Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Day 1,361 of My Captivity . . . ” CBRBINGO – Rec’d

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

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I tried to read this last year? The year before? And couldn’t bring myself to get very far, for whatever reason. But recently I was working on a reading vlog where I was only going to read books with animal narrators, and I thought it might be a good time to try this book again. It stuck this time! Remarkably Bright Creatures follows three main narrators: Tova, a widow whose son also died when he was seventeen, who is now a janitor at an aquarium; […]

“…they and their deeds were dust and ashes, but this man and his words were immortal.“

Orlando A Biography by VIrgina Woolf

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CBR17bingo O I’ve wanted to read Orlando for some time. I knew it was a time travel novel about a character, Orlando, who not only lives for centuries but also changes gender. It was made into a movie starring Tilda Swinton back in the ‘90s, but I never saw it. Apparently, the movie is more “inspired by” the novel than a direct adaptation of it, which, having now read the book, makes sense. Not gonna lie, the novel, published in 1928, is unusual, and I’m […]

Do you follow the Beast or your better angels?

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

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Cbr17bingo N Every time I read a Pratchett novel, I am just awestruck, dumbfounded by the way he could write so eloquently and with such warmth and humor about some of the nastiest parts of the human condition. Night Watch, originally published in 2002, really hit me hard because it is just so weirdly timely. I read and reviewed Guards! Guards! (the first of the Watch novels) last year, and I know that there are several other books in the Watch series before Night Watch. […]

My first encounter with the source material

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Cbr17bingo Green I never read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid. Like many, my acquaintance with the story was from the 1939 film, which I always enjoyed watching even though the flying monkeys and Wicked Witch scared me. Later, in high school or college, I remember hearing that the original story was an allegory about turn-of-the-century American populism and the argument over whether or not the gold standard should be abandoned. You can read a bit about that theory here. Whether or not […]

Murderbot + ART = Joy!

Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

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Cbr17bingo Favorite I’ve read this book, actually the whole existing Murderbot Diaries series, a few times, and I think I have reviewed it for CBR a couple of times, too. So it is definitely a favorite. Artificial Condition is the second book in the Murderbot series, the follow up to All Systems Red. Series 1 of the Murderbot Diaries just ended on Apple TV and I loved it. They made some changes from All Systems Red but they were changes that made sense for a […]

“In my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth”

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

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Bingo Square: B – Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil V.E. Schwab has created another enjoyable stand alone novel with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.  It’s about hunger, love, and rage.  Starting in 1532 Spain and concluding in 2019 Boston, Massachusetts.  Three women, across time become inextricably linked and, in Schwab’s words, this is their “toxic, lesbian vampire story”. Bury my bones in the midnight soil,   plant them shallow and water them deep,   and in my place will grow a feral rose,   soft red […]



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