Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


This hasn’t helped me decide on the value of prequels

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

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I was inspired to read this book following Classic’s review of The Rose Field (scathing though it was). I have appreciated the His Dark Materials trilogy for a while, although I find the criticism of a very Christian normative form of organised religion hits differently from an Islamic perspective. The ideas of a authoritarian church-state read differently from a religious perspective where faith and society are enmeshed alternatively. I’ve not really been tempted to read the prequel books as I always find the liminal space […]

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

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Disclaimer: I think this will be the third time I have attempted participating in the Cannonball Read. My failures in the past are so frustrating to me because I easily read at least 50 books each year. It’s the reviews that are my stumbling block. I know it’s because I am intimidated, both by the intelligence of the Pajiba community and by my minimal skills with technology. This year, I’m trying to let that anxiety go. If my reviews sound like they were written by […]

Paladin’s Strength: Every tagline I think of is just fraught with spoilers.

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

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I read the second installment of the Saint of Steel series entirely on audiobook. I found listening to this book – in comparison to Paladin’s Grace – to be less grating, but it still suffered from a few of the things that I didn’t love about the first book in the series. There is so much going for this book – the characters are delightful; the inclusion of a big/tall/possibly fat woman as the FMC is amazing; the side characters are a joy; the secondary […]

A childhood idol turned into a real person

Say Everything by Ione Skye

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I was probably about twelve years old when I first watched Say Anything with John Cusack and Ione Skye, and it made a deep impression on me. In fact, it shaped my goals for most of my teenage years. I still have a very clear memory of Ione Skye’s character, Diane, marking every word that she looked up in her giant dictionary. I thought she was beautiful and smart, and I wanted to be just like her. In fact, because of Diane, I was intent on becoming […]

“You never willingly let anyone catch any glimpse of vulnerability.” She narrowed her eyes dangerously. “I believe you’re thinking of yourself now, General.” “No, I’m thinking of both of us.”

Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis

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I had to fight through thickets of bad formatting to read my advance reader copy, and there were a few times I decided to quit and read my copy when it arrived. But I kept picking it back up and then, I finished it! Because I worried that I had missed things, I requested an advance listener copy and listened to it after I finished reading it. So, yeah, I liked it enough to put up with headaches and inconveniences. Enchanting the Fae Queen is […]

Update on Paladin’s Grace: An unenthusiastic DNF; UNO reverse; DIF (Did Indeed Finish)

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

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After writing my original review, I kept wondering if a different format might suit me better for this book. So I borrowed the ebook, and wow did that make a world of difference. I could skip and skim the inner monologues until they lessened. A little after mid-way through the book, the plot really picked up, the two main characters started interacting more – with each other and with others that can knock some sense into them, other things started happening to keep them busy […]



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