Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This was fine, but the satire didn’t really resonate for me.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

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Everybody raves about Patrick Ness, but this is my first experience with his books. He seems like a talented writer. His prose was well-executed. He knows his way around story and character arcs. And he seems very imaginative and inventive. I even read this book pretty fast, and while reading, I wasn’t ever wishing I was reading something else. But . . . I just didn’t click with it. And the parts I did click with were sort of undercut by the ending. It was […]

The economics of fantasy tropes

Orconomics: A Satire by J. Zachary Pike

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Gorm Ingerson is not the hero he used to be. Striped of all ranks and points and titles, Gorm will do anything to get back to the status he once held. That includes being willing (more or less) to go on a quest in service of a mad goddess with a band of other less than stellar heros. This questing group, made up a thief turned bard, a healing potion addicted ranger elf, a goblin squire, two warring mages, a silent weapons master, and a […]

“But I can have spiders in my head as long as I don’t let them consume me.” #CBRBingo – Happy

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

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This was very sweet and I was extremely charmed by it. I didn’t end up giving it the fifth star, because shmoopsy mostly doesn’t work for me, and this did get a bit shmoopsy there at the end. (Shmoopsy is a technical term.) But overall, this was witty and so sweet and heartwarming, with a light undercurrent of dark humor. I loved the worldbuilding; the gentle bite of the satire combined so well with the big hearts of the main characters. Briefly (because I think […]

“Fanfiction isn’t copying – it’s a celebration. One long party, from the first capital letter to the last full stop!”

One of Our Thursdays is Missing (Thursday Next, #6) by Jasper Fforde

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This was a good time, but I wasn’t ever able to lose myself in it. Seems fitting for a book I put on my Must Read list in 2011, and then didn’t get to for nine years. Jasper Fforde is always at worst just a good time for me, but sometimes his stuff ascends to the brilliant level; this just wasn’t that for me. This book, to my surprise, doesn’t even follow Thursday, but the written Thursday, formerly known as Thursday5, who failed her Jurisfiction […]

In which A Square contemplates the universe

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

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Flatland is broken up into two parts. In the first A Square explains to the reader his universe which is called Flatland, a two dimensional world. There are only two dimensions in Flatland: one that runs North to South and one that run West to East. All women are Lines and there is a separate caste system based around the number of sides one has. In such system, the lowest caste are isosceles triangles, for how can one be worthy of respect if they are […]

“I’ve seen the film Grease. I’ve seen a film of Greece. I have never seen a film in Greece, or while being greased.”

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey by Richard Ayoade

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Who better to address the enigma that is Richard Ayoade (speaking of- wouldn’t he make a great Riddler) than Richard Ayoade? I don’t know that I brood. I just occasionally take time out to silently consider the specific ways in which others have wronged me. Ayoade, the elusive filmmaker, has been tracked down by Ayoade, the author and maniac behind both personas. His ability to be so silly and yet so serious- often simultaneously- continues to leave me both baffled and delighted. Even so-called ‘short […]



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