Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Robots and starships: I must be reading science-fiction

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

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Artificial Condition (2018) by Martha Wells is the second novella in her “Murderbot” series. I read the first book, All Systems Red when my science-fiction-loving friend made me–by choosing it for book club. She will be thrilled to learn that I voluntarily read Artificial Condition, and I’m now planning on reading the third. The “murderbot,” or Sec-unit, is a robot with some amount of organic parts. The bot is incredibly smart, powerful, and expensive. Sec-units are usually rented out for various security jobs, and they are controlled with governors that […]

a manor on the edge of ruin, a mute little girl, a butler with a dangerous past, and a potentially magical drunken dandy…

The Maker of Swans by Paraic O'Donnell

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What looks like a recipe for potential nonsense is actually a truly surprising and unique thriller! Paraic O’Donnell follows up the Victorian spiritualism of The House on Vesper Sands with another historical mystery, but where I was expecting (and hoping for, honestly) a continuation of the former, The Maker of Swans jumps head-first into the 20th Century and dares the reader to catch up. A butler tries his damndest to keep his employer safe, sane, and sober- but the draws of the Jazz Age have the […]

“Mingle! Guide! Delight!” isn’t a bad philosophy

Leave it to Plum by Matt Phelan

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Leave it to Plumby Matt Phelan is the story of a “peppy purple peacock” & his trials & tribulations at the Athensville Zoo. Plum is a legacy – the however many times great grandson of the original zoo peacocks, given free wandering rights at the zoo, who are responsible for mingling, guiding & delighting the zoo’s visitors. Plum’s a great bird, if a little flighty (in the always late & a little scatterbrained way, not the bird way), who friends everywhere, and takes his duties […]

“He had light enough to make heroes of them all.”

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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I knew how this was going to end – of course I did – and yet I went willingly with Patroclus and Achilles towards their doom and my ugly crying. I may have mentioned in earlier reviews that I have trouble slowing down and savoring books, but I was in luck with this gorgeous book because my child and husband were camping and canoeing in the Boundary Waters, so I had a glorious week to nibble at this book and delight in turns of phrase, […]

When can I preorder book 3???

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Between Earth and Sky, Book #2 I read Black Sun, the first book in the planned Between Earth and Sky trilogy last summer, on vacation. I inhaled that book, and it ended up being one of my best of 2021. So I got myself right on the holds list for Book #2. Of course, I neglected to go back and really refresh myself on the happenings of book 1 before diving into book 2 – which is 100% my fault. But beware, book 2 picks […]

If you could go back, who would you want to meet?

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

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Are you looking for a VERY quick, adorable novel that is perfect for a cozy cup of coffee on an afternoon with nothing much else to do? I know you must be, because we all have Covid (again) right now, so many of us are once again looking at 5-10 days with limited social obligations. I read this book in one afternoon in between loads of laundry and dishes, and it was the perfect afternoon novel. It is sweet tale of magical realism – in […]



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