Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Race, Zombies and US History

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

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I read and reviewed Dread Nation a couple of years ago but felt that I needed to do a re-read to refresh my memory before starting book 2 — Deathless Divide. In these novels, Justina Ireland imagines the US in the period immediately following the Civil War but with a strange twist. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the war ended when the battlefield dead rose up as zombies or shamblers, forcing Union and Rebel soldiers to work together against the undead. A new kind of […]

With set-up all taken care of, Pierce shines again

Street Magic by Tamora Pierce

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BINGO – Cityscape Briar Moss and his teacher Rosethorn have travelled to Chammur in order to expose Briar to the greater world and help farmers with their crops. While in Chammur, Briar gets to know the local street kids. He was a former street kid himself, so he feels an automatic kinship with these ganged up kiddos. One child, Evvy, stands out to Briar and not only because she’s the only street kid who isn’t in a gang. She has ambient magic that presents itself […]

Abstract reading

Kaleidoscope by Brian Selznick

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Kaleidoscope is classic Brian Selznick with the illustrations. It is busy, crowded, soft, heavy, black and white, surreal and realistic. However, the story is not what I expect from Selznick. It is abstract. Several stories are contained into three parts: Morning, Afternoon and Evening. All of these stories feel as if they should be connected, but none actually seem to be actually connected. Or are they? There are images that show up in more than one story (the boys breaking into a place and burning […]

Welcome to the Creep Factor

Hide and Don’t Seek: And Other Very Scary Stories by Anica Mrose Rissi

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I stole this from another Goodreads reviewer: “Carolina Godina’s drawings will augment the creepiness of the text” (thank you Michelle Glatt). And I agree. Hide and Don’t Seek: And Other Very Scary Stories is creepy. It is spooky. It is weird. It is wild. It is horror at its best and worse. I am an adult (in age if not actions) and I was spooked out! I got chills. I thought some of the stories were downright gross. And I was amazed at the strength […]

Endless Halloween Not-So-Much-Fun

The Halloween Moon by Joseph Fink

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This weekend my goal was to read five books. I only got to two, but at least they were the Halloween ones. One of those was The Halloween Moon by Joseph Fink. It seemed like it was going to be a strong, semi-spooky Halloween romp. Some creepy trick-or-treaters, a little bit of the “you’re too old to go out trick-or-treating” and maybe I don’t know, a monster chasing them, but it is really just a bad dream. It was that. And not like that. I […]

“In the clear and steady gleam of electric lights, superstition turns to foolishness; in the crucible of the combustion engine, false beliefs are burned away.” (Bingos #9 & 10)

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Cordova & Natalie Parker (editors)

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My Halloween read this year is this collection of new vampire tales edited by the team of Zoraida Cordova and Natalie Parker. I enjoy vampire stores because they offer so many different views onto the human condition, if you go looking for them. In Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite Cordova and Parker, along with the assembled authors, take the time to dig in and explore these angles – with postscripts by Cordova and Parker after each story. Let’s handle individual stories in […]



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