Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Jenny and the Cat Club

Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill

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In February’s installment of “reading out loud to kids” we have Jenny and the Cat Club, a book I bought because it looked cute and had cats. While there is an overarching narrative arc, it’s really a collection of short stories about a shy black cat named Jenny Linksy who lives with a retired sea captain in Greenwich Village in 1944. (Also published in 1944!) Jenny is quite shy but finds community and friendship in the cat club, whose esteemed members include, but are not […]

Not sure if this was a hit or miss, so guess it’s appropriate for my third cannonball

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht 

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The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht  (Watterson wrote and illustrated with Kascht also illustrating) is very odd and very amazing. It is an experience book. The authors/illustrators are geniuses and seriously disturbed. The black and white illustrations make for a unique read. If you like Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson’s signature creation) and its darker side (and it can get deep) then I would say that you are still not prepared for what is happening. I am not familiar with John Kascht and […]

House and home

The House That Floated by Guojing

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Inclusion, CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge I find it amusing  when I “read” a wordless picture book. And as a result, I am amused  when I try to write any kind of review about it. After all, I am/would be writing literally more words than the book has. Oh sure, the cover has the title: The House That Floated. And the author and/or illustrator (in this case they are both): Guojing.  It then has all the “legal publishing things” like the printing and/or edition and where […]

I see the potential but …

Steelflower by Lilith Saintcrow

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Seanan McGuire did an AMA a few months back and one of the questions involved recommendations for under-read authors. Her response was that Lilith Saintcrow was always worth the time. And I seem to have, naturally, picked up the exact Lilith Saintcrow book that wasn’t going to be a good match for me. I feel kind of bad not rating this higher but I just had a much better time with the other books I rated as a 3 so far this year so it […]

A Quiet Book About Surviving Alone

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

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On the surface, this translated, dystopian work from 1963 doesn’t seem like it should be as engaging as it is. It’s slow-paced, introspective, and all about a woman milking a cow, scything hay, chopping wood, describing the weather, and spending time with animals. Nothing really happens. But I was so interested. The book does start with a big event, though. Our nameless narrator wakes up to find that her traveling companions who had gone out the previous night had never returned. When she heads to […]

The forest and the trees

North Woods by Daniel Mason

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I don’t know how to summarize this book – a potpourri of genres (although mostly historical fiction, if you had to pinpoint it), a truly eclectic cast of characters, and incredible prose. The kind of book where you think about the characters after the book is closed, and you puzzle over the last chapter even though he totally stuck the landing (endings are so hard!) Mason somehow describes both the forest and the trees in a very readable and really kinda weird novel. He sharply […]



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