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.

 

“I think you’ll find ‘in heat’ only applies to dogs. De Niro is a man, an acting man”

The Clementine Complex by Bob Mortimer

by 13 Comments

Hey y’all long-time-no-see! I’ve missed this so! Much like our trusty narrator Gary, I also script entire conversations with local squirrels when I walk through town. I have a regular rodent repartee while walking to the bookstore (I KNOW!) every day.  Unlike Gary, I have not been pulled into a conspiracy involving novelty print socks, a shady detective agency, an elderly hacker, and a corn-cob shaped USB dongle. This certainly isn’t a complaint; I am quite happy in my lane at the moment and I […]

Ending the year with a cozy fantasy prequel

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

by 5 Comments

Last Winter Solstice, at our family book exchange, I received Legends and Lattes and adored everything about it!  Fortunately the follow-up book came out in time for my family to get it for me this year.  Bookshops and Bonedust is a prequel to Legends and Lattes and delivers an equally excellent story. When it was announced that Bookshops and Bonedust would be a prequel, I assumed that it would be about when Viv discovers coffee.  I was pleasantly surprised that this is not that book.  In Legends and Lattes, […]

perhaps this will be the year of expanded worlds both IRL and fictional (yes, I mean maybe I’ll finally get around to the Cosmere)

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

by 9 Comments

Was just speaking to my friend (and soon to be author!!!) about Sanderson–I’ve given her a copy of The Final Empire, knowing that I myself took ages (and two reads) to actually read it. Despite the fact that I’m a casual Cosmere reader at best (as in, I’ve only read the Mistborn books + the various secret projects #1-3), there was so much I could say to recommend him to her. Do you want an author who’s learned and grown over time, becoming more progressive and […]

Bittersweet Coming of Age Manga

The Golden Sheep Vol. 1-3 by Kaori Ozaki

by 2 Comments

Reading this was a good way to start the new year. The Golden Sheep is a three volume series that follows Tsugu as she returns to her childhood town after her parents get divorced. She is excited to reunite with her three childhood friends and get back to their previous closeness. However, while she’s been away dynamics have shifted and her reappearance riles things up. Tsugu expects things to have remained the same, but the friendship between the two boys (Yuushin and Sora) has turned […]

Come for the Stories, Stay for the Activism

A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man by Tadhg Hickey

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Best for: Those looking for inspiration from sober alcoholics / people with substance use issues. In a nutshell: Comedian Hickey shares what his life was like growing up in Cork, Ireland, with a mother who was mentally unwell. Worth quoting: N/A Why I chose it: I follow Hickey on TikTok and didn’t realise he has a book. The book is … different from what I expected. Review: I was hoping to squeeze this in as my last review for 2023 but alas, I just missed […]

“I do not want to be protected. I want to be safe.”

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy

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What are ways that women are not supposed to be? What are they not supposed to do? Mona Eltahawy interrogates social behavioral control of women and non-binary people through the framing of seven types of behavior that are understood to be in some way improper. Anger, Attention, Profanity, Ambition, Power, Violence, and Lust. In Seven Necessary Sins Elthawy asks one of the most important questions – Who does this benefit? The author argues not only that women and girls should engage in activities driven by […]



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