Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A Visit from the Goon Squad – A study in character development

A Visit form the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

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I’m a bit late to this 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner but those prize giver outters definitely know their stuff. Egan’s work is true mastery of character development and a triumph of the non-linear form. It seems there is little method to her madness, as she jumps to different characters, and different points in history. At times you are puzzled as to how someone relates to the story, and you learn that they used to work for a main character, or a former flame, etc. It’s […]

Do you remember when . . . .

Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

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I vaguely remember the Chernobyl disaster. I remember hearing about it on the news and being scared. That’s about it. Plokhy’s history rectifies that. The book opens with the Swedish discovery of the disaster and includes a detailed account of the disaster itself. Not only the events leading up to it but the human cost of those who fought the faire without knowing fully the risk they were taking. The first tragedy is what happens to the firefighters. But the book isn’t just a detailed […]

By the Stars We Hope

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers 3) by Becky Chambers

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Earlier this year narfna posted her review of Record of a Spaceborn Few and in the comments she assured me that even less happens in this third installment of the Wayfarers series. I was delighted. It is generally acknowledged that science fiction takes our current major concerns and conflicts and sets them in the future, usually a more scientifically advanced future. Becky Chambers tweaks that a bit by having her characters preoccupied with the same minutia that preoccupies us all – our relationships, our work, our […]

Fluff is a great name for a cat.

I'm Just a Person by Tig Notaro

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We all have bad days.  Difficult months. Challenging years.  But every once in awhile, it seems like the stars of “fuck you.” align to create something so cruel that it should be fiction and then hands it to someone and walks away. That’s what happened to Tig in less than one year.  People want to make sense of things, so they say it’s random, or God only gives you what He thinks you can handle, or they wonder what you did in a previous life. […]

What We Do for Love and Greed

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman

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Confession time: I listened to this book solely because I decided that I would not be finishing The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood for the Go Fug Yourself book club over on Goodreads. I spent two weeks actively avoiding listening to it on my commute to work, and on a three hour road trip to Philadelphia where I didn’t have a radio in the loaner car from work. I needed a palate cleanser, and I needed a moody atmospheric listen to go along with Halloween. […]



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