Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ladies do buddy cop stuff in early 20th century steampunk Egypt

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

by 5 Comments

To be clear from the get-go, I hope A Master of Djinn is the first of a series. It’s got an interesting world, a twist of the classic steampunk which takes the perspective of the Egyptians not the English with a strong reliance of the local folklore/mythology (as opposed to the European traditions), it’s got some interesting characters, like Agent Fatma a queer lady Agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, Siti her capricious lover, and Agent Hadia rookie partner. Some of […]

“Breaking takes less effort than building, that is the way of the world.”

The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter

by 2 Comments

I’ll be honest that I almost didn’t pick up this book. Neither the cover nor the blurb really grabbed me, but I reconsidered when I started hearing other reviewers talk about the book. Character-driven? Fascinating world-building? Serial killer mystery? Check, check, check. And while this is the first book in a trilogy, there’s no cliffhanger ending and there’s a good balance between what’s resolved and what’s still left to explore. Krona, a Regulator usually responsible for helping retrieve lost enchanted objects, is a bit bored […]

“I can’t excuse what he did next except by saying that he was very sorry for it afterward (and so were a good many other people).”

The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, #1) by C.S. Lewis

by 4 Comments

So before I discovered Harry Potter (sigh) this used to be my very favorite fantasy series. I read and re-read several of them endlessly, including this one. But I haven’t revisited it in years and years. I don’t even remember the last time I read it. Maybe when one of the movies came out? (The movies never captured the magic for me.) Anyway, I’ve been comfort re-reading favorite fantasy books over the past year and I had the hankering to pick this one back up […]

Believing is seeing

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

by 2 Comments

In A Master of Djinn, writer P. Djeli Clark takes his readers back to Cairo, 1912, and a world where magical creatures such as djinn have become a normal part of life along with their incredible magical mechanical inventions. This book, which is a full-length novel rather than a novella like his previous works, features Agent Fatma el-Sha’arwi, special investigator with the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. She was the main character in A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and it’s wonderful to […]

I’m a cat person, Beanie, but I still love you.

What’s Up Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics by Alina Tysoe

by Leave a Comment

When you see the title, What’s Up Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics and only see the word Beanie as that was the nickname of your best friend growing up (we meet the night before the first day of kindergarten and in true kid form the next day we said, “I know you! You’re my friend!” and the rest was BFFs for several years and a around 40-year off/on friendship) you know you must pick it up. The book starts with Baby Beanie, a four-year-old who comes […]

“One night. I just want one night of sleep”…”Is it that too much to to ask? One night where I don’t have to babysit or dig up a corpse?…”

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson

by Leave a Comment

Part of my Simon and Schuster publisher online finds included The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson. A mouthful of a title that almost hides the plot of this young adult novel. The Past is a messy, quirky, simple and a modern teen novel. Even the unlikable characters can be likable. This is mostly since you can sympathize with what is going on, even if you have never been a reanimated, dead, best ex-friend. (Images are three of the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo