Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The house of cards continued standing.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

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As she did in her second novel “The Dreamers,” Karen Thompson Walker places her characters in the midst of a strange yet believable crisis. Here, for no discernible reason, the rotation of the Earth slows down. The gravitational pull is altered and tides change. Long periods of daylight are followed by long periods of night. Some wildlife begins to die while other types flourish. Plants are no longer able to grow without the aid of artificial light. The plot line reminded me a lot of […]

I finally got around to the one I was saving

Armada by Ernest Cline

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I’m a big fan of Ready Player One, especially the version read by Wi Wheaton.  So I knew right away that I wanted to listen to his narration of Armada.  (I bought it right away when I got my Audible account, and then saved it.)  Ernest Cline obviously loves video games and the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, and the ‘90’s too.  The amount of pop culture he includes in his books is impressive.   For some reason, I thought this was written way before it was.  Ready […]

Slow at first, but absolutely worth it in the end

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

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From Goodreads: From the ground, we stand. From our ship, we live. By the stars, we hope Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat. Tessa chose to stay home when her […]

…how disease sometimes exposes what is otherwise hidden.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

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This was another book that was displayed by the wise librarians to reel me in. As usual, it worked. Apparently, Karen Thompson Walker is known for her debut novel, Age of Miracles, which appeared on loads of “Best of” lists the year it was published. I will be hunting that book down immediately. The apocalyptic-pandemic trope is a popular one, but Walker does something completely different with it here. A freshman at a small college in California falls asleep and doesn’t wake up. What soon becomes […]

Don’t Take The Memories

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

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The Memory Police is the kind of dystopia I like. No Hunger Games-esque confrontations with the Big Bad. No sadistic rolling around in the concept (aka “torture porn”). No forsaking character for story. The characters drive this story. The society they live in impacts them and they adapt. It’s a well-told tale. I would have loved to have read this book in its original language. I feel like there are probably subtleties I could have picked up on. But what I did get was good enough. Yoko […]

Everyone has felt like Moon Girl at one time or other – #CBR11Bingo: “And so it begins”

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Beginning by Brandon Montclare (writer), Amy Reeder (writer), Natacha Bustos (artist), Marco Failla (artist)

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For a couple years now, people have been telling me to read Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.  I even bought it for my daughters, they read it and loved it, but it sat on the shelf unread by me.  Then an adorable video of a parent and child cosplaying, with a preschool aged Moon Girl and a parent in a blow up dinosaur costume, was posted on the Cannonball Read Book Chat Facebook page by emmalita.  It was adorable and gave me the push to […]



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