Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“When did we become such terrible people?””Maybe we’ve always been terrible.”

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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Other nights, when he thought I was already dreaming, he slid out of bed, took his coat and shoes, and disappeared into the dark outside. I never asked where he went, worried he wouldn’t ask me to follow. ― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains “Do you blame Shakespeare for any of it?” The question is so unlikely, so nonsensical coming from such a sensible man, that I can’t suppress a smile. “I blame him for all of it.”― M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains […]

Drama Queen

Antony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

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Ah, Shakespeare- takes me right back to high school English class! (Truthfully though: I hadn’t read this play nor seen it performed, but the general strokes of the story were familiar.) Ready? Here goes: Marc Antony, the great Roman general, is uneasily sharing power with Octavius, Julius Ceaser’s nephew, and a third general, Lepidius. Antony has come to Egypt as part of the triumvirate’s previous battles against outside enemies and fallen in love with the seductive Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra. Now that the outside enemies have […]

Shakespeare in Space

The Golden Globe by John Varley

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I’ll admit up front that I’m a big John Varley fan. I only keep books on my shelf that I reread periodically, and I have TWO Varley books on prime real estate, Millennium and Persistence of Vision. When I discovered his bio-science fiction short stories, I’d never read anything like it. Gender-swapping, body modifications to live on barren worlds, and Moon disneylands. They were all new concepts to someone who had been raised on spaceships and little green men. When I saw a John Varley […]

Problem play indeed.

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

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I will be honest with you here, and let you know that I barely remember this play. There were only a handful of Shakespeare’s plays that I made it out of school not having read, and this was one of them. I’ve been meaning to read it for years but never seemed to get around to it. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t read it, because at least there was a pleasing sense of mystery to it, with me wondering what it was about and only […]

Okay, you’re almost all villains. No ‘if’.

If We Were Villains by M L Rio

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Oliver is in his fourth and final year of his program at Dellecher Conservatory for the Fine Arts. He and his classmates have been studying Shakespeare together since day one at Dellecher, and they are all at their breaking point from the intense program and pressure of their coursework. There’s Richard, larger than life  antagonist whose intensity is thrilling to watch on stage but terrifying to live next to. There’s Meredith, the sexy vixen  that everyone wants to be or be with. Filippa, a woman […]

The Weekend

Absolute Friends by John Le Carré

Are Snakes Necessary? by Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman

The Jedi Doth Return (William Shakespeare's Star Wars) by Ian Doescher

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I really wanted to write separate reviews of these but life is incredibly busy right now so this will have to suffice… Absolute Friends *** This is another review I’m glad I slept on. I really wish I liked it more than I did. The beginning was great: two friends making their way across the chasm of time and space in the post-WWII Cold War Europe. Idealism mixed with low class status, the desire to create a better world but lacking in power to do […]



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