Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Please inhale, Ted Chiang

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

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In both Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” and its cinematic adaptation, the 2016 film Arrival, the protagonist’s story appears out of order. You read (or watch) the narrative as though you are seeing someone put together an intricate puzzle, and it’s not until one critical piece of knowledge— the central conceit of the story — slots into place that you can understand the correct order of events, backwards and forwards. Reading “Story of Your Life” on its own, I loved it. So, I sought […]

My friend is always making me read science fiction

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

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CBR17Bingo – “Recommended” because this book was recommended to my by my friend. Most of my book club is composed of a bunch of lawyers. However, there is one, lonely electrical engineer among us who is constantly recommending science-fiction novels that are met with a varying amount of acceptance. She has recommended a number of Hugo-award-winning novels to me that I have intensely disliked, so I don’t completely trust her judgment. So, when she loaned me another science-fiction book to read and said she didn’t […]

Ted Chiang is our best argument for a STEAM education

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

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CBR16 BINGO: Celestial, because the first story is about humans building a tower into the heavens Four years ago I fell in love with Ted Chiang’s short story collection Exhalation, and I’ve finally made good on the promise to myself to read Stories of Your Life and Others. If you’ve read any of his work, you won’t be shocked to hear that this is the most moving, inventive, and thought-provoking collection I’ve read in years. Ted Chiang, a graduate of Brown University with a B.S. […]

“Pretend that you have free will.”

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

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If you love science fiction and want something really different, this might be the best thing you read all year. Exhalation is a series of science fiction short stories with inspirations ranging from ancient Arab storytelling traditions to Monty Python sketches. I know this because Chiang provides a brief commentary at the end of many of the stories as to how it came about. As you might imagine, this diversity of inspirations creates an enormous variety in the stories. You might follow a portal to […]

Return from Vacation – Various books!

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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I’ve just returned from our family vacation – where me, my husband and daughter caught Covid (there’s not many great times to catch Covid, but catching it while staying with your extended family in a vacation rental is definitely a supremely shitty time to catch Covid). My brain still feels a bit foggy, but as I return I’m excited to read all the posts about CBR Bingo. I am going to post my reviews from vacation reads (all completed after July 15) and claim their […]

Exhalation

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

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I am a big Ted Chiang fan, and this collection did not disappoint.  I found it a bit more uneven than Stories of Your Life and Others, but the good ones are really good.  I don’t want to talk about each story, but I do want to talk about my three favorites! The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate: Time travel, historical Middle East setting, alchemy?  Sign me up.  This was a really heartfelt story that hit all the right notes for me.  I love how […]



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