Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Chosen Ones and Their Problems

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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Rainbow Rowell was inspired by her own Simon Snow novel and fanfiction that she created in her novel Fangirl, so she decided to go ahead and turn it into its own book (now a trilogy). Both paying homage to subverting other Chosen One and fantasy novels, as well as fanfiction, Simon Snow is the story of a mage grappling with being the Chosen One while also living his day-to-day life with its attendant relationship dramas. In particular, it is expected that he will save the […]

Raindrops keep falling

The Lost Drop by Gregoire Laforce

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For some reason my brain wanted to have this title as The LAST Drop and not as The Lost Drop. Which, in the end, will make more sense once you read it. We have a fictionalized telling of the water cycle. And it is told via the eyes of one drop of water. This drop feels lost, as she wonders “where is she?” and “What is her purpose?” and even “Am I lost?”  Of course, she is where she needs to be. In the streams, […]

Hitchhiking ghosts and killer roads

Sparrow Hill Road (Ghost Roads, #1) by Seaman McGuire

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When I started Sparrow Hill Road (Ghost Roads, #1) the text came off as nonfiction sounding. My thought was, “Oh great. This whack-a-doo so-called “expert” is going to tell me all about a ghost named Rose Marshall and how she is real (and how ghosts are real) and all about her hauntings, and how hauntings happen, and probably throw in a conspiracy theory or two.” Well, my apologizes, Seaman McGuire. You are not a whack-a-doo. But you are one messed up person! (And in a […]

Go, Go, Godzilla

Godzilla: The Official Movie adaptation by Greg Cox

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I’m a fan of Kaiju in general, I absolutely love Pacific Rim and hated the western world’s first attempts at Godzilla movies (they were not good). But they tried again back in 2014 and I gave it a shot at the cinema because Ken Watanabe and it seemed a bit more ‘accurate’ to my image of the Big Guy. As a movie it wasn’t perfect and characterisation felt a bit flat so when I did a rewatch over New Year I was steered in the […]

Shorts

The Didomenico Fragment by Amor Towles

The Gentlemen from Peru by Andre Aciman

On Blueberry Hill by Sebastian Berry

Good Enemy by Yilong Liu

The Snowman by R.L. Stine

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter

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The Didomenico Fragment This story by Amor Towles takes place all in New York City, with Brooklyn being posed almost as a foreign country. The narrator is an aging art critic and scholar who was recently in possession of a small fragment of a Renaissance masterpiece. He’s approached by an art dealer who asks him about selling the fragment, but he laments that he sold it years ago. This leads to an idea. Early in the story he talks about how being retired, even comfortably, […]

What Happens When the Past is Forgotten

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

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The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro My rating: 4 of 5 stars I chose this for the CBR15 Passport Challenge in the “Travel Your Bookshelf” category. The first time I read Buried Giant, it was going to be a 3 star rating the ending saved it for me. That moment on the shore with Axl and Beatrice gets me in the feels. It’s such sharp, intense writing that leaves a strong impression on a reader. That deserves recognition. Originally, I thought the plot didn’t have much […]



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