Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Favorite Author’s Beginnings

Guardians of Dreamdark: Windwitch by Laini Taylor

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Laini Taylor is one of my favorite authors, and I had been wanting to read her debut novel for a while, so I finally picked it up when it was re-released. As expected, I enjoyed the writing, and I loved the whimsical worldbuilding, such as cheroot-smoking, brandy-drinking crows. Those kinds of details are so specific and unexpected, and they create a strange but lived-in world. While the book is rated for middle grade, it could easily cross over into early YA due to the complexity […]

Mary was a little ogre, little ogre, little ogre ….

How to Be a Proper Ogre by Kelly Dipucchio and Janie Bynum

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The book How to Be a Proper Ogre by Kelly Dipucchio and Janie Bynum (as illustrator) will come out in June 2026. I read it via an online reader. At first I was not sure I would like the book. I mean it was pretty obvious that the ogre baby that was going to be born (note: mom, dad, other readers of the book you might have to explain babies do not come out of the muddy swamp, but ogre babies do) and they were […]

And it’s Good Good Leroy um… White. Goodest ghost in the whole darn greenhouse

Leroy Has Something to Say by Emily Rosenthal and My Phuong Thai

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The picture book Leroy Has Something to Say by Emily Rosenthal and illustrator My Phuong Thai is a book that made me have a warm happy. Lately not a lot of books have made me feel warm happy. And that is okay. I mean, I am an adult and can handle adult subjects, but sometimes I need to tone the doom and gloom down to a mild roar. And after reading Leroy I was able to have a happy warm feeling.  The cover is super […]

Quirky is the World

qualo & Mage vs. the Rage of the Bakunawa: A Graphic Novel Volume 1 by Kara Bodegón-Hikino

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Quirky is the first word that comes to mind about Squalo & Mage vs. the Rage of the Bakunawa: A Graphic Novel by Kara Bodegón-Hikino. And then maybe silly, odd, not necessarily original but not derivative (okay, that’s a phrase). And maybe it is not the smoothest read, but it was a fun read nonetheless. It did its job by entertaining and (for me) was an easy read to give myself a break from all the difficult things I was reading. Yet there is enough […]

A captivating tale based on a myth

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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Special thanks to NTE for gifting me this book in the last holiday book exchange! I had mentioned enjoying retold myths, and Daughter of the Moon Goddess is one of NTE’s favorite such stories. It is based on the Chinese myth of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess. This was a myth I was completely unfamiliar with, but I loved learning about this tale. Sue Lynn Tan takes the reader into a colorful, enchanting and dangerous world where immortals engage in subterfuge and violence to promote their […]

Wherever I had ended up, this world wasn’t limited by the pages of the books I knew.

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews

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This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is a chonk. And just like when people called my former dog a chonk, a land seal, a door stop, I think every word is precious. The audiobook is 21 hours and 34 minutes, and I’ve listened to it twice in a week. Kristen Sieh is a fantastic narrator. I’m probably going to listen a few more times before the book comes out March 31. We meet Maggie on her third day in Kair Toren, the capital city of […]



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