Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Write Your Way Out

Never Say You Can't Survive by Charlie Jane Anders

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I felt a little guilty when I was notified that I had been granted an advance reader copy of Charlie Jane Ander’s essay collection, Never Say You Can’t Survive. I am not a writer and I have no aspirations to be a writer. I have no qualifications for judging this book. However, I have never let a lack of qualifications get in my way of judging things. The short version is, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any creative person. I have […]

“We look after each other.”

The Companion by E.E. Ottoman

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This book is the equivalent of drinking a hot cup of tea while sitting on a screened-in porch full of plants: it’s as cozy, gentle and relaxing as the cover suggests. Demoralized by the publishing industry in late 1940s New York City, Madeline accepts an invitation to be a companion for Victor in upstate New York. He’s a mystery writer who inherited a large house and enough money where he never has to leave it: he gets his groceries and newspaper delivered. But spending all […]

“F**k you this is hilarious.”

Texts from Jane Eyre by Daniel M. Lavery

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That ^ is Roxane Gay’s entire review of the Texts from Jane Eyre on Goodreads and it cracked me right up. The book is currently rated an average of 3.61 stars out of 5, so I assume that’s what she’s referring to. Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favourite Literary Characters (and also their authors, just so’s you know), is based on the feature of the same name (the first part of the name) from The Toast. The feature askes: if literary […]

Excellent recommendation, definitely second!

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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Thank you for the rec, Mobius_Walker! My thought while reading this was omg this would make an AMAZING Pixar movie. And then I was like, too bad we already have Coco. And then I was like HOLD UP, WAIT A SECOND, THAT’S SOME INGRAINED THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE-ISM SPEAKING. I stand by my original thought. This movie would make for an INCREDIBLE animated movie, specifically, because when you’re in the realm of animation you can really imbue a world with realism while not being […]

I Wanted to be the Enchantress of the Woods, Beautiful, Powerful , and Wild

The Companion by E.E. Ottoman

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I joke sometimes that I wish I could turn into my great grandmother with her big kitchen table at which she turned produce into preserves with such competence. EE Ottoman’s The Companion is really tapping into that desire. It’s also reminding me that Granny canned fruits and vegetables so that her family would have enough to eat, not because she thought it was fun. Set in 1949, Madeline Slaughter is on her way to a small town in up-state New York, exhausted and demoralized from trying […]

Support trans youth. Believe trans youth. Love trans youth.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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Holy crap. Stop reading this review and just go read this book instead. Trust me. Okay, you’re still here. Fine. Yadriel wants to prove himself to his family. Prove himself as a brujo, as a capable addition to the family business, and, most importantly, as a man. Yadriel is a young, high school aged trans boy in a family of brujxs. The men are all brujos who help spirits cross over to the afterlife, and the women are brujas who heal those still living. Yadriel is […]



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