Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“They have vegan cheese.” “No, they don’t. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for.”

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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I was looking for something light after a few dense reads and this came recommended by a friend as a fun romp for the brain, or in the author’s own words, a “pop song” of a book. Scalzi had me at page 21, with this hilarious exchange. “They have vegan cheese.” “No, they don’t. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for.” And yes, I know that vegan cheese certainly exists, but as a person who unabashedly loves […]

A warm, cozy, romantic story about magic and family.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu. Mandanna

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I’ve been wanting to read Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches for months. One of the reasons I decided to join the Diverse Baseline Challenge this year was to give myself permission to read the books I already have that are not arcs. The Very Secret Society fit one of the prompts for February, a book by a BIPOC author with found family. At the Cannonball Read 16 Romance Zoom Saturday night, I tried to explain why I love romance. Afterwards, I thought of how […]

Be Sure

Lost In the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

Mislaid In Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

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Keep up with your cardio; you never know when you might need to run away from a dinosaur. Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children novellas tell us about mysterious doors that appear to children in places no doors should be, with the words ‘Be Sure’ prominently displayed. And if that child, who usually doesn’t quite fit in their world, chooses to open that door and go through they will find a place more amazing than their wildest dreams. Usually the doors choose the right child, but not […]

“That look was the absolute truth. I know it the way you know things sometimes, bone-deep as loneliness, right in the living room of the heart.”

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela

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As I mentioned in my review of The Carrefour Curse there are two tasks in the 2024 Read Harder Challenge that are specifically about middle grades books. Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom is my selection for task 6: read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character. Right off the bat, this is a good book, in fact Nina Varela can write better than most authors I’ve come across in the past year or more. I just wish Middle Grades was an audience […]

Supernatural Education Lite

Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes

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I saw on the author’s social media somewhere that Drew Hayes’ Fred the Vampire Accountant series has one final volume due out after the one I had on my shelf, making Posthumous Education (Fred #8) the penultimate installation. It definitely shows; there is a lot of set up. Fred is called on a favor picked up about 5 volumes ago to a Fey queen, and all she wants him to do is take a temporary teaching job at the local parahuman institution of higher education, […]

“What I am is an adult woman with agency and the tools to make choices. Feel free to, you know, treat me accordingly.”

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

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Nowhere Book Bingo: One-word title CBR16 Sweet Books: Exciting (This was one of my most anticipated book releases of the first half of 2024) Misery Lark is the only daughter of a powerful vampyre councilman, and for much of her life, she lived among human strangers as a diplomatic hostage, to maintain the fragile peace between vampyres and humans. To make her a bit less lonely, an orphan named Serena came to live with her, and now that Misery is all grown-up, Serena is her […]



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