned out well. The only problem? Binti is actually a novella, and way too short. I somehow ended up with a copy of the first novella, not the series of three bound together. The premise reminds me in some ways of Black Panther. Binti is a Shuri-like math prodigy from an isolated culture who sticks largely to old ways of living […]

Drop-kick That Magic Lamp into Mount Doom

The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (editors)

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Short story collections are like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you have to gnaw some nuts and chews to eventually find that chocolate truffle. That said, The Djinn Falls in Love is phenomenal. Six of the twenty-one stories are among the best short stories I have read. Ever. (Jhumpa Lahiri, I’m sorry to report that you’ve been bumped.)  The editors’s international ensemble of authors clearly did their research, populating their confident tales with every manner of djinn, jinn, and genie. Some lie in wait in […]



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