Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About Jen K

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I’ve been around off and on since the first year of CBR, and it and books have been a constant in my life through multiple moves and a major career change. I live with 3 cats, Dany, Jace and Jorah. Fantasy, specific types of sci-fi, historical fiction (especially mysteries) and romance tend to be my go to genres now a days. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jen K's Quick Questions interview.)

Jen K's Reviews:

Reclaiming a city from past memories

The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn

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Bingo Square: Repair (the best man tasks Layla with fixing things when the bride gets cold feet) Quote: Being an even moderately aware adult in the twenty-first century had taught Layla that pretty much every billionaire belonged in prison, or at the very least kept in some kind of island confinement with other billionaires, where they could circle-jerk each other all day with their evil, society-destroying ideas. This romance novel was such a joy. I mean, I shouldn’t have been surprised – Kate Clayborn consistently […]

Killing time between planes

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin

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Bingo Square: Or (this collection explores alternate planes of existence and inter-dimensional travel) Quotes: “Although his campaign had become increasingly outspoken against “godless” and “foreign” elements of Obtrian society, many Astasa voted for him. They wanted a strong leader, they said. They wanted a man who would stand up against the Vens and restore law and order to the cities, which were suffering from overpopulation and uncontrolled mercantilism.” – from “Woeful Tales from Mahigul” “the Islai had been strong on practical physics, agriculture, architecture, urban […]

A favorite that just gets better

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

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Bingo Square: One (first book of the Daevabad trilogy) This was my third time reading this novel (book club picked it), and I swear I enjoy this series more every time I read it (I haven’t actually reread the other two yet). This was one of those series I kept seeing and then hesitating to start because I think we have all been burned by fantasy trilogies not maintaining their quality but then decided to read once the whole trilogy was available and burned through […]

More French Werewolves

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan

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Bingo Square: Season (winter) While this is currently a stand alone, I think it could work well as a series. In fact, in some ways, I think I would even like this book more as the first in a series than a stand alone. While it’s a longer novel than your average late 2000s/early-to-mid 2010s urban fantasy novel, it has the same feel as some of the first books in many of those series. Think The Dresden Files or Kate Daniels – there are some […]

I was promised a coven and all I got was a middle aged woman filled with internalized misogyny

Go Gentle by Maria Semple

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Bingo Square: Wealth (there’s a bunch of super rich characters whose wealth and privilege is never truly reckoned with) And the streak continues … I swear, I like reading and books but it is easier to articulate my thoughts on the ones that are flawed, and I do feel like I have been reading a larger than usual amount of books that aren’t working for me. Am I getting worse at picking books (this one was a book club choice, though), am I extra critical […]

Sparse yet dreamy atmosphere

The Wolf and his king by Finn Longman

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Bingo Square: You (one of the novel’s POVs is 2nd person) I quite enjoyed this novel. It has a kind of dreamy quality to the writing; it’s a queer retelling of a 12th century French werewolf story, and it has a bit of barebones feel to the storytelling that makes it feel like a fairy tale and transports the reader back to an older time. The chapters alternate between “Him” (Bisclavret), “You” (the king), and “Other” (the wolf). Bisclavret has lived with his curse his […]



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