Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

About lafocareta

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Reader, writer, reviewer, library worker, amateur musician, cat mom. First time to this particular rodeo, and happy to be here.

lafocareta's Reviews:

TL;DR: Everybody Needs Therapy

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

by 1 Comment

Either of these books could count for the Justice square, but I’m putting Ballad on “Justice,” and Sunrise on “And,” because it’s the second of the prequels. I didn’t read these books when they were first released because The Hunger Games was the perfect trilogy, and it shattered me so hard I didn’t want to go back into that world. Especially after 2016 and….*gestures broadly at everything* One of my co-workers, however, insisted that I really needed to read them. If you’re a librarian, and […]

This Guy Doesn’t Want to Rule the World, But He Will

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

by 1 Comment

This book fills the CBR18 Bingo square “versus,” in the sense of “person versus society.” Or, in this case, “half-goblin versus society of pure-blood elves.” Maia is the half-goblin in question. He’s in line for the imperial throne, but VERY far down. Like, so far down, the emperor has him living way out in the middle of nowhere. So far down that the only way Maia could possibly become emperor is if the entire lineage were to die in an airship crash, which, pffbt, never […]

The Audiobook Was Better

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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Back before the hype blew up around The Correspondent, I tried to read it in print and had to quit after a few pages: the pacing was too slow for me and the MC wasn’t interesting enough to follow along with. After it became popular, reading it became a professional obligation, I decided to try the audiobook. This is my favorite strategy for books that aren’t wowing me in print, but that Must Be Read for whatever reason. It worked.  What seemed dreary and tedious on […]

Technically Not A Mystery, But I’ll Allow It

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

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Perspective is everything. To many readers, this may very well be a mystery. Reading as a disaster bisexual, however, my take was very different. The mystery is no mystery to me as a queer person, and I’m willing to bet a silk pajama that every single queer person who reads the book can determine who the killer is almost immediately. Why? How? If you know, you just know. (I could be wrong, obviously. Queer folks aren’t a monolith. But I’ll still take the bet every […]

To Be Young, Bewildered, and Black

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

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Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry, whose famous aphorism popped into my head more than once while I was reading The Wilderness.  Flournoy has given us a portrait of young Black women’s struggle to make meaning, starting in their twenties and progressing to middle age. These women are, indeed, gifted in many ways, but it doesn’t spare them the journey we all take from youth to maturity. Their Blackness means the challenges are different, and sometimes greater. “Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness” by mypubliclands is licensed under CC BY […]

Mother, Daughter, Friend

The Brittle Age by Donnatella Di Pietrantonio

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In 1997, in the hills of Abruzzo, Italy, a shepherd assaulted three women while ostensibly helping them find a hiking trail. Two of the women died, but the third survived. This chilling crime, which you can read more about here, is the nucleus of The Brittle Age, Donnatella Di Pietrantonio’s somber meditation on trauma and resilience. “Italian Quilt” by Mikeachim is licensed under CC BY 2.0 . The story begins, however, in 2020, with Lucia, whose daughter Amanda, has come home from college because of COVID […]



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