Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Branching out for my final CBR13 review, and a brief summary of my CBR year

In Too Deep by Daryl Banner

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Jonah works a job that is sucking the life out of him in Houston. He works with his best friend Rico and roommate, but that isn’t enough to make his life enjoyable. Jonah and Rico plan a weekend getaway to a fictional Texas beach town to escape the monotony of their lives by having a weekend that would make Dionysus blanche. Their plan is to drink too much, soak up the sun, and find multiple boys to have some fun with for just the weekend. […]

A wonderful Bookmas from andtheItoldyousos

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andtheItoldyousos is a kindred spirit when it comes to books. We’re Goodreads friends and often have similarish things to say about the literary fiction we’ve read. I’ve been itching to read both of these, and my dreams came true! Thank you!!!!! (Also, this post is badly overdue, because I don’t have my internet act together these days, and I am very sorry about that)

Not as good as The Martian but still pretty good

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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I’m not a big reader of science fiction, but when I stumbled on The Martian by Andy Weir about six years ago I was more than pleasantly surprised. I loved that book. So, when I eagerly picked up his second book, Artemis, I was disappointed. Thus it was with some trepidation that I started reading Project Hail Mary (2021)–Weir’s latest novel set in space. Fortunately, I’m putting Project Hail Mary firmly in second place. It’s not nearly as good as The Martian, but it’s much better than Artemis. Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship. There […]

“Some kindnesses you do not ever forget.”

Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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I read Americanah back in 2014 and I really enjoyed it. So when I saw that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had written a short story, Zikora (2020), I picked it up. This is definitely only a short story, clocking in at about 30 pages or so. But Adichie has a way with words, and she explores a number of different themes including: family, pain, love, and motherhood in a very short amount of time. The story begins with Zikora, a successful lawyer in Washington D.C., in labor at the hospital. […]

“You asked me questions nobody ever asked me before. You knew that I was a murderer two times over, but you treated me like a man.”

Native Son by Richard Wright

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My brain is mush today, but I have time to try and catch up on reviews, so I’m going to attempt to review a masterpiece of literature while coasting on an ebb tide of intelligence. This is, I believe, the book I have owned the longest without reading. I’ve moved ten times since I bought it in college for a class that didn’t even end up reading it. I have kept it all this time, through lo so many book purges, because I always meant […]

How alcoholism (and many other things) can ruin a childhood

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

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I first saw Shuggie Bain on NPR’s Best Books of 2020 List. It also won the Booker Prize, and since I was ready to read some “real” literature, it seemed like a good choice. The story is of a working class boy growing up in the projects in Scotland with an alcoholic mother. I was a little worried when I saw the review by Kathryn A. Powers from Newsday. She said: “This is a hard, grim book, brilliantly written and, in the end, worth the pain which accompanies […]



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