Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


It’s never too late for a comeback

Awake by Jen Hatmaker

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I think I may have first seen Awake (2025) by Jen Hatmaker on NYT’s Best Books of the Year List. I’m a fan of memoirs, and the blurb caught my attention. So, I borrowed the Audiobook from my library and gave it a listen. Jen Hatmaker woke up in the middle of the night in July 2020. Her husband was in bed next to her, declaring into his phone that he loved another woman. At this point, they had five children and had been married for twenty-six […]

Fake Flame revisited with my ears

Fake Flame by Adele Buck

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I read and reviewed Adele Buck’s Fake Flame in April, 2024. When I saw an advance listener copy narrated by Moniqua Plante available on NetGalley I smashed the request button. I love being able to revisit books as audiobooks because I will notice different things, and plot points will hit differently in different formats. Moniqua Plante’s narration is warm and friendly, perfect for this lowish stakes, thoroughly adult romance. My favorite thing about Fake Flame, in any format, is that it’s romance for grownups. Eva […]

Why Giant Companies and Government Policies Suck

Enshitification by Cory Doctorow

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In a nutshell: Journalist Doctorow explores how technology is getting worse and offers ideas for what can be done to reverse the trend. Best for: Anyone is real tired of shit like having to subscribe to be able to print something from a printer they own. Quote that made me think: “Companies abuse you if they can get away with it. That’s the crux of enshitification” “A world without regulation is a catastrophe.” Why I chose it: It’s been catching my eye every time I’m […]

Traveling back into Viv’s world was a cozy reminder of why I love to read

Bookshops and Bonedust (prequel to Legends and Lattes) by Travis Baldree

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If you read my review of Legends and Lattes, you’ll know that this series is cozy. This one’s a little less cozy, because it’s Viv (the green orc) pre-coffee shop and mid-mercenary. She gets stabbed in the leg badly enough that her group basically leaves her in a town to recuperate until they come back around to get her. For a while Viv can’t walk or do much, and she gets really really bored. Once she can move around a little bit though, she walks […]

Found family with a little magic

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

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I saw A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping (2025) by Sangu Mandanna on NPR’s Favorite Books List. Books with witches and whatnot are not usually my thing, but I’ve found some good books on NPR and I didn’t want to be too close-minded. So, I got the audiobook from my library for a low commitment read while commuting. If I had to describe this book in four words, I would say it is quiet, sweet, uplifting, and funny. At the beginning of the book, Sera Swan is a […]

“I wasn’t just going to abandon you, Carl,” Donut said. “Who do you think I am? Miss Beatrice?”

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

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Carl, Donut and Mongo have made it to the fourth level of the dungeon. This time, there are trains. So many trains. The game appears to have constructed a labyrinthine tangle of all of the world’s underground railway systems, and there are new and strange rules to get used to. There are bounties awarded to anyone who kills any of the players in the top ten, which now include both Carl and Donut. There are all manner of strange monsters on the various trains and […]



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