Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


About Tracy

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40-something psychologist living with a husband, preschooler, and 2 cats. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Tracy's Quick Questions interview.)

Tracy's Reviews:

Interesting From an Intellectual Standpoint

Making History by K. J. Parker

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Well this certainly had a unique premise. Our nameless narrator, top in his field of linguistics, along with 11 other top-of-their-field scholars, is voluntold by the tyrannical king of Aelia to create a city. The king wants an excuse to attack a neighboring country that won’t get pushback by the citizens of Aelia, so the group has to literally design and build an “ancient” city that can be “discovered,” complete with language, art, etc. While this is technically a fantasy, that label is based on […]

A Slight Disappointment and a Solid Continuation

Startup Hell by Caitlin Rozakis

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo

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Startup Hell This was a fun urban romantasy that satirizes office culture. Main character Morgan is working for Zabloom, a company whose CEO keeps changing what their product is. When her boss dies while summoning demon Lucareoth (Luke) to make a soul-exchange Deal, Lucareoth ends up freed from his salt circle and Morgan agrees to help him get home before he gets in trouble with his own boss. Things do not go as planned, and they end up needing to try to make a Deal […]

The Privilege of Time

Skipshock by Caroline O'Donoghue

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I really enjoyed this first book in a planned duology. At first it seems like a portal fantasy. Margo is heading to a boarding school in Ireland, when all of a sudden the train she is on changes, and she finds herself in a different world and in the company of salesman Moon. Chapters alternate POVs between Margo and Moon. In this reality, there are different worlds that all have different hours in a day, and people age faster as the day length shortens. The […]

My Second Tove Jansson and the Newest Murderbot

Platform Decay by Martha Wells

Fair Play by Tove Jansson

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Platform Decay by Martha Wells At this point, the Murderbot books are basically comfort reads. If you’ve read enough of them, you have a general idea of what’s going to happen and how things will end up, always accompanied by a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm from Murderbot. In this one, we start off with Murderbot tagging along with Three, another “rogue” SecUnit, at the start of a rescue mission. Said rescue mission goes awry pretty quickly, because this is a Murderbot book. At this point […]

Funny, Quirky, and Heartfelt

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

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What an underhyped gem this is. It’s funny, with quirky characters and an emotional core. Set in New Zealand, the book alternates the POVs of the titular siblings, who are biracial, gay, and living together as roommates. It’s a slice of life novel with a large focus on the main characters’ romantic and family relationships. This might be the funniest book I’ve read. Usually when I read something funny in a book I smile or just internally recognize that it’s amusing. It’s fairly uncommon for […]

Amal El-Mohtar Excels at Writing Fairy Tales

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

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I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and poems, most of which are based in science fiction and fantasy and heavily influenced by themes of oppression and freedom. Some of them hit more than others, as was expected, with my clear favorites being the ones that had the most fairy tale-like feel. I loved that sort of “tip of my tongue” feeling for one of them because El-Mohtar was drawing from existing tales, and I appreciated the way she could make them feel like […]



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