Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“burn before reading”

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El -Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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If this is what the Time War feels like, then I volunteer as tribute. This two-hander from Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone burns bright right in the center of your chest and dares you to put it out. Red and Blue are operatives on either side of a war that has been going on since before time existed and well past the end of the universe. They are fierce and wild warriors; brilliant minds matched with brilliant and sharp teeth. They claw their way through […]

The American

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

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American Spy is a difficult book to pull off. A slow burn literary spy novel in which the concept of subterfuge is used symbolically to examine race, gender, immigration and the long reach of colonialism. The book has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Fortunately, it’s in the hands of a capable writer Lauren Wilkinson knows what she’s doing. The strength of it is in its primary character. Marie Mitchell is a complex person and Wilkinson allows her to be complex while trusting the reader […]

Bond, Jimmy Bond

SilverFin: The Graphic Novel by Charlie Higson

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I must have read this in the novel format as this morning, when sitting down to write my review, everything seemed to feel familiar. It also could be that this is a very common mystery/adventure story of a young boy trying to find out why another boy went missing, making friends and figuring out what the plan of the villain is (who of course is the father of the bully the boy must deal with at school). SilverFin: The Graphic Novel is an interpretation of […]

See ya later, criminals!

Investigators by John Patrick Green

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Investigators is the first book in a new series by John Patrick Green; who as an author and as an illustrator is busy! He has (so far) The Kitten Construction Company series (currently two books), Hippopotamister (a solo tale) and now the Investigators (book two is planned for a year from now). There are a lot of puns, obvious jokes and toilet humor (literally as they travel the city by flushing themselves through toilets). There are multiple mysteries for this Get Smart meets The Man […]

Living in the Past

This Storm by James Ellroy

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I met James Ellroy when purchasing this book at a book signing. I was nervous, having heard plenty of stories about his uncouth behavior in public. But he was actually quite nice and gracious with his time. It seems to me that once he rides out his initial wave of anxiety and gets comfortable in a situation, he’s fine. Both of us being Lutheran, we joked about the great Martin Luther; he of course appreciating Luther’s vulgarity towards the Pope. Ellroy makes it clear that […]

eeeugh. gross in so many ways.

The Innocent by Ian McEwan

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TRIGGER WARNING: sexual violence- and other terrible things What started out as a fairly mild story of a man who is a:not good at his job and b: not a terribly interesting person lurched suddenly downhill into a dirge of rape fantasy, sexual violence, murder, and dismemberment. “Eeeugh” was putting it lightly. I’m not one to tell you, dear reader, what to do- but I strongly suggest avoiding this garbage fire. I am normally drawn to post-war drama- especially involving espionage and intrigue- but I […]



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