Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Missing his Speedball

Glory Days: Stories by Simon Rich

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Some people that I think are very funny think that Simon Rich is very funny, so I decided to try his newest collection of short stories. I was especially lured in by the fact that one of my favorite funny people, John Mulaney, is the narrator for the audiobook, which was also conveniently available for free on Spotify. Unfortunately, unlike most of my favorite funny people, I do not seem to find Simon Rich very funny, at least not here. Glory Days consists of 19 […]

Simon Rich (1)

Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich

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“They buried my wife in a shoebox in Central Park.” This is the third collection of short stories by Simon Rich I’ve read, and it contains the longer story that was adapted into the screenplay for “American Pickle” which I have not seen, but will talk about soon. The collection begins with a kind of story that Rich writes a lot, a rendering of a semi-autobiographical story (or one in which he plays a role) but from a much different perspective. This story is a […]

Some

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Rizzio by Denise Mina

This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski

Being There by Jerzy Kosinski

Hits and Misses by Simon Rich

Proto Zoa by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Last Days of August by Jon Ronson

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works - and How It Fails by Yanis Varoufakis

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CBR14Bingo – Shadow – In the novel, even though it’s ostensibly about the “Buffalo Bill” killings, Hannibal Lecter is always there and always present in mind. – Silence of the Lambs – 3/5 Stars This is a book that for some godforsaken reason my seventh grade English teacher not only let me read for a class assignment but also let me make a stick-figure puppet theater for key scenes. The early 1990s were the Wild Wild West truly. It’s an interesting book that is mostly […]

New Teeth

New Teeth by Simon Rich

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I generally don’t laugh at books, though audiobooks have a greater chance. Too often, I might chuckle or just smirk or notice humor and move on. So consider me surprised when this book, which I wasn’t even super keen on reading made me laugh several times throughout. Simon Rich is most famous for the being the younger son of Frank Rich, and I am sorry if that’s offensive to him. He’s also a screenwriter who created Man Seeking Woman and wrote the screenplay for American […]

Assorted Short Fiction II

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

Yard Work by David Koepp

Anonymous by Uzodinma Iweala

There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed by Edgar Cantero

The Remedy by Adam Haslett

Falls the Shadow by Skip Horack

Screwball by Simon Rich

The Beckoning Fair One by Dan Chaon

Q&A by Ben Winters

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry

Decorum at the Deathbed by Josh Malerman

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Night of the Mannequins – 3/5 Stars – Stephen Graham Jones This is a newish novella from Stephen Graham Jones that you’ll have to roll with the bad title and go with it because it does some very interesting things. It has a significant flaw by the end, and the way I will describe that is that it either doesn’t trust the audience or trust itself to make the more interesting choice. The plot involves a group of teenagers, friends and frenemies, who friend works […]

All hits, no misses

Hits and Misses by Simon Rich

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I love Simon Rich so much, I’m honestly wondering what he could write that I’d give a bad review to. I first was introduced to his writing with a reading on NPR of “Unprotected,” a short story written from the perspective of a neglected condom in a man’s wallet, which was 10000% funnier than it had a right to be. I then went out and bought every book I could find with his name on it. So when I went to the bookstore to sell […]



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