Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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MASTERPIECE.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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I was originally tempted to just post this whole novel as one giant (and perfect) quotation. We knew it was coming but we behaved inconsistently. We stocked up on supplies-just in case-but sent our children to school, because how do you get any work done with the kids at home? (We were still thinking in terms of getting work done. The most shocking thing in retrospect was the degree to which all of us completely missed the point.) One day, when we look back at […]

Let’s Save the Endangered Walking Nuclear Dinosaurs

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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I have to admit, I didn’t especially enjoy the only other novel by John Scalzi that I read (Redshirts) so I was hesitant about The Kaiju Preservation Society, but the premise was just too good to not at least give it a chance. The basic gist is that there are parallel worlds to our own Earth, and one them is home to kaiju, basically nuclear powered dinosaurs the size of mountains; once when one accidentally got through the barrier between worlds, someone who saw it […]

There is a Forced Proximity Romance here, but there’s also lots of things I cared less about.

Lockdown on London Lane by Beth Reekles

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I have been rabidly on the hunt for Lockdown on London Lane since January, having requested it from any library source I possibly could. It eventually arrived to me in early April and in the middle of a bunch of other things (and other books) I blew through it. Was I captivated? No. Did I skim a bit? Yes, but by design that’s a thing that can be done without losing the plot. Did it give me what I was hoping it would? Yes, I […]

“It’s not unlike filtration, a move that blatant, deliberate. “

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

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In the near-future, we lucky Americans are eyeball-deep in a new terror: we can’t sleep. Every day, thousands more become unable to reach REM. They die after days of restlessness. The only thing that can help? Donations of sleep from “healthy” dreamers. Not unlike a blood drive, people like Trish Edgewater are cold-calling sleepers, begging them to give some of their life to the lifeless. Etiquette is a powerful programming, however, and easily exploitable. I sneeze. He sneezes back language at me, reflexive generosity: “Bless […]

Let’s spend a little of your hard-earned Christmas book buying budget on some books we wished we could have read as children.

What if, Pig? by Lizzie Hunter

Dad & The Dinosaur by Gennifer Choldenko

Captain Starfish by Davinia Bell

You've Got Dragons by Kathryn Cave

When You Are Brave by Pat Zietlow Miller

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AKA Why this week’s library haul had me in tears. There’s a lot to go over in this review, so I’m bear with me: There’s a reason these books are together like this, I promise. Dad & The Dinosaur by Gennifer Choldenko –Nicholas isn’t brave like his dad: He’s afraid of all sorts of things, like bugs, & darkness, & manhole covers.  But he has a secret weapon: A dinosaur that “likes the dark, bugs are nothing to them, and they eat manhole covers for […]

Birds on the Brain

Sentinel Chickens: What Birds Tell Us About Our Health and the World, by Peter C Doherty

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After over eighteeen months of pandemic, I’m sure most people have read a book or two about pandemics, disease outbreaks, or even just viruses. Most of these books probably don’t leave the reader feeling very relaxed. Sentinel Chickens: What Birds Tell Us About Our Health and the World, is not like that. Full of amicable ancedotes about birds, diseases and their relations with regards to humans, this books was such a gentle read that I felt that I could take it to the beach and […]



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