Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A haunting and memorable journey

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

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Lincoln in the Bardo is a story that you chew on. You can’t just sip it and multitask and hope to passively absorb it. You have to pay attention and actively read (or listen, in my case). But it’s so rewarding when you finish it, and worth the extra mental effort. If you’re like me and thinking a Bardo is something like a bar, you are completely wrong my friend. In buddhism, a bardo is a liminal space between death and rebirth. So we are […]

Another okay book in a series I keep going back to

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

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This is book nine in the Wayward Children Series, a series of books about children who have found portals into alternate worlds that can be the stuff of nightmares or dreams, depending on the child. A good thing about this series is that you could probably read the books out of order, since they deal with different children and worlds. But there are recurring characters and themes throughout, which might be lost by going out of order. This book is about Antsy, who has a […]

So much ejaculating in this book

The Hidden Hand or Capitola the Madcap by E.D.E.N. Southworth

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FLAMES AND FURIES! Get ready for hundreds of pages of exclamations, ejaculations, and interjections! But really, there is a lot of ejaculating in this book. The Hidden Hand was originally published in the 1850s in serialized form, but later published as a book in 1888. This is an overly dramatic, noir-styled, mustachioed twirling romp in which the characters only seem to speak in all caps and exclamation points. And to give you a feel of the writing, I will be ejaculating several times throughout this […]

Murder mystery with women you won’t like

Scenes of the Crime by Jilly Gagnon

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This is a classic beach or vacation read, with I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes but. You know, I say that, but I haven’t read that actual book. I might have watched the movie a looooong time ago though. Ok, there are major differences probably. But we have a group of friends, including Emily, who lost their friend Vanessa one fateful night at her family winery conveniently high up on a treacherous ocean cliff. At Emily’s suggestion, several years later, the friends reunite. […]

God help this woman, I sure can’t!

Negative Space by Gillian Linden

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“No one is suggesting anyone should react to anything in any particular way.” I think that is the guiding principle of many people who, whether they realize it or not, end up showing tolerance and ambivalence at the same time. And it sums up how I felt about this book. When I first started listening to this book, I thought the narrator was a teenager. She is timid, insecure, anxious, questioning of every little thing around her. I soon realized she is a teacher at […]

Like karaoke for books

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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Did you know Panem was pronounced “PAN-EM?” I sure didn’t. You emphasize both syllables apparently. That’s a benefit of listening to the audio book. But you know what might not be a benefit of an audiobook? Hearing a man trying to do female voices. Now, I’ll admit that I listen to audio books at a fast pace, which obviously affects the vibe. But I couldn’t help think that the females in this book sounded like female South Park characters. And it gets worse when some […]



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