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:

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 […]

When someone tries to put all their ideas and research into one novel

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

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Bingo Square: Justice (there’s systemic oppression, a character unjustly punished for crime, ideas about legality vs morality) Southern Lit Book club is starting back up for the fall session and this was the first book. While I enjoyed The Help when it came out, I also think the later critiques were valid, and wasn’t exactly in a huge hurry for this one but book club was a nice excuse to read this. And it’s a bit of mixed reaction – it’s fine but I was […]

Generational trauma, made worse through institutional systems

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

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Bingo Square: Map (the father is a map maker) This book made me cry twice, I loved the way it tied back to history, and also how it explored the Great Hunger, showing the impact on families and the land. It also showed hints of the many complex themes throughout Irish history, some in conflict and some in conversation with each other, from the role of the old ways and the Catholic Church, class issues, colonization and the relationship with the English. There’s this large focus […]

I can feel it coming in the air tonight

A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman

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Bingo Square: Joker (Carl is chaos personified) Quote: “That’s the problem with hitting the elites financially. Every time you hurt one, all it does is make another richer. That won’t stop until the baskets overflow with their godsdamned heads.” Throughout the series, the beginnings of the new novels and floors have tended to act as resets and completely shift the tone. Book 3 went from everyone working together at the end of the Iron Tangle to being separated for the Bubbles; Book 5 to Book […]



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