Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“If a book is well-written, I always find it too short”

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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4.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: Black (a book with a black cover) I had completely forgotten that I read and reviewed this book back in 2016. My original review can be found here. My plot summary of the more than 200-year-old novel can be found in my previous review. Nevertheless, my reading experience this time around was different enough from earlier times that I wanted to write about some of my thoughts and observations, not to mention some of the points of discussion that came up during my […]

Irish Goodbye

Everybody Dies by Lawrence Block

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When I first read Everybody Dies a few years ago, I found it disappointing. Matt partnering with his gangster friend Mick Ballou sounded like fun but the execution was meh. Block used it as an excuse to kill off a lit of auxiliary characters from previous books, while the killer himself wasn’t especially interesting and I didn’t feel like I understood Ballou’s character more than I already did. So I wasn’t really jazzed to go back to it for my Scudder re-read, which is almost complete. But […]

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

Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells

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Last fall I started a full Murderbot Diaries re-read in the lead up to our Cannonball Read book club about all things Murderbot. I got five stories read, but then November and December happened, and I did not get to finish in 2024. But that’s okay, I have the remaining books in my custody for January and I can get to the last new-to-me Murderbot (System Collapse) in just a couple of weeks!  My main takeaway this time through Fugitive Telemetry is that I missed […]

“I hate having emotions about real humans instead of fake ones, it just leads to stupid moments like this.”

Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4) by Martha Wells

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I have many grudges against the New York Times, dating back many years (even while acknowledging the amazing work its staffers can do), but I think the Times review of Exit Strategy almost perfectly describes who and what Murderbot is, “”a beautiful blend of exhausted cynicism and deep, helpless love”, because while Murderbot hates having feelings and would likely try to argue that it can’t love, it is the only explanation for the choices it makes throughout this book.   In Rogue Protocol Murderbot goes […]

“Nobody grabs SecUnits. I hadn’t realized this was a perk until now.”

Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3) by Martha Wells

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When I read this book in January of 2019 it was my least favorite of the original four (spoiler, it still is), mostly because I didn’t connect with the non-Murderbot characters. To a degree that is still true, I feel less connected to them than I did to Mensah’s team in the first or the programmers in the second. But, on a second visit I think that’s probably by design, as Wells is clearly juxtaposing Don Amene and Miki against those other relationships. There is […]

“I liked protecting people and things. I liked figuring out smart ways to protect people and things. I liked being right.”

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells

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My Murderbot re-read continues with the introduction of my favorite character, ART (which, side note, it has taken me over five years to notice that ART is in the title Artificial Condition). Book two picks up quickly after the events of All Systems Red, with Murderbot having left Mensah and her team to figure out what it wants with its freedom, now that it is off inventory from the company, but not wanting to be a “pet robot”. Quickly, Murderbot realizes it wants to get […]



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