Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About GentleRain

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Your jack of all trades eccentric. Knows a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Tends to mainly read non-fiction (history, true crime, old gossip, etc), SF/F, horror, graphic novels, "genre" books.

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“I still knew I was going to keep my lion and train him.”

Here, Keller -- Train This by George Keller

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Here Keller — Train This is about the life of George Keller, who yearned his whole life to become a lion/big cat trainer at the circus, but ended up being an art professor at State College. One day, his friend ships him a mountain lion in a crate with a sign on it saying “HERE KELLER — Train This.” His friend does this as part joke and part challenge, as everyone knows how much he loves training animals. He takes it home and decides to actually […]

“It’s Not My Place to Patrol Your Life:” Queer SF Romance Strikes Again

Curveball by Jeremy Sorese

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After how much I enjoyed The Short While, I figured I should get Jeremy Sorese’s first graphic novel, Curveball. This is also a science fiction queer romance set in a near-future type setting, but it felt less assured than The Short While and I found it a bit harder to follow. Curveball follows Avery and their friend/roommate Jacqueline, who live in a city where there is an energy crisis and a war happening. Avery is a waiter who is having a hard time at their job on […]

A Brief But Fascinating Circus Autobiography

Last of the Forty-Horse Drivers by Jake Posey

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This brief but information-packed autobiography details the life of Jake Posey, who drove forty-horse teams for several circuses during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He traveled with Barnum & Bailey, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and other important but now not generally known circuses like the Sparks Circus. I really enjoyed this book, as I am very into circuses and circus history. If you don’t have a general knowledge of the history of the circus, this might not be the book for you, as […]

“From that point of understanding, you begin to move on, no matter what.”

How to Be Ace by Rebecca Burgess

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This is another winner from Jessica Kingsley Publishers, which I’ve become increasingly aware of in the last year as a great specialty publisher. How to Be Ace is both a good coming of age memoir and a great primer of what asexuality is and how the social pressures to have sex and find a romantic partner can be very damaging. It also covers OCD, anxiety, and touches a bit on autism, so it manages to cover a lot of ground in 208 pages. I’d been following Burgess’s […]

“His skin neatly tailored over his bones:” A Great YA SF/F Novel

Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen

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I’m unable to be objective about this book since I’ve been reading it since childhood. I love it, it really is a perfect book to start a person onto sf/f. Dragon’s Blood follows Jakkin, who is an indentured servant at a dragon fighting stable. He’s an orphan whose father was killed when he was trying to train a feral dragon and whose mother died after they went into indentured servitude. The book blends science fiction and fantasy, as the dragon fighting happens on an alien planet […]

“If You’re Not Happy, Maybe Ask Yourself If It’s Worth It”

Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia

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Spoilers below: I’ve reread this book a few times over the seven years since it came out (I actually think I read her other work before this was published, so I was familiar with her style beforehand). It’s the kind of book where you enjoy it and it raises more questions than it answers. The ending reveals a little of what’s been going on, but way more is left up to your imagination. In the hands of another author, this might grate or feel cheap, […]



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