Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


cbr12bingo – Shelfie!

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

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What a treat, to have had this Wayfairers series at my fingertips (thank you again, CannonBookClub)! Now, what a drag to have to wait another year for another entry! Oh well, that’s what I get for loving things. Once again we’ve been thrown back into the same universe, but with a new (and hinted at) cast of characters: the sister of a main from the first entry, a teen desperate to escape, a person who cares for the dead, an intellectual explorer, a new kid in town, […]

“The planet was beautiful. The planet was horrible. The planet was full of people, and they were beautiful and horrible, too.”

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

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A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, grabbed my attention and did not let go. It was immersive, inclusive, and filled with all sorts of sentient beings with whom I was delighted to spend my time. It was not a book that I would have picked up on my own, but now I find myself barreling head-first further into the series. I was so excited to learn that it was a series; reading is the only way that I comfortably spend any “down time” […]

“burn before reading”

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El -Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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If this is what the Time War feels like, then I volunteer as tribute. This two-hander from Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone burns bright right in the center of your chest and dares you to put it out. Red and Blue are operatives on either side of a war that has been going on since before time existed and well past the end of the universe. They are fierce and wild warriors; brilliant minds matched with brilliant and sharp teeth. They claw their way through […]

Making me grateful to be locked down…

Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King

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When life gets a little tough for me, I tend to turn to non-fiction books about situations much worse than mine that people have survived – this usually helps to change my perspective a little and make me appreciate what I have, rather than what I don’t. Normally a dedicated introvert, even I have started to struggle a little with lockdown (helped by working from home) and so a little perspective adjusting was in order – this book fulfilled that perfectly. Skeletons on the Zahara […]

Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of a bloke trying to get down a mountain with his legs smashed

The Ogre: Biography of a mountain and the dramatic story of its first ascent by Doug Scott

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When I read this book we all lived in a different world – one where deciding to climb a dangerous mountain was more life-threatening than leaving your own house. Strange times we live in, folks… Anyhoo – the book. The Ogre is an account of one the people who did indeed try to climb the titular mountain, one that is apparently notorious amongst climbers for being extremely difficult. The first half of the book gives us an overview of the mountain, the region it inhabits […]

“What I mean to say is, the more you remember, the more you’ve lost.”

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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I thought I remembered much more of Station Eleven than I did; I had remembered it as a story of Kirsten and the Traveling Symphony and several scrapes with some religious extremists. I remembered Jeevan in the fortress of his brother’s tower. I remembered skulking through rotting schools and all-encompassing trees. What strikes me now is how immediately the sense of dread starts to kick in; there is no slow build; a statement about everything falling to pieces kicks in within the first chapter. Maybe […]



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