Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Summer went away, still the yearning stays”

It's Not Summer Without You (2010) by Jenny Han

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“Before Jeremiah or anybody else could answer me, I made a run for the sliding doors, and then I stumbled down the steps and sprinted onto the beach. I felt like a flying comet, a streak in the sky, like I hadn’t used my muscles in so long and it felt great to stretch my legs and run. The house, all lit up with people inside, felt a million miles away. I knew he’d come after me. I didn’t have to turn around to know […]

Land of the Rising Sun

Ancient Tales & Folklore of Japan by Richard Gordon Smith

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Smith, a Victorian traveller to Japan, compiled into this book a number of folktales that he heard from the people around him while there. I have always been interested in mythology and folklore. My great-grandmother used to tell me stories from Hindu mythology when I was four or five (though unfortunately her versions are now lost to the sands of infantile amnesia), and throughout elementary school I branched out to Greek and Norse mythology as well. I’m not sure why I love fairytales and folklore […]

Back and Forth In the Day

Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem

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Widows is one of my favorite movies from the last few decade, a criminally underrated mismarketed gem of a flick that should have not only got more commercial love but awards love as well. I won’t say what it’s about, you should watch it. Don’t even Google the plot, just watch. It’s excellent. Anyway, there’s a great tracking shot that is not only my favorite scene in the movie but one of my favorite scenes of all-time. Colin Farrell’s nepo baby city council candidate character gets […]

I feel like this is the kind of book that sticks with you

True Grit by Charles Portis

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We all know this story, right? I feel like a lot of people read this book a decade ago when the Coen brothers released their adaptation, starring Jeff Bridges. Prior to that, of course, was the 1969 movie starring John Wayne, for which he famously won his only Oscar. I say “famous” because I grew up hearing how he was the greatest movie star of all time and only won one golden statue, as if that were somehow and oversight that invalidated the whole award […]

Two very different books, two very different reactions

On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

Blood Music by Greg Bear

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On a Pale Horse (1983) by Piers Anthony – 4 stars Zane is poor. Jobless. He lives a pathetic existence, and has little to look forward to. A shop keeper attempts to sell him powerful gems that can give him everything he wants. A magical gem that can point him in the direction of a woman who will love him absolutely? Tempting, but Zane can’t afford it. How about one that will grant him wealth beyond imagining? Absurd – that would have to be far […]

Ah, the Art of Clumsily Remaking a Classic

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: High School is Hell (Vol. 1) by Jordie Bellaire

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once Bitten (Vol. 2) by Jordie Bellaire

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hellmouth (Vol. 3) by Jordie Bellaire

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ring of Fire (Vol. 4) by Jordie Bellaire

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        Okay, so let me explain what’s going on here real quick, because the comic doesn’t actually do a particularly good job of it: it’s adapting Buffy into the current modern day, rather than the modern day at the time that it aired.  So: pushing the story forward by about 20 years. And seeing what still works, what changes, and what snaps under the pressure.  It’s an interesting idea. It’s not so far of a time-displacement that it makes everything different (which […]



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