Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR Bingo 15: On the Road

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

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This book could fit into several of Bingo categories, and sadly has been banned in some places (usual suspects). Written in 1993 and set in 2025, The Parable of the Sower is a frighteningly plausible story about a world impacted by climate change, political breakdown and economic and social inequity. The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is a black teenager who has grown up outside of Los Angeles. Cars are a thing of the past, electricity is scarce and becoming scarcer. There is little rain to grow […]

Gini Koch encouraged me to join the team and ‘touch an alien’, so I did!

Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

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CBR Bingo: North America – Touched by an Alien is set in the American Southwest, particularly Arizona and New Mexico. A few years ago I picked up Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch and it was a blast.  Funny, fast paced, sci-fi adventure.  Afterwards, I looked for more books by the author and discovered she also wrote under Gini Koch and was impressed by the volume of books on the shelf at the bookstore.  As I didn’t know where to start, I got overwhelmed and went […]

WHen zombies may not be just zombies and the body and soul connection is not what anyone seems to think

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Bingo 9: Strange Worlds Nona the Ninth takes place in an apocalyptic city but there are references to space travel and planets and other not-Earth realms (namely The River, but that might be a little spoiler-y); this novel definitely fits the strange part of Strange Worlds and by the final third or so starts to really get more into the worlds part. Nona seems to be around 12 or so, but really has maybe only existed for about 6 months, at least that’s as far […]

Strange Worlds

The Midnight Library by Matthew Haig

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: strange worlds. The premise of the book is the MC traveling to different lives she lived in different worlds as she exists in a state between life and death. I’m gonna be honest up front: it will be very hard to squeeze 250 words out of me regarding this book. If it wasn’t for the bingo, I’d just slap it on the leftovers. I’ve long considered the concept of living past lives, wondering if things would have been better. I […]

A Woman is a Mule, or “What’s in that trunk, Adelaide?”, or a Novel of Second Chances

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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I met Victor LaValle at a literary fest a few years ago. While handing him a copy of The Changeling, which was his latest novel at the time and the book I had just finished reading, I said to him, “I feel like I’m the person you’re writing these books for. You’re writing these books for me.” And I meant it then and I mean it now. There’s a point at which LaValle started writing the books he knew he was meant to write (he has […]

Finally Joining the Murderbot Party

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls by Jane Lindskold

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[CW for underage sex work in the 2nd book review] I finally decided to get All Systems Red from the library and have the next two on hold. I enjoyed it and think it pretty much lived up to the hype. Murderbot is a SecUnit on an uninhabited planet. It’s assigned to a group of scientists who are exploring the planet, but it doesn’t particularly enjoy its job. It hacked its governor module and spends as much time as it can streaming various entertainment media, […]



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