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 House Witch- Cozy delightful fantasy that’s like a nice hug

The House Witch by Delemhach

by 7 Comments

When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals. But Fin’s secret identity doesn’t stay hidden for long. After all, it’s not every day a house witch and his kitten familiar, Kraken, take to meddling in […]

Garfield, Revisited

Garfield: Stepping Out by Jim Davis

by 2 Comments

Come along, gentle reader, on a journey to another time. A time when the internet was a mere twinkle in a nerd’s eye. When Everybody Wants to Rule the World was a smash hit single. When Amadeus won Best Picture at the Oscars. This was also the year one of the many Garfield pocket books was published, this one being Garfield Steps Out. Why is it called Steps Out? Well, there is absolutely no reason, as far as I can tell. But the escapades of […]

“What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.”-Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age by Henry Wiencek

by 1 Comment

When  I first read about this book in The NY Times Book Review, I knew I had to have it. Having grown up on a steady diet of  hearing about “Ragtime” and “The Girl on the Velvet Swing”, or how about how Clover Adams’s Memorial was on my mother’s must-see list, any book that covered any and all of that was something I needed to read. Thankfully, this did not disappoint. Stan and Gus covers the working (and potentially sexual) relationship of Standford White and […]

It’s Not That Deep, Except That It Is

Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia

by 12 Comments

Last week I sat down to read Iman Hariri-Kia’s new novel, Female Fantasy. I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish it, and I don’t want to review it so much as just hand it out. You get a copy, and you get a copy, and you and you and you get copies. Everybody on BookTok gets a copy. Most importantly, everybody who’s ever looked down their nose at romance in general or romantasy in particular gets a copy.  Everyone can read it, have whatever […]

Queer Abundance in a Time of Scarcity

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

by 15 Comments

As soon as I saw the title “Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature” (by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian), I knew I wanted to read this book. It’s been all over the 2025 “best of” lists, from Time to Vanity Fair to Vulture, and it’s easy to see why this one is resonating so intensely given what the last year has meant to LGBTQ+ folks. The queer expansiveness and community-building of Kaishian’s book is an effective emotional antidote to all the anti-trans scare tactics and fake […]

Never Use the Metro Elevator

Just Emilia by Jennifer Oko

by 1 Comment

Warning: Spoilers Just Emilia by Jennifer Oko is a story about a middle aged woman who gets stuck in a Washington, DC metro elevator with her teenage self and her elderly self. As a teen, Emilia’s mom, a popular news anchor, dies in a horrible car accident. Emilia blames herself and this guilt follow her into adulthood, affecting all of her relationships. On the anniversary of their mother’s death, each woman takes a decision which brings her to the elevator. The three women must learn […]



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