Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Soichi

Soichi by Junji Ito

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The Soichi stories are among my least favorite Junji Ito works. They’re fine, they certainly have his excellent art style, but the main character is just too weird to like. Soichi is a strange member of an overly-indulgent family, chewing on nails and trying literally to curse his siblings. That’s weird. Just generally unpleasant. We’re not really supposed to sympathize with Soichi, but even with him not being explicitly a good guy it’s unpleasant to spend time with Soichi as the main character. Part of […]

In defense of Pippin, the actual best hobbit

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

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I did not care for the Lord of the Rings when I was younger. It took my then-boyfriend three attempts at making me watch through the series before I could stay awake past Boromir dying. It just that Boromir takes too damn long to die. But he persisted and fed me tasty things to keep me awake and I discovered LOTR (or the LORT we call it at home) meme groups online and suddenly I was in baby. I mean, I needed to understand the underlying […]

“Don’t go around thinking everyone else has it together. We’re all just falling apart in different ways.”

Yes & I love You by Roni Loren

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Complex, neurodivergent, ambitious protagonists who are not cured by love. Plot: Hollyn is a writer for a New Orleans newspaper.  She loves writing (and anonymously at that) because it allows her to express herself without fear that her Tourettes will distract people from her words. Jasper was all over the place until he started getting along with his ADHD when his discovered improv, but that doesn’t pay the bills, especially in New Orleans where the industry is nascent but Jasper is determined to make it […]

Review #2: 1203 Pages of Awesome

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

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The sixth book in an epic fantasy ten book series, reading this was a no-brainer for me. I have already read the first five books, and mostly loved them, so how could I not continue? The Bonehunters publisher’s summary is as follows (spoilers hidden): “The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha’ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y’Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress […]

On Writing

On Writing by Stephen King

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I try to read On Writing at least once a year. It inspires me, it reminds me of why I enjoy writing as a hobby, and yes, because I’m a vain little person, I see parallels in the way Stephen King feels about writing to the way I feel about writing. On Writing is Stephen King’s attempt at a writing how-to. He begins with some delicious autobiography, talking about trouble he and his brother got into, making it clear how much his mother struggled to […]

“their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams”

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator)

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I have been circling Gabriel García Márquez for decades, almost too afraid to approach his work at all. On and off the reading lists his works go, a constant pendulum of my ambition or lack thereof. When staring at our Bingo squares and realizing a few short stories and novellas were likely to help my progress I went on the hunt for a few and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez came up. Here we go, I thought – here’s […]



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