Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Delicate Infrastructure of People

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I can’t remember who said it, and I may be mashing many people’s words together, “when there is nothing external to give our life meaning, then all that matters is what we do.” Which is another way of saying “survival is insufficient.” I loved Station Eleven. It struck a number of chords in me. There are some spoilers in the review. Station Eleven is about loss, meaning and human connection before, during and after a global pandemic that wipes out most humans and human civilization. The timeline is not linear and there are multiple point of view characters. Arthur Leander sought fame, […]

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6/19/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:47 |

The End of Everything and How We Got There

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014) – I fear this review will make this book seem much more convoluted than it really is, but I’m going to try and give it the credit it’s due.  The premise is a simple one: there’s been a worldwide pandemic where most of humanity is dead and the few survivors in the twenty years that follow fight brigands, cultists, and a world slowly devolving into barbarism.  Technology is gone, borders no longer exist, medicine is a memory.  But people of hope still exist. In this bleak world, the Symphony travels from one […]

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Purchase Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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5/19/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:23 |

Makes you think twice about the sick people on the plane with you…

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I would give this a solid 4.5 stars (rounded up here). This book has been on my to-read list for over a year, and I finally was able to walk away from my ongoing series to listen to this one. It was an excellent audiobook, I really enjoyed the narration. Short synopsis: It’s the end of the world as we know it… there is a virus that wipes out 99.99% (est.) of the human population. The book primarily follows a few key characters throughout their time leading up to and the following 20(ish) years after the event. We also see […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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3/10/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:8 |

Fantastic Read to Kick Off to CBR9!

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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This book was a part of one of the CBR group discussions last year, or the year before, wasn’t it? I knew it sounded familiar but alas, had not gotten around to it until now. I’ll be honest I had no idea what Station Eleven was about when I started to read it, but I received it as a gift from a friend and I must say, she did a great job choosing something that she thought I would like! It looks like quite a few other people have enjoyed it, too. But let us dive in, shall we? Station […]

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Purchase Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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1/9/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:1 |

Late to the party. CBR7 Book Club

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I remember seeing all the Station Eleven reviews popping up throughout CBR7 but for whatever reason I didn’t jump on the bandwagon until now. In lieu of a traditional review I’m going to answer a few of fantingviolet’s book club discussion questions. 1. Did you find the shifts between pre- and post-apocalypse to be an effective storytelling technique? How about changing character perspectives? I’ve gone on record saying that multiple character view points combined with too much time jumping can be irritating and I stand by that. I think the time hopping worked in some instances here- primarily the reveal […]

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Purchase Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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1/30/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:11 |

Tell me something I haven’t imagined before

Station Eleven: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel

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I’m having very mixed feelings about “Station Eleven.” It sure checks a lot of boxes for me including post-apocalyptic survival, a plague, interconnected characters, graceful exposition, and a creepy antagonist. But it misses the mark on originality and heart. Hard to summarize, and it skips back and forward in time a lot (effortlessly, to its credit), this is the story of a handful of individuals affected by a civilization-ending strain of the swine flu. These people are all connected through their various relationships with a world-famous actor (Arthur) who dies within the first few pages of a non-flu-related heart attack. […]

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Purchase Station Eleven: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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1/19/2016 | 's CBR8 Review No:5 |

Pre and post apocalypse interwoven for an intriguing tale

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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The night the fatal Georgia Flu arrives in Toronto, fading movie star Arthur Leander has a heart attack on stage performing the title role in King Lear. Jeevan, a paramedic trainee, rushes to the actor’s aid but it is too late to save him. Kirsten, a young child actress in the production, watches fearful from the wings of the stage. So begins the compelling and surprising Station Eleven. An apocalyptic novel that moves back and forth in time, Station Eleven is a layered and entertaining story about what matters most before the world ends…and after. I read the book knowing […]

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Purchase Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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11/18/2015 | 's CBR7 Review No:36 |

Find the singer’s gun, then shoot yourself with it

The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

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Emily St. John Mandel has become an author like John Green or Liane Moriarty for me — I read her first book and adored it, so I sought out her earlier books and remain largely disappointed. Of the three I’ve read by her — Station Eleven, Last Night in Montreal and now The Singer’s Gun — this book definitely disappointed and irritated me the most. Anton Waker grew up with parents who ran a store filled with stolen goods, and a little bitch of a cousin (with whom he implies that he fell in love at a young age — I cannot understand why, she’s awful) who steals at every opportunity […]

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Purchase The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel or any item from amazon via our link.

Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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7/14/2015 | 's CBR7 Review No:123 |

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