Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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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:

There is no Chinese Princess Anastasia

The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang

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The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang is about two mysterious women. Caroline Stanton is a rich orphan American living in China right before the 1912 fall of the Qing Dynasty. She met her not nearly as rich (but still rich) husband Thomas when he saved her during the Wellington railway disaster. Although she has mysterious memory gaps about the event. Together, they have money and live in Thomas’s uncle’s Shanghai mansion… or do they? No. Uncle Mason is a liar and he doesn’t own the […]

You figure out what the something is pretty quickly 

Something is Killing the Children, vols. 1-7 by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'Edera, Miquel Muerto

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Something is Killing the Children is an ongoing comic series by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera, and Miquel Muerto (I copied and pasted all those names). It starts with children disappearing in Small Town, USA – which is somewhere in Wisconsin. There we meet James. His friends’ bodies were found, but many were not. The principal (while encouraging James to punch the kids who say James is so gay that he killed his friends) said it’s probably a rabid bear. Or something. Spoiler (?): it’s […]

Pithy friendship story masquerading as a heist novel

The Payback: a Novel by Kashana Cauley

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On Bluesky, Kashana Cauley basically asked people to tell the internet about her novel The Payback if they liked it, and to throw it at their enemies if they didn’t. The book is about a woman named Jada, who could have supported herself with a fashion career if Hollywood was fair and if she didn’t steal. That’s why she ends up doing fetish work, which is enough to pay rent or student loans, but not both. Jada understandably chooses housing. In this world there are […]

I have a bunch of new women from history to admire… or background check

Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O'Meara

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I had two issues with Girly Drinks by Mallory O’Meara. It had a very narrow and specific perspective on the way people (the readers) assume modern women drink and was full of irrelevant and dated pop culture comparisons to explain history. The book is only from 2021. It was poorly cited (but not poorly researched). It wasn’t easy to flip between the resources in the back and the statements in the chapters. It was fun enough that I had no problems overlooking my issues. In […]

Heartfelt Nonsense

Hinamatsuri, vols 1-19 by Masao Ohtake

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After I played the Yakuza video games, I went hunting for more of the heartfelt nonsense the games did so well. The closest found was Hinamatsuri by Masao Ohtake. Now that the game series is crashing and burning, I decided to revisit Hinamatsuri – a story about telekinetic child soldiers from the future living in the modern world as normal kids. Hina is the main girl. Put time out until she stops being a WMD, she falls into a yakuza’s apartment and parks her lazy […]

Someone at the bookstore doesn’t want you to know anything about this book before reading it (I don’t know why)

Y/N by Esther Yi

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I regularly seek out spoilers for the books I read. I usually read the last chapter after the first few. Knowing what happens helps me enjoy reading the book for what it is. Otherwise I wonder, which is distracting. Y/N by Esther Yi was spotlit at a bookstore. The recommendation card said to just jump in and not to read anything about the book – not even the blurb on the cover. Intrigued, I followed the directions and read against my normal habits. Stop here […]



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