Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Advanced Studies in Bird Criticism.

A Dumb Bird's Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever by Matt Kracht

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It’s hard to articulate. I love birds, they are my favorite… but I also hate birds. It’s complicated. I delight in their behavior, but so many of them are also arseholes. Take the ducks we used to keep—they fowled up the dam. The turkeys? Bloody stupid creatures. The geese? Vicious bastards*. My Auntie’s beloved silky bantam rooster, Kevin? Busted internal chronometer; would never shut up. I have been mocked by kookaburras, experienced a gleek of emu attacks, a car stripping by corellas and a blood […]

Fear is a valuable commodity. It’s common sense compressed into its purest form.

The Liar's Key: The Red Queen's War #2 by Mark Lawrence

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It’s hard to play the enigmatic prince of romance when the object of your affections gets to watch you shit into the sea twice a day. ― Mark Lawrence, The Liar’s Key After finishing the first book, Prince of Fools, over Christmas, I figured I’d be done with the trilogy by the end of January. Even though the first book meandered a bit, I was invested enough in Jalan and Snorri to push through and see what awaited them on the black ice. The second […]

God gave us horses so we could run away faster.

Prince of Fools: The Red Queen's War #1 by Mark Lawrence

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Cowards divide into two broad groups. Those paralysed by their fear, and those galvanized by it. ― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Fools I’ve always felt that the placement of a man’s testicles is an eloquent argument against intelligent design. ― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Fools Prince Jalan is the third son of the third son of the queen of Red March. Despite being a long way off from the path of succession, he’s successfully used his title of prince to maximum effectiveness. He’s a gambler, […]

“And isn’t it just so pretty to think / All along there was some invisible string / Tying you to me?”

Really Good, Actually (2023) by Monica Heisey

Romantic Comedy (2023) by Curtis Sittenfeld

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Really Good, Actually (2023) by Monica Heisey I came across Monica Heisey on Caroline O’Donoghue’s podcast Sentimental Garbage, in an episode on ‘Break-Ups’, and then found out that Heisey had been a writer on Schitt’s Creek, which I love enough that I wrote an academic chapter on it and still managed to love it afterwards. Really Good, Actually, does not at all have a Schitt’s Creek vibe, which is good! We love a versatile creative type! It’s about Maggie and her post-divorce malaise at the […]

Fabulous sci-fi saving the world

The Ultra-Fabulous Glitter Squadron Save the World Again by A.C. Wise

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This was a fun read, but hard to describe.  So i took a look at the publisher and this is a book suggested  when one chooses “I want to read something that’s genderqueer…” .  And that is fair. This is a collection of stories and vignettes about how each of the members of the ultra-fabulous glitter squadron came to be part of the group and some of the challenges they have faced.  While it is a collection of stories, they do lead to a finale […]

Sometimes All it Takes is “Good Onya Champ”

Un-cook Yourself: A Ratbag's Rules for Life by Nat's What I Reckon

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I think I’ve made it clear before that I am not someone who is normally drawn to self-help books. I have also mentioned that Audible kind of takes issue with this rather strongly, and insists on throwing suggestions my way. But through either sheer persistence or will, it turns out that one did stick Probably because it is kind of—in part—a piss-take of self-help books anyhow. The other half is a genuine call for you to keep your chin up Champion!—because it is completely normal […]



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