Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A nice anthology of mildly gruesome stories

Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

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This is an anthology of interconnected short stories that takes place in Tokyo in an indeterminate time, but presumably sometime in the 1990s. Each of the stories (of which there are eleven) is from the perspective of a different character, and shares some commonality to the story that immediately precedes it. In “Afternoon at the Bakery”, for instance, the narrator enters a bakery for some strawberry shortcake. It’s her son’s birthday who (it is revealed) is now dead. That is what his last birthday cake […]

Ted Chiang is our best argument for a STEAM education

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

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CBR16 BINGO: Celestial, because the first story is about humans building a tower into the heavens Four years ago I fell in love with Ted Chiang’s short story collection Exhalation, and I’ve finally made good on the promise to myself to read Stories of Your Life and Others. If you’ve read any of his work, you won’t be shocked to hear that this is the most moving, inventive, and thought-provoking collection I’ve read in years. Ted Chiang, a graduate of Brown University with a B.S. […]

“Didn’t you know the insides of dogs and cows and birds and fish are exactly like that of man? The only difference is the clothes we wear!”

The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales by Vasily Eroshenko, Adam Kuplowsky (translator)

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CBR16 Bingo: Dreams – Eroshenko’s fairytales give us glimpses of his dreams for a more compassionate and peaceful future where all are respected no matter their gender, race, class, or ability – and the fears he has about what may have to be done to achieve them. Fairytales as oral traditions bear the stamp of the cultures that tell them; fairytales when written by an individual bear the stamp of culture channelled through that individual, which is a different thing altogether. There really are some people […]

Nowhere had she encountered as many puppeteers as in Hollywood

Table for Two by Amor Towles

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CBR16 BINGO: Golden, because the novella Eve in Hollywood takes place during the Golden Age of Hollywood BINGO: Part 1, Part 2, Dreams, Golden, Scandal I was so taken with A Gentleman in Moscow that the gathering up and devouring of more of Amor Towles’s works became inevitable. While not quite reaching the same level of charm as the aforementioned tale of a Russian aristocrat, Table for Two is a solid collection of short narratives that mingle humor, tragedy, and resilience. Table for Two feels like […]

A collection that has aged well

Interpreter of Maladies: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Cbr16bingo Bollywood (Bingo #1) This debut collection of short stories from Jhumpa Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Interpreter of Maladies contains nine stories that deal with topics such as troubled marriages, the difficulties of adjusting to life in the US for Indian immigrants, and women who are outsiders (and therefore problematic). I found myself deeply moved by these stories which, 25 years after their first publication, provide a compassionate and brutally honest view of their characters’ lives and choices. These are people who […]

Greatest? City in the World

Manhattan Noir by ed. Lawrence Block

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: ring. One of the suggestions for this category was “reaching for the brass ring.” Many move to Manhattan to reach for the brass ring. Most of these stories are about how they failed.  Sorry to those who actually read all my reviews because I know I repeat myself constantly. But man, I just love the Akhasic Noir series. I already love cities, those I’ve been to, lived in, can only dream of. And there’s just nothing better than Manhattan. […]



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