Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Short story struggles are worth it

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders

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I am very bad at reading short story collections. Something in me says that if it’s in one volume, then it’s one story. So when the chapters don’t go together, I get confused even though I know they are independent stories and not actually chapters. But I like short stories, so I get through them by reading at least a few books between the stories. I got through two collections this year. In the preface to The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu says, […]

“You had a chance to ask the universe for something,” Jamie says. “But instead you chose to register a complaint.”

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

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Lessons in Magic and Disaster has been so hard to review because my response to it has been deeply personal. It’s an achingly beautiful book. The ache starts in the opening paragraph, Jamie has never known what to say to her mother. And now–when it matters most of all, when she’s on a rescue mission–she knows even less.” Jamie discovered as a child that she could do magic. If she found a spot in nature at the intersection of cultivated and abandoned, and wished for […]

Ragtag Crew of Humans Saving the World

Unstoppable #1 Victories Greater Than Death  by Charlie Jane Anders

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There are a lot of good things that are included in Unstoppable #1 Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders. However, not only is this a book that while you can stop after book one you need the series to fill in blanks, there are events that I just could not like. I know that this is a controversial statement due to the subjects included. We deal a lot with gender (in fact it is such an important part of things, when someone introduces themselves […]

Epic bravery and sensible fears

Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders

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There was a point several years ago when I got frustrated with YA and all the teenagers saving the world/saving the universe. Part of my frustration was that I don’t want kids to have to save the world. I got over that fairly quickly, but I remembered that feeling towards the end of Promises Stronger Than Darkness. Now I am so grateful that teens have a whole body of literature about fighting oppression and fascism. I might get a bit esoteric, because I don’t want to […]

Little Red Box of Love and Murder

Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders

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Last year I read two of Charlie Jane Anders books, Victories Greater than Death and Never Say You Can’t Survive. Both were excellent and I recommend you read them. Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak is the sequel to Victories, so you really need to read that one first. Dreams is also closely related to Never Say You Can’t Survive, Anders’ book about writing. In Victories, Anders plays with the Chosen One trope. Tina is a clone of a great warrior and she was created to allow […]

Write Your Way Out

Never Say You Can't Survive by Charlie Jane Anders

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I felt a little guilty when I was notified that I had been granted an advance reader copy of Charlie Jane Ander’s essay collection, Never Say You Can’t Survive. I am not a writer and I have no aspirations to be a writer. I have no qualifications for judging this book. However, I have never let a lack of qualifications get in my way of judging things. The short version is, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any creative person. I have […]



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