Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Harry Potter and These Teachers Would Be Fired

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling My rating: 4 of 5 stars I started reading this book in an attempt to read all of the Harry Potter series with intention to look not only at the art of the writing but the message behind it all. What really stood out to me, instead, was the irresponsible, dangerous pedagogy at Hogwarts. Maybe starting out my twelfth year as a teacher, and the second year teaching during covid, really brought to light the pedagogy […]

A fantastical twist on the slave narrative

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates turns the slave narrative on its head. With his first fiction novel, Coates deftly melds together historical fiction with sci-fi fantasy. The novel follows the life of Hiram who we meet when he nearly drowns in the local river. Hiram is born a slave on a Virginia plantation, the son of the master. A story that’s all too common in history. His father made Hiram help his brother with his studies. Hiram has to hold his tongue and go […]

Bayou love and magical mischief

Love and Other Wild Things by Molly Harper

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Love and Other Wild Things is the second book in the Mystic Bayou series by Molly Harper. Said bayou deep in Louisana attracts magical beings. The town is near a mysterious rift that’s catnip to shifters, witches, and any other magic being that you name. Decades ago humans and magi settled in Mystic Bayou. They mostly live in harmony. Through the series, we meet scientists who have come to observe and research the unique place. In the first book, How to Date Your Dragon, an […]

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

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This one was fine! I liked the ending much better than I liked the first third or so. It was just, it was a lot of dramadrama, lots of characters, court politics, feelings, like a fairyland prime-time soap opera, and there’s a reason I don’t watch those anymore. But I did get pulled in as soon as Jude and Cardan started to interact more in a real way, because I am nothing if not a sucker for well-done enemies to lovers, and that part of […]

Fae trouble for Mercy Thompson

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

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After reviewing Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series last year, I  have come back for more with CBR13. I can’t seem to get enough! Mercy is a coyote shifter who lives in Washington working as a mechanic. She was raised by werewolves and attempted to strike out on her own. She keeps to herself mostly until she ends up tangled in werewolf business. Her neighbor happens to be the local were pack Alpha, Adam. With the first four books in the series, Mercy gets into trouble […]

In other books that I loved a lot this year

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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Re-read (September 2021) in advance of The Last Graduate!!! it’s interesting, I think the book on the whole is a 4* book but reads a lot like a 3* book from a writing style? Reading this a second time, I’m less confused about the various plot points but it’s still a lot of exposition that you have to chew through, all within El’s head. I think the part that tips it into 4* territory is that the exposition in El’s head is next-level–I read a lot […]



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