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 […]

Not my “best of” but YMMV.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Memorial by Bryan Washington

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In which it becomes clear to me that a “best of” list means next to nothing. I’m trying (and doubt I will make it) to catch up with my long backlog list from 2020 and to actually reach my goal of 52 reviews. Putting together mini-groups to review together has made this somewhat easier, and yes, I know that some of my groupings are probably random. Here we have two books that I thought were fine. I probably wouldn’t recommend them to friends, but if […]

A much stranger re-read than I was expecting

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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Official book description: DAY ONE The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb. News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%. WEEK TWO Civilization has crumbled. YEAR TWENTY A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe. But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has […]

“I’m no expert, but I remember reading somewhere, every time you retrieve a memory, that act of retrieval, it corrupts the memory a little bit. Maybe changes it a little.”

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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This book is highly readable. While it may appear that I am damning with faint praise, that is not my intention. This book is readable because, despite being filled with topics and characters that do not automatically appeal to me, I was interested and invested from page one. Had this book not been written by Emily St. John Mandel I probably would have glanced at the dust jacket and gone on my merry way, but since it was written by her I knew that I […]

Station Eleven

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I am late to the posting game but finished Station Eleven soon after Spring Break. I chose this book because it was a Cannonball Read book and already had it in my Kindle. I honestly only remembered it took place in a sort of post apocalyptic world when I began reading it. Of course I started reading the novel in the middle of the pandemic and realized it started with a flu which made me question my choice to have it be my first social […]

“The lights will come back on someday…and then we’ll all finally get to go home.”

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I am not saying anything you don’t already know when I tell you that this book is simply amazing. I first read this book back for CBR6 (and shockingly — I think I was the first review of it!!), and recommended it to everyone I knew for months afterwards. I bought copies of it for birthdays, and housewarmings, and hostess gifts. I participated in the very first #cannonbookclub. I thought about getting a Survival is Insufficient tattoo. I was all about this book. And I […]



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