Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You put dinosaurs and people together, you always get screaming.” (Bingo)

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

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CBR14 Bingo: Time (the whole book is about time travel to different points in Earth’s history) Dr. Madeleine “Max” Maxwell is recruited by the seemingly rather mundane St. Mary’s Institute of History, only to discover that they are actually a secret organisation that time travels to various points in history, for research purposes. Obviously, you can’t just throw anyone into a time machine and have at it, so there’s a lot of training. Then there’s the fact that time travel is rather dangerous, and she […]

Two Well-Regarded Children’s Time Travel Novels

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

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I was surprised when I visited England at what a popular genre historical children’s time travel novels were, but it’s one I enjoy so I got a couple. Both are apparently much beloved classics that must have missed me when I was a child, and this was a good chance to fill in some gaps of my children’s novel knowledge. Tom’s Midnight Garden has an intimidatingly positive pull quote by Philip Pullman on the cover: “a perfect book.” This made me internally querulous and I […]

“I, Penelope Taberner Cameron, tell this story of happenings when I was a young girl.”

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley

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CBRBingo14: Time (time traveling) I think this is one of those books that is a children’s classic in England but didn’t become as famous in the US, or else I just missed it as a kid. I picked it up on vacation in England recently along with two other children’s time travel novels, which seems to be a lively genre over there. A Traveller in Time is a book that’s very centered in one place, in this case the farm of Thackers. Uttley is wonderful […]

So many people spent their lives wishing to be understood. All Alice wanted was more time.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

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CBR14BINGO: Time Square (Hitting the nail on the head here. Very literal. Time in the title. The whole plot is about Time. You get it.) Alice is about to turn 40. A milestone birthday for anyone, but particularly for someone who generally keeps their life on an unproblematic even keel. She lives in New York City where she grew up. Works in the admissions department of her old high school, walking the same hallways of her youth. She even has a convenient boyfriend that doesn’t make […]

“This is the strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death.”

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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Cannonball Read Book Square: Funky In one word: Tether Reading St. John Mandel I’m reminded of the scene in the AMAZING movie Booksmart, wherein two college-bound BFFs are determined to make up for lost time and live it up the night before their high school graduation. In one of my favorite scenes, best friends Molly and Amy are getting ready to go out and hyping each other up for their respective outfits, aggressively hurling positive affirmations at each other. “Who gave you permission to take […]

The Girl on the (Subway) Train

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

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A.k.a. the time that a weaponised use of Freddie Mercury had me sobbing at 1am with the book pressed against my forehead, begging for a happy ending. Yeah. In my defence, the reason I was doing that was that the book would not let me put it down until I have finished, after I had brazenly decided to start a reading session at 11:30pm in bed, knowing that I was heading into the climax. One Last Stop is Casey McQuiston’s follow up to Red, White and […]



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