Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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ScoobyDoo for grown ups but not quite enough

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

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So I’ve been wondering for a while why it seems to be that there can’t be ghost stories for grown-ups that don’t involve detailed often gory horror and/or a lot of unnecessary personal (self-inflicted at least partially most often) angst or troubles. Seannan McGuire’s Ghost Roads series comes close, but that’s only 2 (as of right now) books. I fine with tension and spooky and supernatural, but so much of what’s out there right now is too far into the brands of horror that I […]

When Nothing Else Matters

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

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The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is fairly easy to describe: an alternate history mystery tale set in a Jewish colony in Alaska that’s about to be handed over to the United States. But it’s so much more. This book pays homage to the great hardboiled traditions of the past but has a big beating heart in the middle. And it also functions as a hilarious and sad commentary on Jewish life post-World War II. I’m aware of how acclaimed Michael Chabon is but I’ve not had much […]

Give me a dragon now!

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

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Uprooted and Spinning Silver were two of the best books that I read last year, and they left me wanting more Naomi Novik. When I didn’t immediately purchase her new book this year, amazon offered me a collection of her first three Temeraire novels for $3. Obviously, I bought it.  The series starts with His Majesty’s Dragon, which is a kind of weird title since His Majesty has lots of dragons. In this alternate history, dragons exist and are used for warfare. It’s the early […]

“Because it’s easy to ignore a woman . . . But a hell of a lot harder to ignore a witch.”

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

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I really liked this book. To quote the book itself, it’s “witchy as hell.” Honestly, the only thing keeping me from giving this five stars is that the style of the writing didn’t perfectly gel with me, and that is obviously very subjective. I would looooove to see this adapted as a limited event series on a premium streaming service or network. The premise here is that we’re in an alternate history where magic and witches were once real, not just scapegoats for whatever was […]

The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories by Ken Liu

All the Flavors by Ken Liu

The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu

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Always on the lookout for speculative short fiction, I came across Ken Liu on an internet list somewhere. The little bio said he’d won the Hugo and the Nebula for his short stories and translations, and as I’m ashamed to say I’ve read very little by Chinese-American authors, I immediately ran to the library. They had his short story collection, The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories, and even though I knew he was award winning, I was not prepared for just how life-changing this collection would […]

https://cannonballread.com/2020/12/the-paper-menagerie-other-stories-and-all-the-flavors-and-the-man-who-ended-history-a-documentary-ale/



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