Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A great Christmas read

If the Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell

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I never would’ve learned about Rainbow Rowell had I not joined Cannonball Read. Hell, I probably wouldn’t have read her if I wasn’t doing the database, and seeing her name pop up more than any other author except Stephen King (432), Neil Gaiman (269), and Robert Galbraith (243) with 238 reviews. You guys absolutely love Rainbow Rowell (average review had 4.3 stars, compared to 3.7 for King, 3.9 for Gaiman, and 4.2 for Galbraith). This love, I feel, is fully deserved. Rainbow Rowell is glorious. […]

Ponyboy? Seriously?

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

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  I was familiar with this book as it is used extensively in junior high and high schools, especially for “reluctant readers”, but I’d never read it.  It meets the primary requirement of being short, and theoretically speaks to the “youth these days” demographic.  Except no.  Instead I got a “hello fellow kids” vibe from it.  And not just because it’s dated (1967). My main quibble is that it seemed so set up to me.  There used to be an author, Gary Paulsen, who specialized […]

A review mostly in quotes because I *cannot* ever adequately review a Terry Pratchett.

Monstrous Regiment (Discworld, #31) by Terry Pratchett

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This book was newly published when I first started reading Discworld eighteen years ago. I wanted to read it right then but, because I am me, I decided to wait until I could read it in order. Literally half my life later, I made it! And honestly, I’m kind of glad I waited. Eighteen year old me was smart, but I appreciate it more now than I think I would have then. This one has instantly made my top five Discworld books, right up there […]

Fiction Reviews Dump

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chain

Another Place You've Never Been by Rebecca Kauffman

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Dietland by Sarai Walker

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

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Apologies in advance, and I hope I can be forgiven for the end-of-the-year review dump. I’ve had bits and pieces to say about the books I read but it never felt well-formed enough to tell others about them. So, here we go, a review dump of some of the fiction I read this year.  A Good Neighborhood |  Therese Anne Fowler We’ve all been reading long enough to know that a book titled A Good Neighborhood is not actually about a good neighborhood. It’s about […]

Space opera binge – “Nothing touched by empire remains itself”

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

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              ** Some spoilers for the plot of Ancillary Justice in the review of later books in the series ** Space opera can definitely be big, loud and dumb and that can be fun and exciting.  But I love my space opera to be populated by complex, conflicted people (and other beings) living in intricate worlds with a deep culture and history.  Add beautiful writing, and big questions about identity and ethics, and I am in heaven. So I […]

Too short and too long at the same time

Blue-Skinned Gods by S.J. Sindhu

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I really liked Marriage of a Thousand Lies, and I’ve seen this coming out for a while and never found the blurb quite as compelling. It popped up in my Kindle loans (the benefits of sharing library cards with friends) and so I pulled it up between some lighter fare. In a nutshell, this book felt like it was too short while also dragging at times. Segments are entirely too brief–Lakshman’s exile/move to the U.S. is handled with entirely too little aplomb for the impact it […]



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