Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Ladies and Gentlemen, the (reading) Weekend…

Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue by Samuel R. Delany

Queer: A Graphic History by Meg John-Barker, Julia Scheele (illustration)

Widespread Panic by James Ellroy

Quarry's Cut by Max Allan Collins

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Read a variety of books close to and over the weekend. Let’s check it out… Bleeding Edge **** This is a 2021 reread and it’s better than I remember. The ending disappoints but it’s still an entertaining, prescient novel. Pynchon warned us about Too Online culture and yet, here we are.   Times Square Red, Times Square Blue **** I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t this. And I liked it! Mostly. This is like a tale of two books. It’s two essays […]

Who is really lost here?

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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And the saga of my conflicted feelings for audiobooks continues. With a highpoint, admittedly, but conflicted those feelings still are. I spend a lot of time in front of screens for work, reading documents etc., my eyesight has suffered this year and since I, for some odd reason, cannot bring myself to cancel my audible subscription, I’ve decided to try listening to audiobooks before bed. And boy does that work! 15 minutes in and I’m fast asleep! It stretched out my “reading” time for this […]

Perfume, Chocolate, and Spies

The Scent of Secrets by Jane Thynne

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I have a dirty little secret that I suppose I’m confessing to the world: I like booksellers more than librarians. Librarians are usually concerned primarily with the administration of their office. Understandably so! I’d just as soon know what I’m looking for in a library so I don’t have to inquire for a librarian’s help. Usually, if I’m going to one, it’s because I want to get a specific something. Rarely do I browse in the library. Bookstores, as I’ve whittled down my wishlist over […]

Ladies do buddy cop stuff in early 20th century steampunk Egypt

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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To be clear from the get-go, I hope A Master of Djinn is the first of a series. It’s got an interesting world, a twist of the classic steampunk which takes the perspective of the Egyptians not the English with a strong reliance of the local folklore/mythology (as opposed to the European traditions), it’s got some interesting characters, like Agent Fatma a queer lady Agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, Siti her capricious lover, and Agent Hadia rookie partner. Some of […]

Mar(e)io of Rocksburg (Easttown)

The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes by K.C. Constantine

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Like many this past month, I watched and enjoyed HBO’s Mare of Easttown. I especially liked the first tier suburban Philly setting, the commitment to local culture, and the character-focused thrust of storytelling, even as there was a murder mystery to be solved. There was empathy for people and their situations in life, all of it centered around the titular Mare, the town detective. I wanted to read a book with similar traits. Long Bright River is the easiest and obvious answer but I read (and enjoyed) that one […]

“Friday was back to normal, if the actions of suspicious would-be heirs competing for a two-hundred-million-dollar prize could be considered normal.”

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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This was so good! I’m so mad I didn’t read it as a kid. I mean, I’m an adult reading this for the first time, and even though I’m notoriously bad at figuring out mysteries, this was still quite the puzzle. It was just as well-constructed as an adult mystery, just with a different tone. And a main character called Turtle. What I liked best about this, besides the puzzle-like nature of it, was the human kindness it had at its core. It’s been since […]



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