Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

My Big Ol’ Spoiler-Filled Review

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Never Let Me Go is one of the strangest books I have read this year and in order to try to make sense of it, I’m afraid I’m going to be engaging in some plot spoiling. Actually, this may not be overly spoiler-y, as the reader figures out most of what I’m going to reveal early on in the novel. Ishiguro wants it that way, I think, because his characters experience the same thing. They know what is going to happen to them, and yet…. Reviews have described it as science fiction and as dystopian, but I would say that […]

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9/12/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:40 |

I’m finally reading The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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I liked all of these covers, so I added them all. For some reason, I had no idea that this book was published in 1986.  It feels so so current.  I wanted to read it before watching any of the Hulu series, which looks great.  This will officially be my fifth Margaret Atwood book.  I think I like her 🙂 This book just tosses you right into the everday slog of being a Handmaiden.  You wake up in a blank, meaningless room, put on your red clothes, and walk downstairs.  You’re not supposed to look at yourself.  In fact, you […]

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7/17/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:37 |

Stepford Town, but not as clever.

Wayward by Blake Crouch

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I recently got off work a bit early (one of the many down sides of being a Fry Minion, you get sent home because of “labor costs.”) and having nothing to do but surf my phone, downloaded a reader (how did I live without one?) and started perusing my to-be-read pile, which is quite large.  Wayward was one of the first books in the stack, (it was ahead of its prequel, even, which I have not read.)  I’m used to starting series in the middle – I actually do it as something of a litmus test for new writers I’m […]

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6/24/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:8 |

Ruined Cities of the Future

Ruined Cities by James Tallett

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Ruined Cities edited by James Tallett (2013) – I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this anthology before.  I like beginning writers and original stories, so independent publications’ short story collections are right up my alley.  I’m not wild about dystopian or post-apocalyptic stories, but this one is large and meaty (420 pages) and has some exceptional writing.  I’ll talk about a few of my favorites. “The City Over Hell” by Jennifer Povey – A young illiterate girl discovers her city is actually a dying space station orbiting a fiery planet called Hell.  She and everyone are doomed until an old […]

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6/20/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:25 |

What I feel is relief. It wasn’t me.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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Welp, I just picked up The Handmaid’s Tale this afternoon, and finished it in one sitting. Not because I couldn’t put it down, but because I absolutely refused to stop, let it percolate, and dare to wonder at what could be coming. Honestly, it’s too believable. I knew that it would be; you can’t avoid talk of the story these days. But it’s strikingly real, and for that reason, downright horrifying. I never caught myself picking apart the believability, or the potential. This is dystopian fiction at its most stripped-down. There are no remarkable flights of fancy, no absurdist guesses at […]

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4/29/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:19 |

Monsters and Humans doing Romeo and Juliet right

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

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The ideas of humanizing monsters and monstrous humans seems to be a big theme with Victoria (V.E.) Schwab. This would normally annoy me, except that she does it so well, and with variety each time. This is my third series of hers that I’ve started, and each one is different in terms of world and characters. I’m saving the conclusion of one series, A Conjuring of Light, until the end of the current semester in 3 weeks; if I don’t I’ll be buried by grading I’ll ignore in trying to finish the book, and from the sound of it, emotionally […]

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4/16/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:30 |

OK, my second Margaret Atwood book was awesome!

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

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My first exposure to Margaret Atwood was book one in the MaddAddam Trilogy – Oryx and Crake.  It was not a rousing success in my eyes.  I didn’t quite get it.  Aaaanyway, my library’s app had this in ebook form, so it was my second Margaret Atwood book.  I loved it.  It was my “reading before bed” book, which is hard when it’s a book that I really enjoy.  I find myself dozing when I really want to keep reading. So this is another dystopian story.  If you’ve read my reviews before, you know I like my topias dys!  We […]

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4/6/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:16 |

Crichton falls a little flat

Prey by Michael Crichton

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I think I read most of Crichton’s works one summer (I was hugely pregnant with twins and mostly bedridden.)  There’s a lot of great stories in the man.  However, I must have missed this one (perhaps it is newer than 2006? Yep, 2008) and honestly, I’m not so thrilled with the fact that I “went back” for this.  It’s no Timeline or Andromeda Strain.  It’s kind of close in sphere to Jurassic Park, but it lacks the humanizing qualities.  This is a story of man versus machine, and it’s wholly unsatisfying.  There’s not a real hero, and the “real villain” […]

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3/30/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:5 |

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