Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side.

Blood Sisters: Vampire Stories by Women by Paula Guran, editor

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As a reminder, I was really interested in reading vampire fiction before Halloween, and this book of short stories, cobbled together by Paula Guran, was a really wonderful sampler. There are about 25 stories ranging in eras from the early 1600s with Catherine of Aragon and Henry VII, vampire slayers, to a dystopian future where teenagers decide to ‘just do it’ and become vampires to rush the inevitable. The anthology is organized by era and showcases a wide variety of world-building concepts, tones, geographies, and […]

Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

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Shortly before Halloween, I was struck by the desire to read vampire books. I don’t think I had read any for years (although I have read many of the ‘classics’ including Dracula (obviously), Interview with a Vampire, Salem’s Lot, etc.), so I wanted a ‘fresh’ approach when I was searching. I was limited by what was available to download from our library, but ended up scratching this particular itch quite satisfactorily. Sunshine came several weeks after Halloween and I had completely forgotten why it attracted […]

“You ladies read a strange assortment of books,” James Harris said. “We’re a strange assortment of broads,” Kitty replied.”

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

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In one word: Disappointing Cannonball Read Bingo: Libations Alright y’all. I am here with a story of heartbreak. I absolutely ADORED Grady Hendrix’s 2016 “My Best Friend’s Exorcism.” I judged it by its cover immediately as it was styled to look like an old VHS tape, so I was sold from jump. Set in the 80s, it was a seamless blend of horror, humor, and coming of age, a book that I fell into completely and had on my best of the year list. I […]

World War V: Part III

City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

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This is the third and final novel in Cronin’s vampire trilogy (or as I like to think of it: Cronin’s vampire trilogy for people who actually aren’t too fussed on vampires but just enjoy a big epic story). The first novel, ‘The Passage’, introduced us to the vampire plague and then jumped forward 100 years as the last vestiges of humanity desperately try to hold on to their grip on the world. The second novel, ‘The Twelve’, showed how the best and worst of humanity […]

World War V: Part II

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

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The first book in this series, The Passage (my previous review), has forced me to do something I haven’t done in a long time: commit to a trilogy. A proper, lengthy, complex trilogy. I can’t remember the last time a series got its hooks into me so well. Quite a few of my cannonball reviews over the years have covered off on the first of a series. Gideon the Ninth, The Hatching, The Mummy Bloggers… None of these compelled me to continue. But Cronin’s epic vampire epidemic series […]

Dracula sucks…but the book doesn’t!

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Dracula sucks but the book doesn’t. I go through phases of reading classics or otherwise tackling books with reputations of being difficult. Sometimes it’s easy to see why books are classics – they’re timeless and engrossing. A Tale of Two Cities is that way for me. So is Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Other times the classics feel like archaeological work. The reader is excavating and extrapolating. Dracula felt like work to me, but the reader can definitely appreciate the book’s influence on future work. In particular, […]



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