Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Half-Baked Alaska

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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Thirteen year old Leni doesn’t have the most stable of backgrounds. Her mother, who had her at age fifteen, does the best she can. Her father is a Vietnam vet who spent years in captivity and is drowning his PTSD in alcohol and harebrained get-rich-quick schemes that are invariably abandoned halfway through. It’s the 1970s; the Flower Power movement is in the last of its heyday when Leni’s father receives a letter from the father of a fallen comrade that he’ll give him his son’s […]

“It took a tremendous effort for me not to rip his arm off, and I’d like that noted for the record, please.”

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

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Back in November of 2018 I joined the cult of Murderbot. After I had read and loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Emmalita and narfna had told me that Murderbot needed to be next up in my reading of contemplative, character driven space opera. I was immediately in love. I’ve kept up with the furthering adventures of Murderbot in the intervening years and had decided earlier this year that I wanted to do a full series re-read before I […]

Some really beautiful moments don’t necessarily add up to a masterpiece of a novel

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

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CBR16 BINGO: Détente, because Billy is always trying to keep the peace Amor Towles is an undeniably talented writer. Having fallen in love with A Gentleman in Moscow and being charmed by Table for Two, I came to expect that I would adore just about anything he wrote. And certainly, there is a lot to like in The Lincoln Highway. At times I would be cruising along like the old Studebaker in the story when a particular turn of phrase or small vignette would stop me […]

Like karaoke for books

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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Did you know Panem was pronounced “PAN-EM?” I sure didn’t. You emphasize both syllables apparently. That’s a benefit of listening to the audio book. But you know what might not be a benefit of an audiobook? Hearing a man trying to do female voices. Now, I’ll admit that I listen to audio books at a fast pace, which obviously affects the vibe. But I couldn’t help think that the females in this book sounded like female South Park characters. And it gets worse when some […]

Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through

The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley

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This book is part mystery, part road trip, part behind the music, part reflection on celebrity and how women are treated in the music industry, and also has almost a dash of a fairytale about it.  In the novel’s world, once upon a time (back in the early 1990’s), The Lighting Bottles were on top of the charts, a husband and wife duo, with him coming straight out of the Seattle Scene (she’s from Canada).  But behind the scenes (and this is the behind-the-music part) […]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is another classic that I enjoyed much more than I expected to. The style was relatively dry and slow, but the story is compelling enough to keep it going. Captain Nemo in particular is a much more interesting character than I perceived from general pop culture knowledge. He is the last prince of an island nation that was destroyed by “a colonial power” (COUGH BRITAIN COUGH). A mechanical genius, he created The Nautilus, an electric submarine, and proceeds to wage […]



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