Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

 

“Before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously”

Sawkill Girls (2018) by Claire Legrand

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I find it hard to write or think about YA fiction without thinking about Taylor Swift sometimes–in this particular case, ‘Seven’ from Folklore (2020): “Please picture me in the weeds / Before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously /Any time I wanted.” Sawkill Girls is a scream of a book beneath its veneer of preppy popularity politics and teenage drama and desire: a scream of fear and despair and fury, a loud barbaric yawp against vanishing and silencing, a howl against monsters and the different […]

Adventures in Space That Live up to the Hype

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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I’ve been itching to read this since I finished The Martian, and my expectations did not let me down. I was so surprised by the unexpected event that occurs partway through the book – not a twist, but not something I was expecting, and it was so exciting! I’m trying to avoid spoilers, as you can see. The book starts with Ryland Grace waking up with amnesia from a coma and discovering that he is on a spaceship and that that spaceship is not in […]

An Amazing Nigerian-Inspired Fantasy

Forged By Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

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Wow, this book is so amazingly good. If you’re fond of epic fantasy, political machinations, and soulmates this is a book you should absolutely read! Dèmi grew up having to keep her abilities secret because just before her birth the kingdom of Ìfe was conquered and all Oluson persecuted for fear of what their abilities could do against the Eingardan. One day, though, a young boy is brought to Dèmi and her mother, poisoned, and the act of saving his life condemns Dèmi’s mother. Dèmi […]

Nanorrobots Prodigiosos?

Virus. La guerra de los mil millones de años by Juan José Gómez Cadenas; Juan Botas

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So for my European bingo spot, I’m going to review a science book about humanity’s tangles with viruses that eventually builds to the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Virus. La guerra de los mil millones de años‘ (‘Virus. The war of a billion years’) is a bit of a curiosity for me: this book about viruses, diseases, and pandemics, which was written with a Spanish perspective in mind, was completed during the very first few months of the pandemic. The authors state in the introduction that the writing […]

Shifting My Perspective

Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh

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Best for: Those looking for ways to process and manage fear. In a nutshell: Zen master Nhat Hanh shares thoughts related to processing, confronting and addressing fear. Worth quoting: I took so much away from this book, but some highlights: “When we climb the hill together, we don’t need to make an effort; we enjoy every step.” “Each of us is life without limit.” “We cannot remove violence with hatred and anger. We can only remove violence and fear with compassion and love. Why I […]

Watch This Space

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

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The first question in my mind when I finished listening to Wil Wheaton’s excellent narration of The Collapsing Empire was “this had better be a god damned trilogy!”. Thankfully, it is, and I will get to spend many more hours listening to the plight of the young Emperox Grayland II as she navigates the untimely collapse of The Flow, the method by which humans of the future overcome the limitations of light speed travel. The Collapsing Empire opens with a prologue that sets the scene […]



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