Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Stop reading after book two! Is my advice.

Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #5) by Kendare Blake

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This is the final book in the Three Dark Crowns quartet, which was originally supposed to be a duology, but money, what are you going to do, oh right, trick a bunch of teens (and adults, coughcough) into buying your book series. Yeah, sorry all fans of this series and the author (I’m sure you’re lovely) but I hated this. It doubled down on everything I disliked from books one through three (especially three), and downgraded what I liked (the premise, the worldbuilding). It also […]

Will I quit you, Riordan? I still don’t know. This review is barely about the book, which was good!

The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo, #5) by Rick Riordan

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I did end up liking this series ender. As up and down as I’ve been with this series, it could have gone either way for me. This book definitely got the closest to my preferred version of the series, which had Apollo actually realizing the consequences of his actions and not just joking his way through some pretty serious stuff. Although, it still never gelled for me that Apollo the God and Lester the Teenager were the same character. There was some moves towards that […]

I am not HO HO HOing about this book, but it’s worth the read.

Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike

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I just want to type out the entire review from the publisher copy for Twelve Terrors of Christmas (or) 12 Terrors of Christmas. This John Updike book is a “Your Mileage Will Varey” depending on your sense of humor (or lack thereof) and your appreciation or dislike of Edward Gorey as an illustrator. The publisher copy says things like, “depictions of Yuletide mayhem” by Gorey. And Updike has “wryly jaundiced [examinations]” of each theme. Nothing is sacred, from Santa and his red suit, to sitting […]

Go Nutcracker! Go!

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: The Graphic Novel by Natalie Andreson

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Having never read the original version of The Nutcracker, I only have various (mostly cartoon) movie imagery to reference. Therefore, I am not sure how close to the text in this book is to that original story. But The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: The Graphic Novel is a version that seems to follow what I know from the movies. Whether it is good, or close or something altogether other, that is up to the reader. Natalie Andreson has the basics of E. T. A. […]

Bend this.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Toph Beifong’s Metalbending by Faith Erin Hicks

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I admit it, Toph in the Avatar the Last Airbender series was never my favorite character. I appreciated her and sometimes even her “Devil-may-care” attitude, but her humor (she said it as it is about a good toenail picking) was usually spot on. But I do not think she and I would have been “real life” friends. Therefore, when I saw that she was getting her own book, I was not sure I wanted to read it. However, I am up for almost anything ALA […]

“Who carved a mountain into a cathedral?”

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

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  If you are missing the political machinations and betrayals of Game of Thrones and aren’t sure if GRRM is going to finish the last book before he shuffles off his mortal coil, you should definitely check out The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It has all of that AND it’s a finished series so no waiting for the next installment. This book is the first of a trilogy, plus a novella and a book of short stories. The story follows Yiene, whose mother was the heir […]



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