Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About GentleRain

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Your jack of all trades eccentric. Knows a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Tends to mainly read non-fiction (history, true crime, old gossip, etc), SF/F, horror, graphic novels, "genre" books. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: GentleRain's Quick Questions interview.)

GentleRain's Reviews:

“Demi-human, seek knowledge and grow wise.”

The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms by Nagabe

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First book of the year! This is a volume of short stories set in the same wizarding school for anthropomorphic animals (The Wizdom’s School of Wizarding). A long time ago, a wizard gave animals “the shape and intellect of a human,” creating demi-humans who now go to this wizarding school. The stories are all BL themed, although some of them just have a heavily flirty atmosphere or touch upon homoerotic themes instead of all of the characters ending up in romantic relationships. I enjoyed the […]

Final Reviews of the Year :)

Save Our Forest! by Nora Dasnes

Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer

Crush by Tegan Quin & Sara Quin (Words) and Tillie Walden (Art)

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It’s probably fitting for me to wrap up the year with another middle grade graphic novel review roundup, considering how many comics I read this year. This was a good reading year for me overall, even with the gap during the summer for all the academic article/textbook I had to do. I think I was able to lean into reading for pleasure and having less stress about what specifically I was reading, and as a result I read a lot of things that I enjoyed […]

“For I fear that the day when aliens reveal themselves to us fully will also become the first day of the end of life on Earth as we know it!”

UFO Mushroom Invasion by Shirakawa Marina

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This is the second book in Ryan Holmberg’s imprint of classic SF/horror manga from the 1970s/80s. I will say I enjoyed Her Frankenstein better but I thought UFO Mushroom Invasion was also interesting and had some striking moments that made me glad I read this. I do understand that smaller print books tend to be more expensive because they have smaller print runs and tighter economics to work out, but $19.95 is a tough price point for me here considering that most manga is ranging […]

“I think about the future a lot.”

Kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich

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A while ago, I deaccessioned a lot of my comics/graphic novels, and now years later am reaccessioning the ones that I realized I really do want. Kimmie66 is one of those. I am a lifelong fan of Aaron Alexovich’s other series, Serenity Rose, and this is in somewhat of the same vein tonally. Kimmie66 is set in a near future where there are immersive VR worlds (“lairs”) that people spend large amounts of their lives in. Telly is 14 and her lair is Elysium, a […]

BL and GL Mixed Bag Reviews

My Dearest Patrolman Vol. 1 by Niyama

My Dearest Patrolman Vol. 2 by Niyama

Boys Gilding the Lily Shall Die!? by Yomogimochi

No Spicy Romance Allowed! by Ruko Amato (Story) and Kuroe Oki (Art)

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I’m going to do some last minute reviews of books I’ve read in the last week before the end of the year, which has mainly been comics. I have been reading a bunch of nonfiction and other genres but I didn’t bring those home for Christmas to review them so we’ll go with what we have to wrap up this year of reviews. My Dearest Patrolman (Volumes 1 & 2) is a sweet BL series that follows Shin, a policeman who has been pining for […]

“You never leave jail, and jail never leaves you.”

I Don't Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup by David Chura

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I honestly don’t remember where I got this, but I think it was at a used bookstore this summer. I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine is a collection of stories of David Chura’s time teaching teenagers who were seen as adult criminals legally and were being put into the adult system. He covers a variety of scenarios and tells some very heartbreaking stories that he saw during his tenure as a teacher. His main thesis is that the system is destructive […]



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