Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


About vega-table

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Seattle area hermit, staying in with my video games, books, cats, and beer. Living the dream.

vega-table's Reviews:

Is the Pope Catholic? 

The Bad Popes by E. R. Chamberlin

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CBR18 Bingo – Sheep: These guys are shepherds. The Bad Popes by E. R. Chamberlin is aggressively non-religious. If I read this book without knowing about Catholicism, I wouldn’t have picked up that ‘pope’ is supposed to be a religious role. Although I don’t think anyone has ever read this book without knowing about Catholicism or what a pope is. The popes in the book weren’t selected because they were the worst (but they might have been). They were selected because their reigns directly led to […]

The cat distribution system is in place because it works

Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir

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CBR18 Bingo – Refuge: a pregnant cat and her owner take refuge with someone who didn’t ask for this. A few months ago I got a black cat, which many took as an invitation to talk about how black cats have it worse than others. Look at my cat. He likes the window that makes him hard to photograph. After Night Guest, I wouldn’t have read another book by Hildur Knútsdóttir, but Narfna’s review of Dead Weight reassured me that the black cat would be […]

Whose Frankenstein?

Her Frankenstein by Norikazu Kawashima

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CBR18 Bingo – Friends: because it’s about an abusive toxic friendship. Her Frankenstein by Norikazu Kawashima is a fun little horror story. Kawashima had a brief career doing horror manga in the 80s. His work is classic and beloved and simultaneously forgotten. The volume has a nice overview of his obscure career. Although it can’t be that obscure if it got officially translated to English. The story is about Tetsuo. He can’t function if he doesn’t have a mean woman belittling him for her own […]

The week doesn’t have to make sense

Une semaine de bonté by Max Ernst

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CBR18 Bingo – One: it’s been compiled into one volume from 5, but this book could probably be applied to any of the bingo prompts. Une semaine de bonté by Max Ernst is subtitled ‘a surrealist novel in collage,’ which is accurate and it means ‘a week in kindness,’ which is not. Ernst was a surrealist, Dadaist, and European. Two of those things tell me that nothing in his novel is going to make any sense. So massive thanks to the volume’s publisher’s note for […]

No one has enemies

Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura

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CBR18 Bingo – Versus: it’s literally about Vikings. My tolerance for real violence is much lower than my tolerance for fictional violence. So when I read fictionalized versions of real war, I bounce between “cool battle!” and “I hate that this happened.” Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga heavily leans toward the “I hate that this happened” reaction because the battles aren’t cool. They’re just violent and sad. Thorfinn is a Viking boy in Iceland. He has a happy life that’s full of sheep and stories from […]

It means ‘from me to you’

Kimi ni Todoke vols. 1-25, 27-30 by Karuho Shiina

Kimi ni Todoke vol. 26 by Karuho Shiina

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CBR18 Bingo – 26: volume 26 was all about my favorite character. The primary conflict of Kimi ni Todoke is that the protagonist looks like the girl from The Ring. Sawako’s name even resembles the girl from The Ring’s – Sadako. Because of her pale skin and evil blunt bangs, Sawako has never been able to make many friends, despite being the sweetest darling in the universe. But things change in high school. Generally, it’s a love story. The romance between Sawako and Kazehaya is […]



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