Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Sheep go “KERBOOOOOM!”

Before & After by Matthew Thomas

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Bingo 16: Fauna So for me, this book is basically what Good Omens would have been had it been set in 1999 (ie end of the world/millennium references abound) and written by Terry Pratchett exclusively. I have nothing against Neil Gaiman, but he definitely has the darker tone and less openly funny humor (ie no humorous footnotes). Before & After is essentially Good Omens, except it stars an approximately 500-year old history professor who may have used to the name Nostradamus in his earlier years, […]

Girlhood, friendships, and lies that go too far

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

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Bingo: landscape I have a soft spot for stories about teenage girls, even more so when they’re written for an adult audience. I suppose it is a self-indulgent subject, but I really enjoy reading about the inner lives of girls and their friendships. One of my favorite novels in this little genre is Megan Abbott’s Dare Me, which is so honest and incisive that it was a bit painful to read. Vendela Vida has a similar ability to expose the inner workings of teenage female […]

Dogs (and tigers and sheep and iguanas and jackalope and goldfish and krill and crocodiles and dinosaurs and unicorns…….) in Space!

Star Beasts by Stephanie Young

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Star Beasts is a fun story that Stephanie Young has created. However, due to a lot of characters you will meet (some even for a short moment), sometimes that can make things a smidgen confusing. However, this story has great potential for being the new “IT graphic novel” for ages 8 to 12. The story is if Star Trek, Firefly, and Andromeda hooked up with all the science-fi spoof and most of the animal stories, you might get something like this. And plot? All I […]

Classic book, award-winning movie…BAH.

Children of Men by P.D. James

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I remember very little about the movie except a vague impression of not liking it, so I wasn’t real excited when this came up on my library book club list. I was justified in my crankiness; this book was uuuuunpleasant. The story could have been interesting, and the thought-experiment side of things was: how the world’s population would react if there were no more children, how the end of the world can come in with a whimper instead of an apocalyptic bang, how society would […]

Caution: Baby does more than Bite.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

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Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage book is a highly recommended book. It is on lists of great thrillers. Banned books to read. And even for book groups. However, I am not totally a hundred percent sure why. I learned after starting it, several people had a variety of “not liking” comments. One person could not finish it. Others felt that while it was worth the read, but felt a few other titles were stronger. This mixed batch of love and eh was what I felt. […]

News of the World – Paulette Jiles (2016)

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

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I read this when it came out and remembered really liking it, and returning to it a few years later intensified that enjoyment. This book lives in the short period of time right after the Civil War. We’re in Texas, and Captain Kidd is a newsreader, travelling from town to town to read the world news (trying to avoid local news as much as possible) to anyone willing to pay a dime. He’s the veteran of three wars, and Texas is currently in the throes […]



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