Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“Nightmares do come true, but never in the shape you expect.”

Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams

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Shoutout to BookPage, the free monthly magazine found at all my local libraries, for recommending Taylor Adams’ Hairpin Bridge. This isn’t a book I would have picked up on my own, so it was exciting to expand my horizons with new-to-me author and a darker read than I’m used to. Overall this was a well-written, taut thriller with something meaningful to say about grief. The story begins like all good stories – in a diner. Lena Nguyen, a loner in her twenties, is seeking closure […]

“I think about the future a lot.”

Kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich

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A while ago, I deaccessioned a lot of my comics/graphic novels, and now years later am reaccessioning the ones that I realized I really do want. Kimmie66 is one of those. I am a lifelong fan of Aaron Alexovich’s other series, Serenity Rose, and this is in somewhat of the same vein tonally. Kimmie66 is set in a near future where there are immersive VR worlds (“lairs”) that people spend large amounts of their lives in. Telly is 14 and her lair is Elysium, a […]

“In headlines and news copy, we call them “the mentally ill.” In truth, they are our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters. They are us.”

While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

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This book was the selection for my local library book club and they came out swinging with a real heartbreaker for the first selection for our new year. It’s the first non-fiction that I can remember us readingnand rife for discussion. It is so raw and sad but well written that you’ll read past the point where your heart can take it. I was gripped by her storytelling but eventually had to take a break (see also my review of Kevin Kwan’s Lies and Weddings which […]

“You can bid your parents farewell without forgiving them. You don’t have to love them.”

A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad's an Alcoholic by Mariko Kikuchi

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The translation of autobiographical manga has been a wonderful side effect of the overall boom in popularity of manga/anime. The original manga boom in the early 2000s overlooked memoir, but as the market has matured and the comics boom has entered a new phase, memoir is finally being translated in the US, which is a real treat for me. A Life Turned Upside Down is a very sad and graphic memoir that explores the impact of having an alcoholic father, especially when everyone around the child […]

My Whackadoo brain found some cool reads

Murderbot Diaries V02 Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Hilo Book 6: All the Pieces Fit by Judd Winick

This is How I Disappear by Mirion Malle

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My mood this week and reading has been all over this week. I found three different genres to get me through it. Not only have I done a crap tone of picture books just for the quick read, I had to find humor, serious, and a mixture of the two. I finished Murderbot Diaries V02 Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. I prefer the first one but did like the ending where Murderbot makes an interesting realization about how they have always just waited and “cleaned […]

Another book with an interesting concept that meandered aimlessly and ran full steam ahead into despair

Anthem by Noah Hawley

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The summary of this book may sound morbid, and it may be odd that it drew me in, but here we are.  I like a mystery. Here is what my library’s audiobook / ebook app had as a synopsis: Suddenly and without precedent or explanation, something awful has been happening to teenagers across the globe, forcing parents to face a lonely future without their children.  At the site of each loss, there lies a cryptic message, A11, which may be the clue to solving the […]



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