Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A Quaint and Curious Volume

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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Subtlety isn’t really what I’m looking for when it comes to books about possessed buildings trying to drive their occupants crazy.  But that’s exactly what Shirley Jackson offers in the psychological horror classic The Haunting of Hill House. The book, which is the basis of a recent Netflix series, follows four strangers brought together by a strange, old mansion. Dr. John Montague has been looking for an opportunity to conduct serious research into unexplained phenomena for a long time. He hires young bohemian Theodora and […]

A book so good I may soon need an intervention if I’m ever to stop re-reading it

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

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An absolutely fantastic follow up to Every Heart A Doorway, Down Among The Sticks and Bones gives us the back story to two of the most interesting characters from its predecessor, showing us how Jack and Jill found themselves at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in an outing that is so brilliant I found myself devouring it within hours before turning around and reading it all over again. Jack and Jill weren’t always who we now know them to be. Born Jacqueline and Jillian […]

When adventures are actually hard stuff and the characters are made all the better for it

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss

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I love it when I come across fiction of the fantasy and science fiction variety that I can and want to devour ravenously. This happened in college when I discovered Octavia Butler and then read everything she’d ever written in a week and last year when a friend introduced me to N.K. Jemisin and spent several months reading two of her series. This only ever happens with fiction for me and I think I may be doing the same with Goss, albeit a bit slower […]

Monsters on the Ice

The Terror by Dan Simmons

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We chose this for our October 2019 book club.  I just finished it. It is a very long book. Honestly, I would not have read this but for the book club.  Nothing about it seemed all that appealing to me. “I need to read it before watching the miniseries”: nope. Scary ice monsters: nope. 900 pages: nope. A slow, cold descent into terror and death: NOPE. Dan Simmons: Honestly, neither here nor there. Old ships: OK MAYBE. So I’m as surprised as anyone that I […]

What more could you want in a classic ghost story?

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

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This is a classic for a reason. A quick, *very* funny read that showcases the author’s SCATHING wit with a combination of takedown and praise of the American sentiment and approach to life. What makes this truly a remarkable story, however, is the sweetness of the heroine, the whiff of pathos, and the possibility of redemption. So many layers, so worth reading!

Two books, one review

The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel: Volume 1 by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book Graphic Novel: Volume 2 by P. Craig Russell

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The Graveyard Book Volume 1 and Volume 2 are based on the Neil Gaiman middle reader novel of the same name. I have not read a lot of Gaiman, but what I have, I have not necessarily loved. (Though the movie Coraline was fun and the audio of it was an experience.) However, P. Craig Russell’s graphic novel adaptation shows how Gaiman’s reputation might have been earned. The two volumes are an interestingly wild ride. I wish I had found a complete one volume (hence […]



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