Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About carmelpie

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Likes: Humor, Scifi, Fantasy, YA and, above all else, unforgettable characters. Dislikes: Unnecessary filler, gurus, tropes (except when I like them), and life advice in ten steps or less.

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As lovely as a book about imminent death can be

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

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I cannot tell you how you will survive without me. I cannot tell you how to mourn me. I cannot convince you to not feel guilty if you forget the anniversary of my death, or if you realize days or weeks or months have gone by without thinking about me. I just want you to live. ― Adam Silvera, They Both Die at the End I guess I could call this energy freedom. No one will be around to judge me tomorrow. No one will […]

It’s a twisted poor world we were both born into, that rejects us without mercy and ejects us without consultation.

The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold

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“These hill-folk are ignorant, lord.” “These hill-folk are mine, Pym. Their ignorance is…a shame upon my house. Their continued ignorance anyway,” he amended in fairness. It still made a burden like a mountain. “Is this message so complex? So difficult? ‘You don’t have to kill your children anymore.’ It’s not like we’re asking them all to learn–5-space navigational math.” That had been the plague of Miles’s last Academy semester. “It’s not easy for them,” shrugged Dea. “It’s easy for the central authorities to make the […]

When you think you’ve joined the good guys but you’ve really just joined a cult

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

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CBR15Bingo: Relation “ship” (cargo ships and relationships) Bingo: (left to right: Dwelling to On the Air) Will Kempen is on the run and on a mission: find the man who had his mother murdered and take him down. Unfortunately, his mission leads him directly into the hands of those who want him dead. After being rescued off of a sinking ship by Violet, the two of them are taken back to the hall of the Stewards (protectors of the light and fighters against the Dark […]

Sex, love, and self-forgiveness

Omega Island: Empty Heat by Wendy Rathbone

Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall

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“I really do hate all of this,” I confessed. “That I even have to be here. It’s a great retreat. But I hate the reasons why I’m here. I hate my body. All of it. It’s what I hide behind. It’s not the reality of me. I want to look good to the outside world, like nothing’s wrong. Like I’m worthy.” ― Wendy Rathbone, Omega Island: Empty Heat Callum is an omega who has tried everything: therapy, pills, exercise, meditation, and time. But, when the […]

I am the tree and you are the bird. Fly off as you please, you will always come back to sit on my branches.

A Long Way from Douala by Max Lobe

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Pa had brought out our entire stock of beer. Simon, Roger and I had the job of serving. We ran to and fro between the kitchen, the living room and the porch. Our hi-fi pumped out old Makossa hits: our parents’ favorites. A few women neighbors of their generation, also wearing kaba ngondos, had begun shimmying in the empty space at the center of the room. They looked like they were showing off: you can’t dance the Makossa without showing off.” ― Max Lobe, A […]

For a long time I had tried to belong in America, wanted and wished for it more than anything, but in that moment all I wanted was to be accepted as a Korean by two people who refused to claim me.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

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“Mom’s afraid you two will fight if you come,” my father admitted later. “She knows she has to put all her focus into getting better.” I assumed the seven years I’d lived away from home had healed the wounds between us, that the strain built up in my teenage years had been forgotten. Now we were closer than ever, but my father’s admission revealed there were memories of which my mother could not let go.” ― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart “Sweet braised black […]



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