Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Still Not Sure How to Feel About This One

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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Bingo category: Rec’d (by Mobius Walker) The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires isn’t exactly what I thought it was, based on the title. I was picturing a silly piece of fluff, full of ridiculous Southern sayings, mint juleps, genteel, condescending white women in Lilly Pulitzer dabbing their foreheads with handkerchiefs and gossiping in between killing vampires. A sort of vampire cozy. To Grady Hendrix’s credit, he wrote something much more substantial than that. It’s completely bizarre and definitely has some issues, but it […]

When doors open, stories happen

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

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CBRbingo: Flora “If we address stories as archaeological sites, and dust through their layers with meticulous care, we find at some level there is always a doorway.” January Scaller is a young woman of uncertain status.  The mixed race protégé of a wealthy and controlling man,  she barely knows her father, who travels the world in search of artefacts for his employer, her benefactor.   When she finds a mysterious book it unlocks the story of her own past, and the secret of the Doors that […]

“My good Horse, you’ve lost nothing but your self-conceit.”

The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia, #3) by C.S. Lewis

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This was always my least favorite book in this series. So far at least, it remains that way, but I think for different reasons. I’m not quite sure why I never really warmed to it when I was a kid. I’d like to think that my subconscious was responding to what my conscious mind is cringing at now, but I also think that a large part of it might be that this isn’t really a portal fantasy, like the rest of the books are (The […]

World War II meets King Arthur’s Court

The Metropolitans by Carol Goodman

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Set in WWII New York, four kids find themselves at the MET on a cold Sunday afternoon, each dealing with a hand far heavier than any teen should be dealt. Walt was sent to live with family in the US to keep out of Hitler’s grasp. Kiko is a young Chinese girl who looks too much like the enemy to ever be trusted. Madge has been separated from her siblings as a result of her father’s overwhelming grief over her mother’s passing and all she […]

A Japanese Girl in a Celtic World

The Ancient Magus Bride vol. 14 by Kore Yamazaki

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Bingo 9: Mythic The Ancient Magus Bride is a manga and anime series based primarily in Celtic mythology, although it contains references to other folklore as well. One of the key characters (the magus of the title) is Elias who is some kind of Fae creature, given that he’s claimed as such by Titania and Oberon (this happens early in the series), the dragons who show up are European in appearance, Silky is a brownie who used to be a banshee, there are some sídhe, […]

Crowns, and Kings, and Grisha things, maybe a few too many

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

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Bingo 8: Rec’d I picked up Rule of Wolves partly because Narfna seemed to mostly like it (6/21/21) and it was out on a library display, so opportunity. Admittedly I hadn’t read it’s prequel but that turned out to be fine, since I had previously read the duology that comes directly before this one. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing for the previous entry in the series, but at this point I doubt I’ll be seeking it out since I now […]



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