Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Future Is Bleak

Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: Tech. In addition to some of the tech developments set in this near-future pre-apocalyptic tale, one of the main subplots is an interactive video game the characters play that features heavily in the narrative. This book started out interesting enough: we come upon a disaffected broke upper class Brooklyn couple, trying to recover from infertility and the loss of an infant. The husband has lost their money at a time of a bad economic downturn but is trying to […]

Singing the Heartsong

The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody

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Oh-ho, this is how you know I am starting to procrastinate this weekend! I’m going for two reviews in two days! When I first picked up this book, it had been eight years since I had read the previous four. I was no longer in high school but rather ready to start my Master’s degree. And to be honest, over the nine-year break, I had nearly forgotten the series. If I hadn’t noticed The Stone Key on the shelves after bumming around in a book […]

‘He is in a dream but the beast is not. It comes! Wake!’

The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody

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Ok, I am trying my best to keep the momentum up here because I feel that I may not have much free time in the next few weeks after quarter starts. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, Obernewtyn, The Obernewtyn Chronicles ended up expanding beyond the author’s original plans. There was originally going to be five books in the series, making The Keeping Place, the penultimate volume. Instead, The Keeping Place ended up as book four of seven. And maybe the […]

‘Futuretellers Ken th’ Danger of Dreams Best’

Ashling by Isobelle Carmody

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In my previous reviews for the Obernewtyn Chronicles, I made the twin observations that Obernewtyn is a very contained story and it’s The Farseekers where the series starts to find its feet. Now I can state that it’s in the third volume, Ashling, where the plot starts to learn to run. Ashling takes place about a year after the events of The Farseekers, and we open with Elspeth rescuing a gypsy woman from being burnt at the state by the Herder Faction. While the woman is […]

“And now, born from the ashes, she’s a warrior in bloodied black.”

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

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CBR16 Sweet Books: Binge Nowhere Book Bingo: A YA novel Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Epistolary romance CBR16 Bingo: Part 1 and Part 2 (the book has more than 600 pages) This is the second book in a series, and starting with this one means a lot of stuff won’t make much sense. I also don’t think it’s possible for me to review this book without spoiling the previous one, so if you’re not up to date, start with Illuminae. After the disastrous events, first on […]

Confusing, but fun

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

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Nowhere Book Bingo: Award Winner (Won the Hugo and Locus awards in 1998, plus a bunch of others) Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Scene on a boat or body of water (there’s a lot of rowing on the river) CBR16 Bingo: Tech (time travel requires pretty specific technology) This is the second book in the Oxford Time Travel series, but you really don’t need to have read the first one, Doomsday Book, to understand and enjoy this one. In the universe these books are set in, […]



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