Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Down among a bait and switch

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seannan Maguire

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This book explores the origin story of Jack and Jill, twin sisters from Every Heart a Doorway. The novella starts from pre-birth all the way through Jack and Jill finding and then fleeing The Moors. Along the way we meet the worst parents in the world who didn’t want children but wanted a perfect photograph of children; The Master, a vampire who rules the Moors; Dr. Bleak, mad scientist who pushes the boundaries of science going so far as to raise the dead; and many of […]

I Wish I Could Read Japanese

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

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One of my friends brought Kitchen back from her study-abroad to Japan in the mid 00s. I was woefully non-diverse in my reading at the time, so my first read of this book in 2008 was mostly vague and unaware. It left no impression. I didn’t even remember I owned it until re-shelving a bunch of books from packing boxes this spring. An MFA and six years of CBR diverse reading under my belt later, this read was a vastly different experience, the most striking of […]

A doorway to a beautifully built new world

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

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How do you care for your daughter after she returns from the Land of the Dead? If you’re Nancy’s parents, you take her to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. Thus begins Every Heart a Doorway. Nancy is delivered to her new home to get better when all she wants is to return to the world she stumbled upon years ago. As does everyone else under Eleanor’s care. She takes care of and helps those children who have crossed over to other worlds and want nothing […]

“It’s not unlike filtration, a move that blatant, deliberate. “

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

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In the near-future, we lucky Americans are eyeball-deep in a new terror: we can’t sleep. Every day, thousands more become unable to reach REM. They die after days of restlessness. The only thing that can help? Donations of sleep from “healthy” dreamers. Not unlike a blood drive, people like Trish Edgewater are cold-calling sleepers, begging them to give some of their life to the lifeless. Etiquette is a powerful programming, however, and easily exploitable. I sneeze. He sneezes back language at me, reflexive generosity: “Bless […]

“Don’t look at me like that’s my fault. I’m just telling you shit I know.”

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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We have a Murderbot murder mystery novella. It is almost as if this book was written specifically for me. Although published after Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry takes place before it, after Mensah brings Murderbot to Preservation Station. We join action in progress as a body has been discovered on the Station and Murderbot accompanies Dr. Mensah and Senior Officer Indah as an investigation is undertaken. Dr. Mensah does her Dr. Mensah thing and Murderbot is contracted to aid in the investigation (neither Murderbot not Senior […]

“Reagan already felt hard enough. She didn’t need any accessories. She didn’t need to telegraph it out to the world.”

If the Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell

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A few weeks ago, I saw an announcement on Rainbow Rowell’s Instagram that she was releasing a holiday short story this year and I rejoiced. I like Rowell’s short form work as much as I like her novel length ones. I’ve read Kindred Spirits, her 2016 take on fandom and waiting in line for Star Wars. Rowell also has holiday themed ones: Almost Midnight, 2017’s collection that includes both Kindred Spirits and Midnights. Midnights tracks a pair across several years’ worth of New Year’s Eves […]



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