Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search

About Tracy

CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR18 Participant
CBR18 Levels

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

Tracy's Reviews:

Skillful Language, Elusive Impact

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

by Leave a Comment

You can read this book quickly, but don’t. Take your time. This book calls for attention. There is so much wordplay, sometimes intricate and subtle, which calls for re-reading sentences or paragraphs. I’m sure that I missed quite a bit both because of the depth of wordplay and because I only have so much patience, but the authors are just so skillful in their use of language (e.g., “Who’s infecting whom? We know from our hoarse Trojans, in my time”). The novella follows Red and […]

Intro to the Grishaverse

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

by Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to read the Six of Crows duology and decided to start with the Shadow and Bone trilogy so I’d be more familiar with the Grisha and could enjoy references to past events. I was a little hesitant because a lot of people don’t seem to like the trilogy, but I enjoyed it. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was fun. I thought the pacing was pretty good throughout, and I appreciated the mix of plot-focused and character-driven story. In Shadow and Bone, we […]

Historical Fiction With Fantastical Flair

Babel by R. F. Kuang

by 1 Comment

This is definitely more historical fiction than it is historical fantasy, though the fantasy elements are integral to the story. In this way, Babel is similar to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, to which it’s hard not to make comparisons as both are set in England in the 1800s and involve magic. It was a good book but not the 5-star read I was expecting after having heard so much about it. Babel tells the story of Robin Swift, who was born in China and […]

An Unsettlingly Realistic Satire

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

by Leave a Comment

Just a few pages into Yellowface, and I was like, wow, June needs therapy. She’s thinking about how Athena must like her company because June isn’t a literary threat to her, and June goes on to write, “Don’t we all want a friend who won’t ever challenge our superiority, because they already know it’s a lost cause? Don’t we all need someone we can treat as a punching bag?” Um, no, June, we don’t, and that’s not a healthy thing to think. The novel is […]

Faerie Lore, Dangerous Quests, and Romance

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

by Leave a Comment

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries I am impressed by the breadth of research and creativity that went into this adventurous fantasy. There is so much information about faeries from all over, and some of it is provided almost as an aside, like a mention that Maltese fae are “more troublesome than average, having an unfortunate habit of creeping into houses at night to feast upon slumberers’ vital organs.” This kind of knowledge being tossed off in such an offhand way fits with the main character […]

I’m Starting To Realize I Love Sentient Houses and Fictional Footnotes

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

by Leave a Comment

Alix E. Harrow has done it again. She is such a skillful writer, and I raced through this book to see discover the answers behind Starling House and see how everything would end. The book is told from dual perspectives. Most of it is first person narration by Opal, a woman in her 20s living in Eden, Kentucky, and trying to keep her and her brother Jasper afloat. Her one and only goal is to get him out of Eden. The second perspective is 3rd […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo