Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. A comparative biography of Abraham Lincoln and his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination of 1860 – Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase and William H. Seward.
Spoiler: He dies in the end.
Category: Cannonball Read
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – Cannonball Read #5
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
The premise of this book is incredibly hipsterific. Pride and Prejudice with zombies! Awesome! Elizabeth Bennett, expert zombie killer? How cool will that be?
Not very.
Continue reading Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – Cannonball Read #5
Sonic Fyre Episode 4
Someday we really need to find a way to turn one of these podcasts around in less than a month. This podcast was originally recorded in the second week of December 2009. It was then burned to a series of wax records, placed in a steamer trunk and covered in concrete, thrown from the Golden Gate Bridge, buried in Pacific sediment, fossilized, left to sit for a geographic age, excavated by paleontologists, exhibited in the National Museum, and then stolen and placed on the Internet for your amusement. Enjoy.
>> 00:30 Benediction and movies talk. Fantastic Mr Fox. Sherlock Holmes pre-watching jitters. Everyone hates Avatar without ever seeing it.
>> 08:17 Books. Fyre talks about the Cannonball Read. Rob saw Twilight, which was based on a book.
>> 13:14 Recapping events at Ümloud.
>> 20:14 Games of the month. We talk TF2 and the Dante’s Inferno demo. Fyre tries to be Hater of the Week. Analog gaming is briefly mentioned.
>> 43:25 Rob talks about Madden NFL 2010 for ten Goddamned minutes straight. Rob earns the Hater and Lover of the Week titles simultaneously.
>> Music for this episode is “Fakeout” by Derek K. Miller
SonicFyre-Episode-4 MP3 57:52 70.4 MB
Sunshine – Cannonball Read #3
Sunshine by Robin McKinley. To quote Neil Gaiman “It’s not quite SF, and it’s not really horror, and only kind of a love story, and it’s all three while still being solidly Fantastique.”
Robin McKinley in my favorite author. There is no runner up, there is no debate. Since I first read The Hero and the Crown when I was about 14 I have devoured everything she has written. Sunshine not only did not disappoint, it blew my mind. Most of McKinley’s work is classified as Young Adult and this was her first book that was written for adult audiences. Not to say that adults can’t enjoy YA books, it’s my favorite genre, but this was her first book that was targeted directly at grown ups and featuring more material verging on an R-rating as well as being a more challenging read. I didn’t know that when I picked it up but I knew it before I was 20 pages in.
Why I haven’t been reading…
…and how I’m going to change it in three easy steps!!
I am behind on the Cannonball Read. The challenge is something like two and a half months old and I am supposedly on book three of fifty two.
Frankly, the holidays sucked and I gave in to the anxiety and the stress. But I’m not letting you down!! I’ve got two more books under my belt, reviews pending, a third in progress and two more queued up and ready to roll.
Here’s my plan –
Step 1) Read book
Step 2) Review book
Step 3) GOTO Step 1
With your faith and support, I can complete the Cannonball read!! Especially once I get off my duff and get the pages in.
-fyre
Stardust – Cannonball Read #2
Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Fantasy, Nouveau Fairytale.
Well, I love me some modern takes on the fairy tale and I love me some Neil Gaiman (Sandman is tha bomb!!!!) so this seemed a prefect choice. More tellingly, I love the movie based on this book. I thought I was set up to love this book but it left me lukewarm.
The book follows Tristran Thorn as he leaves the village of Wall on a quest to win his one true love’s heart. He has marvelous adventures in the land of Faerie and, it being a fairy tale, he wins through to his goal! This is all you really need to know before you read this book in terms of plot. Gaiman’s genius for unique characters is in full effect as he populates both Wall and Faerie with memorable personalities and conceptions of magic.
Fatherland – Cannonball Read #1
Fatherland by Thomas Harris. Alternate History, Mystery.
I love alternate history novels. Give me some Turtledove any day of the week and I’ll eat it up. So the premise of this novel was extremely attractive. Germany effectively won WWII and has Europe on a leash. The US is led by President Joe Kennedy. There is a guerilla war in the east against what is left of the Soviet Union. Continue reading Fatherland – Cannonball Read #1
Burning up Books
I – FyreHaar, the Magnificent and Bloodstained – do hereby sign up for the Cannonball Read II: Mother, May I read with Danger!?!
One Year
52 Books
200 Pages each, Minimum
No Graphic Novels
Read up on the contestants and their progress at Pajiba.