Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I wish I was better at baking

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

by 1 Comment

CBR13 Bingo: Libations (the whole setting of the book is a televised baking show, so there are a lot of both sweet and savoury baked treats in the story and featured on the cover) Official book description: Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s […]

Scrivers Create Marvellous Machines, Contend with Unspeakable Powers

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett

by 2 Comments

  I don’t know what my problem is, really I don’t. I love Robert Jackson Bennett’s works. And I really loved Foundryside, the first book in his Founders Trilogy. I knew Shorefall had been released Why did I take so long to get to it? Is it the pandemic? I’m going to blame the pandemic. Foundryside was a glorious blend of magical and political drama that had a really interesting premise: what if coding—known here as scriving—was actually magic, leaving to the development of whole […]

And the Abyss Stared Back

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

by Leave a Comment

  Mountaineering is a strange hobby. It’s not one I partake in: too strenuous, too expensive, too risky. Nevertheless I’m intrigued by it. I must have read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air at least three times. He does a good job of portraying the appeal of the sport, but illustrates the dangers and risks too – risks to himself, but to others as well. So does Olde Heuvelt’s Echo, except that it adds a twist to the familiar story. It’s easy to see where he […]

Lincoln’s Game of Thrones

Lincoln by Gore Vidal

by Leave a Comment

Much has been made of Abraham Lincoln’s political genius. He is often painted as a savant, manipulating both his opponents and allies to align with his will as he navigated the treacherous years of the American Civil War. Gore Vidal brings this to life in a continuation of his Narratives of Empire series. Although not the second book in publication order, it is the second one in sequence, with one loose connection to the first (no spoilers although Vidal clearly wants to thread the story). Burr, […]

“Why are things the way they are?”

The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas

by Leave a Comment

Mattis and his older sister Hege live in a lakeside cottage in a rural community in Norway. Hege, a 40-year-old spinster who has taken care of Mattis all her life, is earning a meager living by knitting sweaters, while Mattis is unable to contribute due to his mental disabilities. When the lumberjack Jorgen moves in with them, it becomes clear that they can’t go on as before. This is a deceptively simple story, with a straightforward plot and only a handful of characters. Mattis’s inner […]

Humans fight dinosaurs in space; don’t think too much and enjoy the ride

Steel World by B. V. Larson

by 5 Comments

BINGO – Machinery (and my first completed Bingo!) You know those movies whose trailer you watch the first time and you think, “Who gave that the green-light? That looks so dumb.” And the second trailer comes out and you think, “Okay, maybe that looks kind of fun but still. There’s no way I’m going to see it.” And then you see a trailer one more time and finally relent to think, “Yeah, sure, that looks fun and dumb; I’m in!” That was Steel World. It was […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo