Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dracula sucks…but the book doesn’t!

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Dracula sucks but the book doesn’t. I go through phases of reading classics or otherwise tackling books with reputations of being difficult. Sometimes it’s easy to see why books are classics – they’re timeless and engrossing. A Tale of Two Cities is that way for me. So is Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Other times the classics feel like archaeological work. The reader is excavating and extrapolating. Dracula felt like work to me, but the reader can definitely appreciate the book’s influence on future work. In particular, […]

Rolling with my homies

How to Vex a Vampire by Alice Winters

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  How to Vex a Vampire by Alice Winters reads like a cross between a script for Will & Grace and an early Laurell K. Hamilton novel, with a side of True Blood thrown in for good measure. Honestly, I can’t decide if I love it or hate it. Maybe a bit of both. Finnigan is an enormous flirt who is apparently a wee little man blessed with the capability to make just about anyone like him. He’s also a human homicide cop who has […]

Fun with Fred and Friends

Undeading Bells by Drew Hayes

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The “yay for Drew Hayes” streak continues. Undeading Bells is book 6 in the Fred series and a lot of the fun continues. The main challenge comes in the form of the alluded to wedding of the title, between Krystal and Fred. Of course there are several obstacles to overcome before getting to the altar. There are basically 3 things the House of Fred and Fred have to work through: first, wedding planning and then pulling off the actual ceremony, Fred further working on his […]

If you’re patient it’s not a bad read.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Dracula as a phenomenon has pretty much taken on a life of its own to the point where I thought I knew all about it.I mean, Dracula is Dracula right?! Turns out I don’t! Dracula isn’t at all what I expected. It is told through a collection of diary entries, letters, notes and telegrams following various people through the novel. The story opens with Jonathan Harker traveling from London to the estate of Dracula in Transylvania. It’s all very spooky and mysterious, Dracula doesn’t eat, […]

A Most Entertaining Magical Road Trip, But Missing the Runzas

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

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The Simon Snow books are fan fiction of fan fiction, from a fan fiction about fan fiction (or something like that), meaning that they are both adherents to and parodies of the Chosen One genre of fantasy story. They do this very well, and are very entertaining reads. In addition to clearly having fun with tropes and stereotypes, Wayward Son in particular adds what could almost be called a brand of emotional realism to the character and story types. In stories like Harry Potter (which […]

A new version of a classic short story from Neil Gaiman

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman

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I admit it, I am a Neil Gaiman fanboy. There are two shelves in my library devoted to his works and this short story, Snow Glass, Apples, sits among the greatest pieces he has created. So what is it about? Take the story of Snow White, keep all of the elements of the story we are familiar with (the stepmother, the dwarves, the stepmother’s attempt to kill Snow White, the Forest, etc.), then invert some, distort others and create a whole new perspective on a […]



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