Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A Man of Hubris

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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I have seen a few of the movie adaptations of Frankenstein but somehow I never got around to reading the book. I knew that it was supposed to be rather different and much more sophisticated than a simple horror story, and I was really excited to finally read it, but I have to admit I’m sorely disappointed after finishing it, and a big part of this is the main protagonist. Victor Frankenstein has to be one of the most pathetic and self-obsessed idiots ever created […]

Read this and you’ve picked a winner

The Lottery: Graphic Novel by Shirley Jackson

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#cbr11bingo #BacktoSchool There might be a few spoilers if you are not familiar with Shirley Jackson’s work, The Lottery. I have read Shirley Jackson’s book, The Lottery, at least once. Probably more as she is a Vermont author that is known for being from a town south of me; therefore, teachers feel the need to introduce her into the curriculum at some point. I always got the basic elements of the story: there is a lottery in a small town. For what, you are not […]

The Start of King’s Best Books

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

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Apparently lots of people who like The Dark Tower series don’t like this book, and I really don’t understand that. I love the whole series enough to have a tattoo from it, Song of Susannah is clearly the weakest of the books, and The Gunslinger is some of King’s best writing, ever. The exact criticism I hear of it, that it’s a western and not a horror, is what I think allows it to be so great, because it allows King to break from his […]

I Don’t Know What to Say

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

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This book floored me the other day. First off, thanks to Pajiba for highlighting this book in it’s best of the bunch year for 2018. The Best and Worst of Cannonball 10 article had this book as the best by Mrs. Smith Reads. It looked interesting based on her description, “Carmen Maria Machado’s collection of short stories is nothing short of perfection, and brings everything I was looking for in a year of reading mostly feminist, female-identified, and woman-positive fiction writers.” That sounded right up my alley […]

A Fry Cook With Heart

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

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I was in the mood for a long cry so I read this book. Yes, I know how that sounds, but it’s true. I first read Odd Thomas back in 2003 when it was first published. I had just moved to DC and was reeling from having to move after just burying my mother the month before. So reading this book I had no idea what was coming. Dean Koontz at that time was a comfort read for me. I loved to read his books […]

Beware the UPS Guys

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

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I’m not much of a listener of metal genres, but We Sold Our Souls seems almost like a novelization of a heavy metal song, one of the ones with a Satanic tinge. Basically, Kris is a middle aged wash-out who in the past had been the lead guitarist of a metal band on the cusp of fame, only to be thwarted by the ambitions of her bandmate Terrence. Years after a disastrous night during which the band breaks up, the details of which are fuzzy, […]



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