Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

We Get to Visit the Abbey

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

by Leave a Comment

I love learning more about Cleric Chih, and I feel like we get to spend a little more time in their head with each successive novella. In this one, Chih arrives home to the Singing Hills Abbey after four years away, only to find mammoths at the gates and to discover their presence is related to the recent death of Chih’s mentor. So, in addition to grieving, Chih now has to worry about whether mammoths are going to storm the abbey gates. There are other […]

This hasn’t helped me decide on the value of prequels

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

by 1 Comment

I was inspired to read this book following Classic’s review of The Rose Field (scathing though it was). I have appreciated the His Dark Materials trilogy for a while, although I find the criticism of a very Christian normative form of organised religion hits differently from an Islamic perspective. The ideas of a authoritarian church-state read differently from a religious perspective where faith and society are enmeshed alternatively. I’ve not really been tempted to read the prequel books as I always find the liminal space […]

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: Wow. Wowwowwow.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

by 9 Comments

For quite a few years now, I have been avoiding reading things that cover truly difficult material. The world is hard and weird, and I have preferred to read “lighter” stories as a way to escape, to feel the joys with out the lows. This self-preservationist approach to choosing reading material has led me further down the road of comfy, cozy reads which are lovely, but there are never real stakes. I think I have begun to notice that choosing books which do not have […]

My Year of Dark Academia is Off to an Uneven Start

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

by 16 Comments

Lately I’ve been finding myself drawn to dark academia, so I thought this year I might embrace it and go whole hog. I started the year off with two very different dark academia novels–one that I mostly enjoyed, and one that I didn’t really enjoy at all. First up, I read A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. Effy is an architecture student at a prestigious college, but she wants to be a literature student–only women aren’t allowed to study literature. Her favorite author is Emrys Myrddin, […]

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

by 5 Comments

Disclaimer: I think this will be the third time I have attempted participating in the Cannonball Read. My failures in the past are so frustrating to me because I easily read at least 50 books each year. It’s the reviews that are my stumbling block. I know it’s because I am intimidated, both by the intelligence of the Pajiba community and by my minimal skills with technology. This year, I’m trying to let that anxiety go. If my reviews sound like they were written by […]

The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman

The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman

by 4 Comments

Disclaimer: I think this will be the third time I have attempted participating in the Cannonball Read. My failures in the past are so frustrating to me because I easily read at least 50 books each year. It’s the reviews that are my stumbling block. I know it’s because I am intimidated, both by the intelligence of the Pajiba community and by my minimal skills with technology. This year, I’m trying to let that anxiety go. If my reviews sound like they were written by […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo