Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Don’t Take The Memories

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

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The Memory Police is the kind of dystopia I like. No Hunger Games-esque confrontations with the Big Bad. No sadistic rolling around in the concept (aka “torture porn”). No forsaking character for story. The characters drive this story. The society they live in impacts them and they adapt. It’s a well-told tale. I would have loved to have read this book in its original language. I feel like there are probably subtleties I could have picked up on. But what I did get was good enough. Yoko […]

Episode 1-27: It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right

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https://killingmykindle.com/2018/07/26/episode-1-27-it-takes-two-to-make-a-thing-go-right/ SECOND CANNONBALL!! Wherein I review: 104. Missing You by Harlan Coben 105. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa 106. The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus 107. We Are Anonymous by Parmy Olson Mswas was giving me the props early, but I finally crossed that second cannonball. We’re halfway there, halfway there, halfway there.  Read my favorite Harlan Coben premise with my least favorite character leading the way.  Finally read something sweet and short, without bloodshed.  I read a book within a book […]

Episode 1-15: Clowns to the Left of Me, Vampire-Killing Lincoln to My Right

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https://killingmykindle.com/2018/04/16/episode-1-15-clowns-to-the-left-of-me-vampire-killing-lincoln-to-my-right/ Wherein I review: 49. The Last American Vampire by Seth-Grahame Smith 50. The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa 51. ClownFellas: Tales of the Bozo Family by Carlton Mellick III 52. Shoot First by Stuart Woods FIRST CANNONBALL DONE.  For this run Stuart Woods was the Alpha and Omega.  SGS goes all Forrest Gump with his vampire Henry Sturges.  I get creeped the f out by one the best Japanese authors working today AGAIN.  A man I’m convinced is three teen boys in a trenchcoat […]

Two books I don’t think I could even begin to build a bridge between

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The Diving Pool – 2/5 stars Of course the issue with any collection of fiction where the works weren’t intended to be placed side by side is that you are left holding the reins as to how they might possibly be connected. All three of these “novellas” (they are definitely just longish short stories) have a spare detached narrator focused mostly on observing than acting. All three have the same kind of spare language that other of her works are known for. And while “The […]

Baseball and Brain Injuries!

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This is a perfect little book for a high school student. It has a little bit of everything in it: a clear cut sense of right and wrong, exposure to a culture different from mainstream American (I am pretty mainstream American), precocious kids, and lovable and loving older people. It’s like a mix between Memento and A Beautiful Mind and a very one-sided version of Rashomon. Ok, not so much the last one, because instead, there’s not a lot of remembering going on. More so […]

There was no sign of sympathy or surprise

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This is a strange little collection of stories Of course, I was immediately suspect because it was called “tales” but so be it. I read it anyway. In the first story, a woman is waiting to order two strawberry cakes in memorial of her dead son’s birthday twelve years ago. As she waits, little moments remind her  of various things connected to his life and death. She waits but no one is actually helping any customers. In another story, the road has been covered in […]



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