Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

 

Read for the translator, stay for the spaceship description

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang

by 3 Comments

I like Ken Liu’s own writing, but I love his translations. So when Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang came out about a year ago, I bought it, read the translator’s notes immediately, read the notes to my politely smiling husband, then shelved the book for a later time. The time has come. My knowledge of China is piecemealy and Jumpnauts assumes that the reader has a better understanding of the country and its history than I do – which makes sense since the book and its […]

“The ventricles / are unremarkable.”

Fixer by Edgar Kunz

by 2 Comments

Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover. The cover of Fixer, Edgar Kunz’ second collection of published poems, features a worn lighter. It is obvious the lighter has been used frequently over a long period of time.  The metal is tarnished; the image of a ship sailing on waves is worn. The old Zippo implies the story of a real life lived. That’s the book. The collection is called Fixer, and everything hinges on the poem “Fixer,” a recounting of three brothers managing […]

It appears that 19th century soap opera adventure stories are my thing!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

by 13 Comments

Reviewer Note: In 2024, I started to read the free version of The Count of Monte Cristo that is available from Project Gutenberg (my go-to resource for novels in the public domain). After reading 200 pages, I couldn’t understand why I was so bored. This novel has more action than a Die Hard movie, yet I was struggling to stay interested. I decided to do some research into what’s considered the best translation of this novel, and I found recommendations for the edition translated by Robin […]

The splash of my tongue melting you like a sugar cube

Crush by Richard Siken

by 5 Comments

I learned about Richard Siken through Pinterest of all things. For those of you who frequent Pinterest, especially those dedicated to romantic pairings from books, the boards are littered with snippets of poetry rendered in retro fonts. Bits of Siken’s poem Little Beast kept showing up in my feed. However, finding a copy of his Yale Series of Younger Poets poetry collection was challenging and I had to special-order it from the UK. Since it is only sixty-two pages plus a forward, I thought I […]

Coastal Florida Gothic? Say What Now?

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

by 4 Comments

This is the story of three generations of Vietnamese-American mothers.  The first, Minh, was a canny businesswoman who escaped from Vietnam shortly after the fall of Saigon, with her devoted husband, daughter, and son, and a significant amount of gold sewn into her children’s clothing.  (She had owned a very lucrative jewelry business – good choice.)  Upon making their way to Florida, they purchased Banyan House, a Gothic manor house complete with the aforementioned massive tree out front. It was here her daughter, Huong, grew […]

“I’m a treacherous, power-hungry bitch, and honestly? It feels amazing.”

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

by 4 Comments

Our family has an annual Winter Solstice family book exchange.  A mere week before the solstice I read a write up of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan and added it to my wish list of books.  I’m glad I did because this book was so much fun I read it twice back to back.  Not only was it enjoyable to read the story again, this time I recognized all the clues that led up to the surprise at the end, giving the book a […]



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