Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two reviews for the price of one post

Baby Monster by Andrea Pfeiffer

I Want to Sleep Under the Stars by Mo Willems

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It is that time of year again: New reader copies. And two that found their way to my reading desk were a picture book called Baby Monster and an early reader called I Want to Sleep Under the Stars! (Unlimited Squirrels V03).  They have nothing in common except I read them the same day and knew a 250 review each would be hard. Andrea Pfeiffer created Monster Baby.  It is an amusing and rhyming text story about a couple (of scientists) who made a bundle […]

“But I can have spiders in my head as long as I don’t let them consume me.” #CBRBingo – Happy

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

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This was very sweet and I was extremely charmed by it. I didn’t end up giving it the fifth star, because shmoopsy mostly doesn’t work for me, and this did get a bit shmoopsy there at the end. (Shmoopsy is a technical term.) But overall, this was witty and so sweet and heartwarming, with a light undercurrent of dark humor. I loved the worldbuilding; the gentle bite of the satire combined so well with the big hearts of the main characters. Briefly (because I think […]

Sometimes Friends Give You Bad Books

Pay the Piper: A Rock n' Roll Fairytale by Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple

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  As a librarian, Crystalclear is always on the hunt for books in her friends’ wheelhouses, and so I got a text from her asking if I’d like to read Pay the Piper. She hadn’t loved it, but thought maybe she was just the wrong audience. Would I give it a try and an honest review? I’m the perfect audience; faerie legends and fractured fairytales are my jam. I was really excited to read this. ::Sigh:: The book is split between chapters in the world of […]

Me and my pagan crew

Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

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CBR Bingo: Fresh Start I chose Strange Practice for my Fresh Start square because I was really intrigued by the premise. Unfortunately, it ended up being kind of disappointing and I probably won’t continue the series. Strange Practice is the first Dr. Greta Helsing book, a mystery series that focuses on a London doctor whose patients are all supernatural. Dr. Helsing treats demons with chronic coughs, injured ghouls, arthritic barrow-wights, and any other supernatural creature you could think of. As the story opens there’s a […]

cbr12bingo – Red!

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

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Every entry into Rivers of London starts with a splash; we are always diving head-first, sometimes literally, into rivers of blood. Every delightful cover, all done by Patrick Knowles, is a map with a big, red, bloody “X” marking the spot. Every cover is a map, every map is filled with teensy tiny detail, and every seemingly unrelated sketch or nursery rhyme lyric builds together into the marvelous mess that is London. I love his minute details; I feel like I’m looking at a Where’s Waldo illustration for […]

Light Entertainment But With Dragons

Dragon Actually by G.A. Aiken

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Bingo Square: Red (cover is red) I had actually picked this up as a Kindle Deal because dragons before I read emmalita’s review of the Honeybadger books, written by this author under a different name.  The Honeybadger books were incredibly entertaining but I also think her style is probably better in small doses and that reading too many of them in a short period would ruin what makes them so entertaining.  As a result, I held off on this for a bit of time. It […]



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