Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The real happy ending is that she got to eat the whole plate of cheese.

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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“Since when do you wear dresses?” he said, the second he saw her. “Ugh,” Kit said, frowning. How were you supposed to change—in ways both big and small—when your family was always there to remind you of exactly the person you apparently signed an ironclad contract to be?” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising I’ve read two TJR books in the past two months. I plowed through both of them within seventy-two hours. Addictive is the only way I know how to describe them. Nina […]

Murderbot, why are you like this

System Collapse by Martha Wells

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  I love Murderbot. For someone who does not consider themselves a person, our SecUnit is still very relatable. When things get stressful, they love to retreat and re-watch their favourite TV shows. When I find everything getting a bit stressful, I retreat and read Murderbot. We’re not so different, really. System Collapse is the seventh book in the series and it directly follows the events of Network Effect—so the following review is going to be a bit spoiler-y by nature. When we were last with […]

One day your country is yours, and the next it isn’t.

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

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No matter what happens in the world, however brutal or dystopian a thing, not all is lost if there are people out there risking themselves to document it. Little sparks cause fires, too.” ― Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark The odds had been stacked against us from the start: we had no manual, no one to show us the way. Not one example of a happy couple made up of boys. How were we supposed to know what to do? Did we even believe […]

“And just as she was about to leave the mircophone, she said ‘And to anyone tempted to kiss the TV tonight, please don’t chip your tooth.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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When journalist Monique is chosen by the reclusive actress Evelyn Hugo to be her biographer, she has no clue why she was the one chosen – or about the tragic intersection of their lives. I feel like Contrary Mary here to say that I thought a generally universally acclaimed book was just fine, but I’m going to be brave and go ahead and say it: It was fine. Maybe I had too high expectations after reading the rest of the Reidverse books and all those […]

I Guess I Haven’t Grown Out of Liking Obnoxious Blokes

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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I picked this up based on a yearly book round up chat at Go Fug Yourself – Fug Nationals can generally be relied upon for compelling recommendations. Honestly I’ve started writing this not knowing exactly how to say what I want to say about this one.  I’ve had a quick look around and it looks like I’m late to this party, so let’s do this with spoilers, so I can be a bit more specific. I found it compulsively readable, and knocked it over in […]

And Now For Something Completely Bonkers

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

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Well, this is certainly one hot mess of a novelette, and it is deliciously illustrated in sketchy (in all meanings of the word) drawings by the novelist herself, a surrealistic painter.  The heroine, nonagenarian vegetarian Marian Leatherby, starts off as quite deaf, but is then gifted with an old school hearing trumpet that lets her hear everything.  But seemingly no one notices it, even though in the drawings it looms over her head like a conning tower.  She has been placed by her children in […]



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