Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I had a lot of clever titles for this review but none of them fit.

Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan and Noah Stollman

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Recently I was emailing a representative of a publisher my work deals with. We were talking about a book dealing with the 12 Day War between Iran and Israel that is coming out this fall. I mentioned I would like to find something that showed the other side of the story as well. I figure one should get all the information one can and you’ll probably have a better understanding of things as a whole. The person mentioned they liked Rutu Modan. However, she was […]

A physically exhilarating and exhausting experience

My Brilliant Friend: The Graphic Novel  by Chiara Lagani, Mara Cerri, Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante

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My Brilliant Friend: The Graphic Novel  by Chiara Lagani (Adapter), Mara Cerri (Illustrator), Ann Goldstein (Translator), Elena Ferrante (Original author) Every so often I find a book, movie, song, or some form of entertainment that I both love and hate equally at the same time.  All I’m going to say about My Brilliant Friend: The Graphic Novel the story is that it is a personal read that you love or not. I wonder how much it differs from the novel(s) and if more is told […]

I don’t know who wandered more: the book or me writing this review

Tongues, Volume 1 by Anders Nilsen

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Tongues, Vol. 1 by Anders Nilsen   I have NO idea what was read. The stories all bounce all over the place. The images are busy, the text mixes and gets lost in the illustrations. The images are colorless but are not black and white. The characters are unlikable, even Astrid, who might be the one that will save the world. Or destroy it. It’s still up in the air. There is nothing good and positive. Even The Prisoner has faults and he seems to […]

Grief, Guilt, & 21 Days at Sea

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

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Weaving fragments of timelines is always a risky move for a writer. Moving backwards and forwards through the protagonist’s life can be confusing and gimmicky, taking a skilled story-teller to avoid us asking if it would be a better plot if it were linear. With Michael Ondaatje, we’re in such talented hands.  The Cat’s Table weaves a slow, reflective tale of a group of friends, migrants from Sri Lanka to Britain and from there the wider world. Ondaatje uses the same spatial anchor to keep […]

Too far out for my tastes

Oracles by Olivia Sullivan

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As I read the words of Olivia Sullivan on the pages of the graphic novel, Oracles, I heard the Beatnik standing on the coffee house stage making their words bubble out. I saw the slam poet gazing out into a darkened crowd. There was a spotlight in my brain that shone brightly on the poet freeversing.  And while I like all of that , this book was not for me. However, if you enjoy a slightly nonconcrete writing style or free verse prose, with literary […]

“And even sadness was also something for rich people, for people who could afford it, for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Sadness was a luxury.”

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

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An author tries to tell the story of a poor young woman called Macabeá, who despite her wretched circumstances does not seem to understand how unhappy she should be. I picked this book because I read a review by someone else on Goodreads that said this is a bit like if Sybil Trelawney from Harry Potter wrote a book, though I will argue after reading that Lispector, unlike Trelawney, knows exactly what she’s about. (The other thing I know about Lispector is that she wrote […]



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