Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I am not HO HO HOing about this book, but it’s worth the read.

Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike

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I just want to type out the entire review from the publisher copy for Twelve Terrors of Christmas (or) 12 Terrors of Christmas. This John Updike book is a “Your Mileage Will Varey” depending on your sense of humor (or lack thereof) and your appreciation or dislike of Edward Gorey as an illustrator. The publisher copy says things like, “depictions of Yuletide mayhem” by Gorey. And Updike has “wryly jaundiced [examinations]” of each theme. Nothing is sacred, from Santa and his red suit, to sitting […]

the only Scream sequel I need

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

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Take the meta-horror-commentary of Scream and dial it up to eleven; there at the top of the stairs, silhouetted in moonlight and brandishing a rusty machete, you will find The Last Final Girl. Stephen Graham Jones is leaning hard into the tropes of teen slasher movies, and if you aren’t in on the joke it will fly over your freshly-severed-by-garage-door-head. The story is presented almost as a film treatment; close ups, pans, POVS, and audience responses are all written in and used with cheeky abandon. […]

Rise of the Vermin

The Cockroach by Ian McEwan

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Bonnie reviewed this on here, it sounded very much relevant to my interests, so I ordered it and read it in one sitting. Don’t remember the last time I did this and to be fair, Cockroach is very short, but it still felt great to do this again. The book is Ian McEwan’s take on Kafka’s Metamorphosis, except that instead of a young depressed man turning into a beetle, a cockroach turns into a powerful buffoon, namely the British Prime Minister. This Prime Minister – […]

“While I was killing him, I had to wipe my mouth with my sleeve every now and then because I couldn’t stop salivating.”

Mars by Asja Bakić

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Anything can become normal, if you continue to stick through it. War, murder, cults, doppelgängers, being deported to Mars- whatever world you are dropped into becomes your world. Asja Bakić is a master of normalcy in abnormal times and places. Her short story collection, Mars, is filled to the gills with the weird becoming common place. I was originally drawn to this collection for less than academic reasons: it is short and it has a pretty corner! I was looking to race through my Bingo card, […]

Delightful stubbornness

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

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A Man Called Ove is about a delightfully stubborn widower in Sweden. He has a strict logic that he applies to the world. He yearns for consistency and routine. Anyone who deviates from the order is likely inefficient and an idiot in his mind. He is suspicious of most things and prefers to abstain from all social things. I enjoyed his rising frustration at the computer store when he attempts to buy a computer. Despite his crankiness, Ove fell in love with a woman named […]

Laugh so Loud at the Coffee Shop that the Guy Next in Line Spills His Drink (CBR11 Bingo: The Collection)

Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg

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The bizarre come home to roost in Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory. Fleeting daydreams turn into years long stunted relationships, science goes too far into US history, dogs navigate the meaning of “good” and “bad”, entire stories are told in the span of half-sentences, and a Minions watch holds new and aching power. The wordplay, absurdity, and bone-deep ennui of Bob-Waksberg’s previous creation, Bojack Horseman, are ever present and ready to build you up and tear you back down to the ground. […]



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