Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What Is Reality?

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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This was so good! It’s set in the past and the future and jumps around in time. It follows seemingly disparate threads and characters who are tied together by their experiencing an odd event in which there is a flash of darkness and the sound of violin music. A character named Gaspery shows up and talks to each of the people who have experienced this event. There is time travel and conversations about the simulation hypothesis. There are meta elements, like a character who wrote […]

Review Dump 2: My Favorites of the Year. CBR14 Reviews 5-8.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

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In case I don’t get around to finishing all the reviews I was hoping to before the deadline…I wanted to make sure to share my thoughts on my four favorite books of the year: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; This Time Tomorrow; The Candy House; and Sea of Tranquility. 2022 was an amazing year for books. I preordered Sea of Tranquility and received in on release day. I finished it on release day too. I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t love it quite […]

“This is the strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death.”

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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Cannonball Read Book Square: Funky In one word: Tether Reading St. John Mandel I’m reminded of the scene in the AMAZING movie Booksmart, wherein two college-bound BFFs are determined to make up for lost time and live it up the night before their high school graduation. In one of my favorite scenes, best friends Molly and Amy are getting ready to go out and hyping each other up for their respective outfits, aggressively hurling positive affirmations at each other. “Who gave you permission to take […]

I don’t want to review this, f*** you.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2 Book 28/30 It’s too good! I loved it too much! This is like how I put off watching The Falcon and the Winter Soldier because I love Bucky too much. My feelings, THEY CANNOT BE CONTAINED WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME CONTAIN THEM. I was going to try and re-read this before I reviewed it to try and make some thoughts more thoughtful and coherent, but I just don’t have the time right now, even though […]

May 2022 Leftovers

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob by Gianni Russo

Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

American Tabloid by James Ellroy

Hot Springs by Stephen Hunter

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Dead Soon Enough by Steph Cha

Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka

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Here are the books I read in May 2022 that I didn’t get to give a full review for whatever reason. I read a lot of authors of AAPI descent; their books were all wonderful in their own respective ways… Sea of Tranquility **** Unquestionably a metacommentary on the author’s Station Eleven success in the shadow of Covid-19, it’s a beautifully written reflection on finding peace and contentment in the uncertainties of life. I don’t know that I enjoyed it as much as others did given […]

A quietly thrilling side-quel to The Glass Hotel in the key of Cloud Atlas

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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I would list the HBO Max adaptation of Station Eleven as one of the few adaptations better than the book it came from. I loved that mini-series and thought it both illuminated and improved the source material. I do not feel it is a slight to Emily St. John Mandel to say that, as she was heavily involved in the adaptation. Mandel is one of the most interesting authors working right now. She is enormously talented at world-building and tight, beautiful prose. However, her characters […]



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