Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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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 National Pastime in a Past Time

Electric October by Kevin Cook

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If the 1947 World Series had been an uneventful contest, it still would have held two historic distinctions. Most importantly, it was the first World Series featuring black players. Rookie of the Year Jackie Robinson was a big reason the Brooklyn Dodgers won the pennant. (The Dodgers also had a second Black player, Dan Bankhead, but he had been an ineffective relief pitcher late in the season and was only used as a pinch-runner in the World Series.) Secondly, it was the first World Series […]

Powerful YA

Shards of Silence by Brian Lee Young

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Shards of Silence is an excellent book that’s grappling with intergenerational trauma of residential schools, as well as the story of Derrick coping with the pressures of being in a new environment far away from his community and family. There’s the weight of holding traumatic events inside and not speaking of them, as well as choices Derrick makes in order to meet the demands of the college-preparatory school he has the opportunity to attend. I really loved how many topics were woven into this, and […]

A Magic School for Kids

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

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CBR Square- School I read The Incandescent by Emily Tesh because she promoted it on Threads as a book with a magic school where the adults are allowed to be competent. And that doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes, but when the students get themselves into trouble with their magic, they go to an adult who can help them and she does. So this is entirely told from the adult perspective, and one demon. I really liked it a lot. Dr. Walden is the Director of Magic […]

Gyo

Gyo by Junji Ito

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Why not, I’m way behind on my Cannonballs and trying to read to relax more anyways, so why not just work through my favorite Junji Ito stories? Gyo follows thee classic Ito pattern of “take thing, make scary.” In this case, he gives us… fish with legs. That sounds stupid and silly, and it is certainly something you can laugh at in places. If you’ve ever seen the meme of what sounds a shark makes when it breaks down a door (gashunk) this is where that […]

Losers, Misfits, and Boozers

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

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Since I’m being cruelly tortured by being forced to wait a whole long week between episodes for the new season I’ve decided to go back and read the first book in the Slough House series. I’m sure waiting patiently is part of MI5 spy training, probably real advanced stuff. It is here we first meet Jackson Lamb and his motley collection of ‘slow horses’. Each one has disgraced themselves in some spectacular way and needs to be relegated somewhere they can’t do any more damage […]

Southern Fried Vampires

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan

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This is the story of a family of women (the Evans) in Southeast Texas whose family business is running the only funeral parlour in town.  Well, that is their main business, but their side hustle is killing the restless dead (vampires) who end up in their funeral home.  The Evans are standing between their town and the Strigoi, who occasionally show up.  But the latest round of undead really puts the family to the test, and unearths some family secrets rising up from the grave. […]



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