Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Sadly, a rather disappointing follow-up to two very good books

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

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#CBR12 Bingo: UnCannon (YA fantasy, written by a woman, about dark-skinned heroine, with several queer characters as supporting cast) Official book description: Eight years have passed since the young Princess Bitterblue, and her country were saved from the vicious King Leck. Now Bitterblue is the queen of Monsea, and her land is at peace.   But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisers, who have run the country on her behalf since Leck’s death, believe in a forward-thinking […]

Since I couldn’t pick just one, this is a long review with no pillows included for a break nap

beast feast by Douglas Florian

Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

One Year at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks

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cbr12bingo Gateway As a former-full-time bookseller and now part-time bookseller, I do not have that one book, author or genre to get a person reading. I have a book/author/genre to fit the person I am speaking with. However, within some genres I do have a go-to author or in one case, publisher. Two areas that many are not familiar with are poetry and graphic novels. Or more accurately in the case of school-aged students they do not want to be familiar with poetry and adults […]

For a fantasy novel, these characters are a little too real

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

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The Magicians by Lev Grossman follows Quentin Coldwater through his education at Brakebills, a college for magic, and his post-graduation life. Quentin is a depressed, maladjusted jerk. He is not a wholly good person. No one at Brakebills or any magician seems to be a good person. Not Quentin’s best friend Alice and her family trauma that weighs her down to the point of never standing out, not Eliot and his ostentatious proclivity to exclude, not Janet and her razor-sharp tongue that inflicts lashes wherever […]

cbr12bingo – I Wish

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

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I can’t read “I Wish” and not be immediately thrown into Into the Woods. I was tempted to start with “unrelated, but”…but it is related! It’s summertime, and PC Peter Grant has taken to the countryside, where all sorts of fairy-tale creatures are up to no good. “Anything can happen in the woods”, after all. Out of London and into the country! The National Trust is attempting to manage the wood, families are hiding secrets, a retired wizard lives in a tower full of bees, […]

#Red: An Austenian take on the societal and legal niceties of consuming your own kin (plus dragons)

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

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Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton has been described as “Pride and Prejudice, but dragons”. There is no more apt description than this, though I also see a lot of Dickensian influence. Additionally, the primary romance is not as antagonistic as Elizabeth and Darcy are initially. I’m counting this as my bingo square for Red because the cover is, in fact, very red and because the colour actually plays a role in the book. The plot centers around a family of dragon gentility after the […]

I understand why everyone recommends these Pratchetts; they’re… gold! (#Money!)

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

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Continuing on my quest to read through Terry Pratchett’s marvelous Discworld series (why did I not start before two years ago?!). They are perfect palate cleansers for heavier books or for when I just need a good laugh. I am almost through all the Watch books now (my favourites), and decided to listen to the audiobooks for some of Pratchett’s later ‘industrial revolution’ novels featuring the brilliantly named Moist von Lipwig: Going Postal and Making Money–the latter of which makes this a perfect match for the […]



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