Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About esme

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Loves to read. Loves to travel. Doesn't get to do either enough.

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A world-building amuse-bouche

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

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This is a delightful amuse-bouche of a book! I haven’t really read novellas before, but I really enjoyed how Nnedi Okorafor sketched a fascinating ‘working’ world (well, universe) in just a few pages. The brushstrokes created a lovely, multisensorial universe and a few interesting characters that I assume are more fleshed out in other works. Texture and smell and color and sensation were all integral to the story. Binti, the heroine, comes from an isolated desert community, and, at 16, she runs away from home […]

Oh moon, oh stars, You heal the languor of the souls and minds…

Seven Shakespeares, Volume 1 by Harold Sakuishi

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I downloaded this manga on a whim and it really paid off! Seven Shakespeares by Harold Sakuishi has a unique arc – depicting Shakespeare’s Lost Years between 1585 and 1592. As Sakuisi notes, in 1585, “We have a young man (with children) from a small village who had received no education sufficient to be a man of letters…and then we have the greatest poet of the age…” – so what happened? The prologue centers on the enactment of Hamlet and the political powers for and […]

The front seat is for people who’ve never been kidnapped by bloody numpties.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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Oh what fun!  This was such a delightful read during the grim darkness of winter. I have read a few books by Rainbow Rowell that I really loved and one that didn’t work for me. When Carry On popped up at the library, I was looking for something frothy and fun and escapist, and I had no expectation about the story. I could not have chosen a better book. Simon Snow, a 17 year old boy, is the most powerful wizard ever, but he is […]

“Alexa looked down into her coffee again, gazing into the dark brown liquid like it was Dumbledore’s Pensieve”

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

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The Wedding Date, by Jasmine Guillory, is a delightful romcom that doesn’t shy away from some of the tough work involved in interracial relationships. Alexa calls Drew on his privilege many times in the book, and Drew demonstrates that he’s learning. These issues come up throughout the book, but not in a preachy way – in a way that shows a relationship growing and trust developing. Briefly, Alexa and Drew ‘meet cute’ in an elevator, which sets the stage for a fake relationship. Their chemistry […]

“We’re meant to go. We’re not meant to stay forever.”

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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Holiday reading is my favorite, and I was fortunate to have a rip-roaring book to tear through this holiday. I was also pleased, per the title of this post, that it ended and it will not continue as a duology or trilogy. Naomi Novik developed an imaginative world populated with  interesting characters and an engaging story. I’m quite sure the characters continued living their lives after I closed the book, but I am also happy that all necessary loose ends were wrapped up so satisfactorily. Briefly, Agnieszka […]



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