Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Take control of a mythic ghost ship or your sister dies isn’t much of a choice – CBR 14 Bingo: Star

Ship of Smoke and Steel: The Wells of Sorcery, Book One by Django Wexler

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CBR14 Bingo: “Star” – Astronomy used to calculate where a ship on the ocean is located and where it’s sailing to is an important driver of the story. I’ve grown to quite like author Django Wexler’s work.  But somehow I missed that he released an entire YA trilogy between two adult series.  Book one, A Ship of Smoke and Steel, was picked up on the next trip to Mysterious Galaxy.  Ted got to it first and devoured it in days.  Then he was thrilled to […]

You know what this franchise needs? A spin-off!

Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

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Every once in a very great while, I enjoy a romance novel of the Harlequin variety. My mom used to read them when I was a kid (and she had at least one very awkward convo with my precocious-reader-self about how those books were not appropriate for me to read (even if left lying around) (and spoiler alert: her reasons only made me more curious)), and my college roommate would occasionally spend a Sunday procrastinating from all her schoolwork by tearing through some truly ridiculous […]

Maybe not so beautiful afterall

In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo

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cbr14bingo Dough Level 2 In the Beautiful Country is a cute story told in verse that shows the ugly of the world, but also the hope that can come from it. The year between 1980 and 1981 of Anna’s life is relatable, powerful and a look into “The Beautiful Country” and the American Dream it promotes but does not always make it easy to obtain. When Anna’s parents announce on Lunar New Year they are moving to The Beautiful Country (America), their family thinks them […]

Am I Too Dumb for this Book?

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

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Crystalclear listened to the audio version of Mr. Fox and wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but it’s speculative-leaning and maybe reading the actual book would be a different experience, so she suggested it to me. While I do think it was better to read it than to listen to it (Oyeyemi does a lot with fonts, blank space, and paragraph structures that make way more sense looking at it than listening to it), I also am not totally sure how I felt about Mr. […]

Hallmark, But Make it Gay

Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

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Sometimes you start a book and within a few pages know the pretty much all of the emotional beats of where it’s going. And sometimes that doesn’t slightly matter, you’re going to have so much fun along the way that you won’t care. A member of the romantic subgenre I saw coined on TikTok recently “Romance books with two cartoon illustration characters on the cover”, I was in love with Delilah Green from the moment I saw her on the front. What can I say, […]

Transition Can Save Your Life, But It Won’t Fix It By Itself

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

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Nevada found me at an interesting point in my life. I find myself at a midpoint between the two protagonists, Maria and James, looking forwards and back at them and wondering how I relate to them and how they would relate to me. Maria is a trans woman, living in New York and finding herself without direction. Transition has made her the woman she is today, but on the heels of a breakup with her longterm girlfriend, she’s not really sure who that is anymore. […]



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