Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Does everyone suck? Well, at least they have magic

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

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BINGO – Bird – As in, birds of a feather flock together Six of the best magicians are invited to join The Alexandrian Society which protects all of the knowledge of the Library of Alexandria. Six are invited to live and study at the Library, but only five will make the cut after two years. Nico and Libby are both physicist magicians who can control the forces of nature like fire, waves, and the physical aspect of things. Parisa is a telepath. Callum is an […]

The Language of Thorns

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

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Absolutely fantastic. This was so good I didn’t want it to end. Bardugo does an excellent job with the stories and Kipin’s illustrations evokes the fairy tale setting and characters so well. I may just buy this in hardback for the illustrations alone. These stories are a great blend of retellings as well as something darker that leaks into each story that makes it just as much a cautionary tale as Grimm’s original fairy tales. Here are my ratings for all of the stories, but […]

Does a mama shark tell her kiddo to wait 30 minutes before swimming?

Mother of Sharks by Melissa Cristina Marquez

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I was lucky and recently had Mother of Sharks by Melissa Cristina Marquez fall into my lap (well, in my hands). Not due until late May/early June 2023, Marquez’s story is one we all need to know as it is not just about a woman, or a woman of color, or about science, or the ocean. It is all of that and a fun book to boot. Taking fiction and fact, she tells her story through the eyes of a young girl. We do not […]

When your big sister starts liking books with KISSING in them, and mist creatures want to kidnap her

Sisters of the Mist by Marlyn Spaaij

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Sisters of the Mist can be summarized as a story “where trolls lurk in the mossy spaces between tree trunks and changelings scamper about” but there is more than that. It is a simple look at coming of age with a magical twist and a few turns. Not to mention some mud holes, a foggy swamp and a couple of scary creatures. Marlyn Spaaij has us follow three sisters at various stages of their youth and young adulthood and Tunde Vollenbroek is credited as a […]

Never Trust the Fae

Stars, Hide Your Fire by Kel McDonald, Jose Pimienta

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Somewhere in Massachusetts, two best friends, Darra and Andrea, struggle with the reality of growing up and growing apart. As they start high school and consider their futures, one wants to stay put while the other can’t wait to get away, which inevitably strains their friendship. When they break into an abandoned, supposedly haunted factory and the ghostly woman trapped there offers one of them eternal youth, they accidentally unleash something sinister on their unsuspecting small town. I really liked this one, which is unsurprising […]

Angry Mothers Raise Daughters Fierce Enough to Fight Wolves

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

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Reviews for the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo! I’m reviewing in the order they were published, but they are connected by place rather than plot, and can be read in any order.   The Empress of Salt and Fortune Chih is a cleric of the Singing Hills Monastery who travels the world to catalog, record, and document histories. Rabbit is the former servant of the exiled empress In-Yo. As Chih catalogs the contents of Rabbit’s house, Rabbit shares with them bits of stories related […]



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