Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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100+ chapters never went by quicker

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

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After finishing this one, I thought, “well that was a sweet little horror novel.” I’m not sure I can verbalize why sweet is the best word, but it really is. Maybe it’s Mary Robinette Kowal’s subtle hints of humor alongside the terror in her voice as she narrates Iðunn (pronounced Ethun) in Knútsdóttir’s novella. I rooted for Iðunn and was horrified alongside her as events unfolded. I wanted Iðunn to wake up feeling refreshed, not like she just walked 5 miles or wrestled a bear. […]

A classic I don’t care to remember

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

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This is a part of my quest to read those books I feel like everyone had to read in high school, but somehow I didn’t. My goal? To know what people are talking about when they reference this book, and to hopefully understand the source material for some pop culture references. Well, now that I’ve finished the book, I realize I overestimated the pop-cultural currency this book contained. I don’t feel like there were moments where I said, “THAT’S where that came from!” And I […]

Read this before the movie comes out – because you’ll want to consume both!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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If you liked Andy Weir’s first novel, The Martian, then Project Hail Mary won’t disappoint as another witty, funny, creative sci-fi adventure. Suspend your belief for this one, as moments of sudden clarity, synchronicity, and serendipity abound. But in order to save the world, everything has to fall perfectly into place, and I was here for it! In some ways, Weir’s protagonist, Ryland Grace, is an everyman archetype – an unassuming middle school teacher with no real drama or intrigue in his life. But in […]

Space Horror Lite

Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes

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I was going to say this was a first for me in terms of genre: space horror. But now that I think about it, I was introduced to space horror in the 90’s when I went in cold to see Event Horizon and walked out of the theater in horrified silence. THAT shit was space horror. But we’ll take it down a notch and talk about Ghost Station, which is set on an alien planet with a long lost civilization. We follow a team of […]

A new spin on an old idea

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

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Moreno Garcia does an amazing job setting the right mood in this newer gothic tale. Set in Mexico in the 1950’s, you forget that the world is more modern than what Noemi Taboada experiences. Having grown up in Mexico City to an affluent family, Noemi’s life is more about finding a worthy suitor and getting married than education or developing skills to join the workforce. Despite this, Noemi is a confident, charming, smart woman who would like to study at the University. While she enjoys […]

Ridiculous, as expected

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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Grady Hendrix and I have an on-again off-again relationship. I didn’t like Horrorstor, but I appreciated the premise and the book itself in terms of the illustrations included. I enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House enough that I decided to try The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and give him another chance. I will give him credit for being an author that I picked a random book from because of name recognition. So there’s that working in his favor. But we are […]



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