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.

 

The Book of Three

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

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After reading a smidge too much big kid literature, I decided to reread one of my favorite YA book series of all time: The Chronicles of Prydain. I reread these stories at least half a dozen times in middle school through high school. They inspired my love of fantasy stories that persists to this day, and I can tell that the lessons they imparted were important, because they were hard for me to hear as a kid. The story is set in a half-history half-mythological […]

“It’s harder to come back than it is to arrive”

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes

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CBR Bingo Square: Violence Maddeningly, I now don’t know what put Dorothy Hughes’s 1947 noir In a Lonely Place on my radar. (I thought it was Susan Straight’s 1001-book literary map of America, but…apparently not?) All I know is that I am a sucker for A) mystery novels, and B) novels about my home state, and what reliably ticks both boxes? Noir. And Dorothy Hughes was a new discovery for me, which made this novel all the more appealing. Also, deliciously, In a Lonely Place isn’t a […]

Beauty and the Beast, Shackled

Marvelous by Molly Greeley

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CBR 15 Bingo: Bodies, Bodies – Most everyone in this book is concerned with Petrus’s body – specifically the coat of hair that covers all of it. Pedro, a young boy with the rare condition that caused him to be covered with hair from head to foot, is bought as a gift for the French king, and eventually is married to Catherine, the beautiful daughter of a penniless merchant. I have heard of the story of Petrus Gonsalvus, but only in passing, merely the fact […]

I don’t want power. I just object to idiots having power over me.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

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I was so afraid for you, I forgot to be afraid for your enemies. ― Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar These three novels were my entry into the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold. There are a few different entry points, but these three provided the right amount of backstory at the right time. I’ve read that you can begin with The Warrior’s Apprentice, however you would miss out on some wonderful characters that are only referenced within the two earlier books. Shards of Honor is […]

Fast, Fluffy, and Fun

Go Hex Yourself by Jessica Clare

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Reggie assumed the ad she answered for a Spellwork assistant had something to do with the Spellwork card game.  She didn’t expect it to be acting as an assistant to a slightly dotty old woman who thinks she’s a witch.  But it pays amazingly well, so Reggie is willing to put up with Dru, even if her obnoxiously cute nephew doesn’t approve of Reggie.  Ben Magnus is a five hundred year old warlock who would really like his aunt not to hire a new familiar […]

A delightful journey into the world of lexicography

Word by Word by Kory Stamper

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Who would have thought a book about someone who edits dictionaries would be so delightfully engaging? Even better? I listened to the audio book, narrated by Stamper, and her personality and wit shone through the airwaves. Despite her self-deprecating descriptions of lexicographers as solitary, introverted shut-ins who would rather sit in a dark room alone than talk to another human, being in the room with her for this book was a great reading experience. Stamper regaled me with her stories of how she tackled the […]



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