Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

Please help us keep the lights on through 2021! We've raised $1,722 (132% of our $1,300 goal).
Donate today on #GivingTuesday - last chance to get a chance in the prize raffle!

> FAQ Home
> Tag: kurt vonnegut

So it goes.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

by Leave a Comment

Slaughterhouse Five was not the novel I expected. Based on nothing but the vaguest notion of the plot, which I formed solely on the title, I pictured a gritty, war-torn, 1984-ish tale of hopelessness and carnage. Instead, I was swept along with the funny, bizarre, and moving life of Billy Pilgrim – a survivor of the Firebombing of Dresden from World War II. He was a prisoner of war, an optometrist, a husband and father, a time-traveller, an alien abductee, a motivational speaker, a murder […]

My special circle included Edna Ferber, one of the most prolific writers of her time–a scold, a snob, a low-profile dominatrix whose corseted asperity was never far from busting out.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Lee Israel

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

Good Bye to All That by Robert Graves

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

Harriet Tubman by Ann Petry

by Leave a Comment

This post with multiple reviews represents a clearing of the cache of backlogged Audible audiobooks (mostly quite short) that I am trying to work my way through. My audiobook TBR is significantly longer than my paper book TBR, which is almost always less than 10 at a time.   Can Your Ever Forgive Me? – 4/5 Despite the party line from English teachers about plagiarism and fraud and academic honesty, I do love a good con artist. And literary con artists have always had a […]

Short story review dump (Part IV)

Cuisine des Mémoires by N.K. Jemisin

Valedictorian by N.K. Jemisin

Blur by Carmen Maria Machado

Staying Behind by Ken Liu

Recitatif by Toni Morrison

The Foster Portfolio by Kurt Vonnegut

by 1 Comment

This is something new I’m trying this year, where I review short stories as stand alone stories, not part of anthologies or collections. Here are parts I, II, and III. Cuisine des Mémoires by N.K. Jemisin (5 stars) This little experiment of a short story read every day (which I’ve already failed at) has led to some wonderful discoveries. Along with Ken Liu, N.K. Jemsisin (who I’ve long wanted to read) are definitely at the top of the list, though. A man is taken to […]

How to Write a Novel, Or Not

Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style by Suzanne McConnell, Kurt Vonnegut

by 1 Comment

This book is marketed as a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s lessons on writing from his career as a teacher. In reality, it’s more of a guide to writing written by Suzanne McConnell, one of Vonnegut’s pupils at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in the mid-1960s. McConnell quotes from her famous teacher often, but anyone expecting a book in any way “written” by Kurt Vonnegut should be forewarned. Frankly, it feels dishonest that he is presented as a co-author on the cover. McConnell presents a lot of […]

The thing was: One million years ago, back in 1986 A.D., Guayaquil was the chief seaport of the little South American democracy of Ecuador.

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

by Leave a Comment

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I was one of those teenage boys who read the crap out of Kurt Vonnegut (along with Stephen King, William Sleator, and a few others). This one is one my brother owned, and I recall trying to read it at some point and it just not taking. I’ve read it now, and from Vonnegut’s weird (but still good) 80s output, I think this one really stands out for its richness and inventiveness. We are told in the first […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay