Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Bothari43

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When writing a genre-based lim'rick / Avoid lengthy 'post-apoc'lyptic' / Though CB reviews / Have broadened my views / My fave is still chick-written sci-fic (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Bothari43's Quick Questions interview.)

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I’m sorry, “heavily fringed orbs” is not a sexy way to talk about your international anti-magic stalker’s pretty eyes, and all y’all are dumbasses

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

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Ugh, this was an annoying disappointment. I had read one Libba Bray book previously that I liked, about teenage pageant contestants stranded on an island, and hoped that this book about teenage witches at a finishing school for girls would be equally fun. Instead, it’s annoying, and the girls are annoying, and the book would’ve been a short story if anybody had bothered to SPEAK TO EACH OTHER. Plus, redemption arcs for the mean girls? That is a suspension bridge of disbelief too far for […]

Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: drmllz

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In our January Zoom chat, drmllz and tiny_bookbot discovered they had met in real life! Cannonballers in the wild – a rare sighting! What’s your favorite subject/angle to teach as a literature and media studies lecturer and researcher? What gets your students the most fired up? I’m happy to teach most things! In my ‘have PhD, will travel’ years, which were precarious and stressful, I taught everything from post-modernism to medieval poetry to ‘the eighteenth century’ to news framing in the media, often at very short […]

Young woman at loose ends finds an unexpected calling – with aliens!

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

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Totally on accident, I have now read three alien invasion/first contact books in a row. (I did try to read a Nalini Singh in the middle and put it down in annoyance – sorry, gang!) But it was interesting to see the variety of stories: far in the future with scenes set on spaceships and other planets vs. two on Earth. Axiom’s End is the smallest of the stories in scale. Our hero is a young woman named Cora, who becomes pivotal to communicating with […]

What if first contact didn’t involve any actual contacting?

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

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This was an interesting story with an interesting protagonist. My favorite part was that the main character kept insisting he wasn’t a hero, and acting accordingly. Very much chaotic neutral, with a little bit of a good guy slant. My least favorite part was the time jumping. I got a little confused with what was happening now, vs. several layers of flashbacks. Aliens are an accepted fact of life, although nobody knows much or can do much about them. Something crashed into Nigeria, made a […]

530 pages and I wasn’t ready for it to be over

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Adrian’s stuff is so dense and layered, it’s hard to do a recap/overview. SO MUCH happens, and it’s all smart and dramatic and amazing! The world-building is so cool, the root-for-able characters and interesting plot are almost a bonus. Okay, enough gushing. The very very nutshell version: 40 years ago, ginormous alien ships (if you made a drinking game out of every time they’re described as ‘moon-sized,’ you’d be a puddle by the end) showed up and started making beautiful and deadly sculptures out of […]

Quick Questions with a Cannonballer: jomidi

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Welcome to the Cannonball Read volunteer team! What’s your area of expertise going to be? I am hoping to help out with the 15th anniversary activities this year. I am really excited about all the possible fun things we can do to celebrate 15 years. That being said, I will help out wherever it is needed. Interested in being a CBR volunteer? Find out more and contact us! Your bio says you’re an “author groupie.” Which authors in particular do you groupie for? Well, I […]



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