Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A banned novel about WWI, conscientious objectors and gays

Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini

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Despised and Rejected is a 1918 novel by Rose Allatini (using the pen name AT Fitzroy) that was banned and pulled off the market for being ‘morally unhealthy’ following a trial of its publisher CW Daniel. The Gay Men’s Press republished the novel in 1988 and the Persephone Press edition that I read came out in 2018. Set during WWI, the novel’s main characters are a bisexual woman named Antoinette and a gay man named Dennis who is also a conscientious objector. The novel begins […]

‘What else is there to say? That I loved him more than I ever thought it was possible to love anyone.’

After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

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One thing I kept thinking about while reading After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell were the words of a colleague, “The truth will out.” He had said this more than a decade ago when we were discussing certain politicians involved with atrocities and corruption. His belief was that it doesn’t matter how long it takes, or in what form, but no matter what, the truth will come out. It’s something I come back to these days as we flail in this purgatory of misinformation. What […]

Slightly out of place, in every way

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

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I saw a recommendation for Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, and I got it from the interlibrary loan in amongst some verrrrryyyy long books (Why does nobody edit Brandon Sanderson?!?). I couldn’t contemplate bringing a 5lb book on the plane, so grabbed Bradley’s novel thinking it was the right length for a 3 day work trip. What happened, in the end, was me having to caution myself to slow down so I would have enough book to last the whole trip – this funny, […]

Like Lord of the Flies at Disneyland

FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven

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If you strand a bunch of (mostly) 20 something year old adults who work in a theme park for 35 days during a natural disaster, what do you think would happen? If you’re hoping for Temptation Island level hijinks, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if you’re leaning toward murder and heads on a stick level violence, then this is the book for you! Think Lord of the Flies, but with adults and multiple tribes. This book works for a lot of reasons. First, you have […]

“I subscribe to a theory that answers cannot hide from us forever if we seek them long enough.”

Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

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Al is one of five magical scribes in the world, charged with upholding the law between the mortal world and the higher planes where gods and mythical creatures reside. When his latest apprentice turns up dead, he discovers that he may have been trafficking the fae – and as his mentor, it is Al’s duty to make things right. This is the first book in the series, which is a spin-off of Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles. I have not read those books, but Ink and Sigil works […]

Horribly Fun

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Tchaikovsky has a knack for making humans supporting actors in his space-faring opera about intelligent animal life. After reading Children of Time, which I enjoyed, I wasn’t sure how he would do a second book about a different species in a fresh way. But this second book is just as good as the first. Told in a similar way to Children of Time, Children of Ruin switches between the past and present. The past being a time when human civilization has basically self-destructed and sent […]



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