Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This was fine, but the satire didn’t really resonate for me.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

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Everybody raves about Patrick Ness, but this is my first experience with his books. He seems like a talented writer. His prose was well-executed. He knows his way around story and character arcs. And he seems very imaginative and inventive. I even read this book pretty fast, and while reading, I wasn’t ever wishing I was reading something else. But . . . I just didn’t click with it. And the parts I did click with were sort of undercut by the ending. It was […]

The Zeppo

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Not everyone has to be the Chosen One. Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world. Most people have to just live their lives the best they can, doing the things that are great for them, having great friends, trying to make their lives better, loving people properly.  All the while knowing that the world makes no sense but trying to find a way to be happy anyway.  (The Rest of Us Just Live Here, p. 216) It’s only fitting that I […]

Ready for Jolabokaflod!

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Earlier this year, when someone posted an article on Facebook about the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod (Yule book flood), my mom, sister, and I were like, “We’re so doing this.”  What’s not to like about hunkering down on Christmas Eve, drinking cocoa, giving each other books, and then spending the evening reading.  Thanks to Caitlin, I now have both the books and a mug to start this tradition.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Jellies aside, I’m not a huge fan of The Zeppo. But I really liked this Patrick Ness book.

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Strange that I read these two books back-to-back. I didn’t intend to. I borrowed The Rest of Us Just Live Here from a friend, and picked up Geektastic at the library on a whim — the covers looked so similar, I just couldn’t resist. I’m glad I read Geektastic first, because I was so disappointed in it, that Patrick Ness couldn’t help but make me feel better. Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd should be amazing. Its a collection of short stories from authors I […]

A Multiple Award Winner Which Was Good, Not Great.

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I have been trying to read some of the runner up choices for book club in addition to the ones we pick. So far, I’ve read Venetia by Georgette Heyer and this book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness. This one feels like a bit of a cheat, since I had already requested it from the library before I put it on the list of voting options (although I had also figured out how to procure The Absolutely True Diary of […]

Not everyone has to be the Chosen One. Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world.

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Growing up in a small town somewhere in America (schools, family-themed restaurant, lots of cars, a bunch of huge churches, a Wallmart, a couple of multiplexes, so many trees), Mikey and his sister Mel (don’t call her Melinda) are just trying to get through their final year of high school, hoping that something so momentous happens that the indie kids have to blow up the school gym again. Who are the indie kids, you ask? The indie kids are the ones that all the YA […]



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