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.

 

A hopeful future with robots and food

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

by 1 Comment

If you need a story of chosen family and hope and good food, Automatic Noodle absolutely fits the bill. This is a delightful novella of a near-future where California has split from the United States after war, and part of California progressiveness was to give civil rights to human equivalent embodied intelligence (HEEI) robots. But those rights are limited – they’re not able to use a bank, own property, and there’s lots of prejudice against robots (very allegorical to American attitudes towards immigrants and marginalized […]

Calvin and Hobbes or Jackson and Irwin adventures?

Jackson's Wilder Adventures V02 Dentistry and Dreams, by Sarah Davidson

by 1 Comment

I found a series awhile back that I thought was one of the best I had read. It was Jackson’s Wilder Adventures by Sarah Davidson. It was clever and unique. A young boy, Jackson, and his Calvin and Hobbesesque Hobbes, called Irwin the Thylacine, were the perfect narrators. Davidson mixed time travel in a Dr. Who manner with fun educational facts. Granted, there is no actual Tardis (and/or fill in your favorite doctor), just an old cardboard box, but the adventures were as fun. We […]

“The greatest happiness…is to sneeze when you want to.”

The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

by 6 Comments

Rebellion flared up in her soul as the dark hours passed by — not because she had no future but because she had no past. Valancy has spent all her life following the expectations of her judgmental family: suppressing all negative opinions and emotions, avoiding any “improper” activities or pursuits, and putting up with endless teasing about her “old maid” status. Her only reprieve is the “Blue Castle” she visits in her daydreams. When she gets the news that she has a terminal heart condition […]

Sunrise of the Weeping

Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

by 1 Comment

I took a much-needed break from my brief—yet frustrating—foray into the romantasy genre to return to my comfort zone: dystopia. And Sunrise on the Reaping did not disappoint. The book begins back in the bleak, coal-dust-covered District 12, as Haymitch Abernathy prepares for the reaping of the Quarter Quell. It’s been 25 years since the Dark Days, and what better way to mark the anniversary of the end of slaughter than we MORE slaughter? Specifically, by sending double the number of children to their deaths […]

Death can be totally adorkable, and a little bit smutty

Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks

by 3 Comments

Hey, it’s been a loooooooong time since I have written a review. I was in a bad place, mentally. I have had a lot, and I mean A LOT of pet deaths in the past few years, and the first half of this year had a few that were back-to-back. The irony that the book that pulled me out of my slump was a book about a funeral home was not lost on me. Why don’t we have funerals for our pets? It would be […]

there need to be about a million more Death books than there are

Mort by Terry Pratchett

by 1 Comment

Hot take: Death is the best, but he’s the bestest best when he’s paired off with a human who can observe and call out the weirdness of his life Actual review: Having read Hogfather last Christmas for Book Group, I thought I’d start over again and read all of the DEATH series as I very much enjoyed Death’s characterization. And even though I already know part of how Death will turn out–e.g., we know about Susan and obviously Death still exists as Death etc–it’s still fascinating how […]



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