Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Corona Days

Honor Thy Father by Gay Talese

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost

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After two-plus years of successfully evading the coronavirus, it finally caught up to me last week. Fortunately, my symptoms were mild (vaccinated and boosted), the only one lingering was fatigue. That and family responsibilities left me little time to write reviews this past week. So I decided to put these three here instead of my monthly dump because they were all worthy of longer reviews, two good, one damn fine. Honor Thy Father **** One of the things that made The Sopranos such an excellent television […]

The Near Perfect Read Does Exist

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

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I have not had the best of luck when authors whose work I enjoy recommend other stuff; I was definitely uncertain about Seanan McGuire’s recent recommendation since some of her tastes (inclination towards horror specifically) do not match my own. However, Legends and Lattes went on $1 sale for Kindle, and I figured, why not at least try it, it sounds like it might be ok. It was not ok; it was perfect (almost). Legends and Lattes takes a lot of very standard tropes but […]

Cool premise, questionable tone

Midnight Riot / Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

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The “Rivers of London” series has been on my TBR for a long time. It’s billed as X-Files meets Harry Potter in London, and you might as well call it RaRa Catnip and be done. A work assignment relating to Mysteries in May finally gave me the push to read it – well, to listen to the audio on Libby. Peter Grant is a Probationary Constable, waiting for his long-term assignment after training. He’s hoping to be a detective with the Met, but the odds […]

Cute fantasy romances that avoid being saccharine

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

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For the last year, my favourite books list has included a mixture of “cozy” and “weird”. It’s hard to get me in the mood for something too traditional; I’m enjoying books with romantic elements but get frustrated by lack of non-relationship plot; and I think nothing will ever live quite up to my euphoric feelings of “wtf” with Harrow the Ninth. A friend recommended Paladin’s Grace to me and I am so grateful for that! I devoured it and the sequel, Paladin’s  and am disappointed Scribd and […]

Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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I was in the mood for escape and The Folk of the Air series really delivered for me. It is a flawed series, and I’ll mention a bit of that as I look at the individual books, but I found it a delicious treat at the end of some pretty long days. The Cruel Prince, the first book in the series, introduces us to Jude, Taryn, Vivienne, Cardan, and other key players who feature throughout the trilogy. Jude, Taryn, and Vivi are children when we […]

Refrigerators have stories too

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast V05 The Great Caper Caper by Josh Funk

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There is a fifth book in the Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast series. This treat is called The Great Caper Caper. Yes, you read that right, there is a not so pleasant caper in our midst, and they are going to get our Lady and Sir into a sticky situation. Josh Funk adds the humorous text; Brendan Kearney adds the humorous illustrations to the mystery you will read. When the light in the fridge is missing, everyone fears they will be in near darkness […]



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