Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“The Only Currency More Powerful than Money in this World is the Violence of Man.”

Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

by 1 Comment

I found the Library of the Dead when searching online for books that were like The Starless Sea.  As always, I got it (for free) out of the library to do a cursory read before committing to purchasing. And while there weren’t that many similarities between Morgenstern’s book and this one, Huchu’s first foray into speculative fiction is a great success. I’d never heard of Huchu before, but I will definitely be checking out his other publications based on how much I enjoyed this read. Edinburgh has […]

One Belongs to New York Instantly, One Belongs to It as Much in Five Minutes as Five Years

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

by Leave a Comment

You know when you read a good book but you know it will just be impossible to summarize OR at least impossible to summarize well?  N.K. Jemisin’s novel, The City We Became, is one of those books.  It’s the first book in a new trilogy and now I’m bummed that I have to wait for her to finish writing book 2 and 3. But I have to give you some sort of clue of what it’s about so here goes.  New York City is alive […]

As They Say, a Rollicking Adventure

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

by Leave a Comment

CBR Bingo – Old Series The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is the first book in the Gentleman Bastards series, first written in 2006. I did not find it an easy read at first. Not because it isn’t well written. Lynch writes with great detail and imagination. Initially the book covers the escapades of the thieving Gentleman Bastards, rather than character studies or relationships. The shenanigans are great fun and cleverly crafted, but the characterization was a bit thin. The first half of […]

House hunting and Lessons in Leadership for Vampires

Out of House and Home by Drew Hayes

by Leave a Comment

Bingo 7: Home This one was just kind of fortuitous; I wanted to read Fred the Vampire Accountant #7 which has just recently been published, and it just so happened to be perfect for this square, being titled Out of House and Home. It’s not just the title either, the book is actually about losing and finding both literal and metaphorical home. The book opens a little while after the final events of book 6 (a wedding); Fred and company are getting back to their […]

If there’s a library in the title and on the cover, shouldn’t it be part of the story?

The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu

by Leave a Comment

Bingo 5: Cityscape The Library of the Dead features the city of Edinburgh on the cover, both above and below ground. It has a pretty interesting premise: 14 year-old Ropa is a ghostalker, meaning she is a licensed professional who takes messages back and forth between the dead and the living. She’s dropped out of school to work full time to support her family, her grandmother and little sister. She’s got rather rough past, but she does have a few friends. One of them introduces […]

A very cool pantheon of gods ruined by lackluster writing and anti-Semitism

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

by 4 Comments

BINGO – NEW SERIES Originally published in 2019, Wicked Saints is the first novel in a young adult, fantasy series that follows a young cleric named Nadya from a downtrodden land Kalyazi. She is able to commune with the entire pantheon of gods and petition them for assistance and magic. The people of Kalyazi are in a century-long war against Tranavia primarily led by a young mage named Serefin who is also the prince of Tranavia. The people of Tranavia reject the gods and instead […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo