I really wanted to like this little book. I thought it would be a fun story about what it was like to grow up in 1980s England, when The Smiths were first on the music scene. About musical fandom in the days before the internet and smartphones, when you had to find a reliable music shop that sold Melody Maker or NME imports just so that you could find out the tiniest bit of information about whatever group was the coolest back then. But this […]
In which Michael Stipe and Luke Skywalker team up to save the world.
I can’t remember when I first read World War Z. I think it was during CBR7, but maybe it was CBR6. It was a book I enjoyed, but I just never got around to reviewing it. I keep a list of all of the books that haven’t been reviewed since I started Cannonballing, but I don’t date them, and maybe I should. But I remember reading it quickly, and being surprised by what I found. I liked it a lot and was shocked at how […]
Oh, Rainbow. You and I really are kindred spirits.
I’m pretty sure that Rainbow Rowell and I are more or less the same age, give or take a year or two. We clearly see eye-to-eye when it comes to several things: depressing 80s new wave music from the UK, what it was like to go to high school in the time before the internet, and Star Wars. One of my first first clear memories is of my dad taking me into downtown Boston on a weekend (just me! no little brother! something special was going […]
David Tennant makes everything better.
Here’s something strange: last week I picked up two books at the library without really knowing what they were about. I just knew I heard “about” them and figured they would be a good way to pass a cold, rainy April weekend. What’s weird is that were pretty much the same story…just that one was way, way better than the other. Spoiler/trigger warning Both of these books deal with the rape of a high school student and the repercussions that follow. First lets get the […]