Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This whole book is one big WTF moment.

Confessions by Kanae Minato

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If you would like to read something absolutely wild, go ahead and pick up this book. I knew it was going to be dark going in, and maybe it’s just because I don’t read all that many books that could truly be described as “dark,” but this was DARK. But also, it somehow managed to avoid being bleak? I think it was because it was so audacious. I just kept thinking the whole time I was reading it, WHAT. SHE DID WHAT NOW. (She being […]

Well, this was definitely a book. I will not be rating it.

The 120 Days of Sodom, or The School of Libertinage by Marquise de Sade

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So, I wrote this upon finishing this book: “Ummmm. Give me a while to pull some thoughts together.” That was mid-October. I don’t think I’ve managed to pull those thoughts together. I don’t think I ever will. I mean, I read some reviews going in to this book, but even the ones that were explicit about the contents didn’t prepare me. I picked this book up because of the Read Harder Challenge. One of the challenges was to read a book that was written in […]

“How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.”

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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I don’t have the time or energy to write as much or as deeply as I would like to about this strange, 100+ year old book, so I’m just going to settle with posting some brief thoughts below. Somehow I managed to make it out of years and years of schooling, with two English degrees, without reading this book. Which is right up my alley! All that discussion of monsters and things that are taboo swathed in metaphor. I love that shit. When I first […]

Sometimes a book seems like it was written just for you; then you actually read it, and then you are sad.

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

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Much to my surprise, I didn’t really like this all that much. I will probably list some reasons down below, but bottom line ultimately is that something about it just never gelled with me. To elaborate, I didn’t really like any of the characters, except Elliott. The world-building makes no sense. (Or, there is no world-building?) SPOILERS Oxygen, where is it? How are they dealing with all the background cosmic radiation? Why are all these random fucking buildings floating in space? When is this set? […]

“Your heart is beating, isn’t it? You’re not in chains, are you?”

Felicity by Mary Oliver

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This is one of those books I never would have picked up on my own, so thanks, Read Harder, for doing your job. I do not read much poetry at all, and that is because some that I have read in the past has been pretentious as hell or impenetrable, or both, but even when it hasn’t been, my favorite thing about reading is narrative, and most poetry doesn’t have that, so. I’d just rather spend my reading time on novels, and the very occasional […]

“She looked in the mirror and gasped. Melissa gasped back at her. For a long time, she stood there, just blinking. George smiled, and Melissa smiled too.”

George by Alex Gino

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This was such a lovely little book. I’m glad it exists, and not just for little trans kids, but for all kids. It encourages empathy, imagination, and kindness, something all kids (and grown-ups) can always benefit from. George is the birthname of our female protagonist, who is in the 4th grade, and knows that even though she was born with a boy’s body, inside she has always been a girl. She has never told anyone this (although we get hints that her family knows something […]



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