Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

They have an audiance, but that wasn’t really me

SCRAM: Society of Creatures Real and Magical by Roy Lucey

Stray Cat V01 Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge by Dian Day

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Have you ever read a book that you really wanted to like, but it just didn’t pan out as hoped? That was SCRAM: Society of Creatures Real and Magical and Stray Cat V01 Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge. Both had fun and nifty ideas, but the style of writing and/or the progression to the finale did not work for me. The idea of SCRAM: Society of Creatures Real and Magical by Roy Lucey was interesting. Three friends want to search for Magical Creatures. The […]

Please inhale, Ted Chiang

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

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In both Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” and its cinematic adaptation, the 2016 film Arrival, the protagonist’s story appears out of order. You read (or watch) the narrative as though you are seeing someone put together an intricate puzzle, and it’s not until one critical piece of knowledge— the central conceit of the story — slots into place that you can understand the correct order of events, backwards and forwards. Reading “Story of Your Life” on its own, I loved it. So, I sought […]

Kate Goldbeck Kate Goldbeck

You, Again by Kate Goldbeck

Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck

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While waiting for the second installment of Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker series to become available, I decided to listen to a different Kate – contemporary romance author Kate Goldbeck. First I sped through Daddy Issues, which involves zero daddy play, and I thought it was good, so I downloaded You, Again, which was amazing. I love “unlikable” women – messy, bitchy, angry, depressed, immature, flailing – all of it. Ari (You, Again) and Sam (Daddy Issues) are the messiest and I love them so much. You, […]

“Potatoes…do not make gods.”

Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher

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T. Kingfisher was my most read author in 2025 (I read five of her books and reviewed two), so I had planned to wait before reviewing anymore of her books, but my hold for Hemlock and Silver finally came up on Libby, and I enjoyed it too much not to talk about it. So here we are. Anja is an expert in poisons. Or, more specifically, she is an expert in antidotes. But when the king himself summons her to investigate the poisoning of his daughter, […]

Review: Butterfly Games

Butterfly Games by Kelly Scarborough

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  Disclaimer: I received a copy via  Librarything giveaway. A blurb for this refers to The Other Boleyn Girl.  I disagree with Gregory’s view of Anne Boleyn in the novel, but I also found it a compelling read.  It’s a guilty pleasure book. Butterfly Games is not that. The only thing that stands out is that Scarborough found the real-life Jacquette Gyldenstople interesting.  But that does not translate to the book in any meaningful way. The reader is introduced to Jacquette after her parents’ divorce, […]

A story right on the edge of my understanding

Jackson Alone by Jose Ando

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Reading, especially fiction, is said to improve our ability to be empathetic to others. It allows us to slip on the shoes of others and walk a mile down a road we perhaps haven’t would never travel. This is one of the reasons I read, why I avoid white male writers, walking the same road as them for the most part. This book takes me off road, being the story of 4 mixed-heritage (Japanese/unknown black African), queer men in Japan and a fast-paced fiction centring […]



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