Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I don’t even know what bizarre is anymore

Golden Wind (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5) by Hirohiko Araki

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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind stars Giorno Giovana, a teenager in Italy who turns to crime after being raised poorly by a negligent mother and abusive stepfather. Shenanigans and tragedy ensue, as is routine with the JoJo series. Prior JoJo knowledge isn’t necessary for Golden Wind, which is easy for me to say since I’ve read the previous four parts and might not notice if some critical information relies on them. Taken by itself, the story is a fun road-trip-in-a-turtle story about a […]

It’s not over until we win

Royal Assassin: Book 2 of The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

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The thing about second books in trilogies is that they have to do a lot of work developing conflicts and characters. Second books tend to be where the bad guys are ascendent and our heroes seem to be losing. They provide critical information and often are kind of depressing. Royal Assassin, the second volume in The Farseer Trilogy, is such a book but I am completely invested, as well as devastated, by what is happening to our main characters and the kingdom where they live. […]

Consider me stretched, hydrated and respectfully feral

Read Me Slow by Charish Read

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I’m going to read everything Charish Reid writes, and I’m going to like it because I like the way she writes. Read Me Slow is a lovely steamy short novel about a romance writer who needs a narrator and her younger brother’s best friend, a horror podcaster, who steps in to help. Maya is doing well as a self publishing romance author. When her usual narrators announce that they are splitting up and won’t be recording her soon to be released book, Maya is in […]

The best short story collection I’ve read in a while!

Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell

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This is a collection of short stories that really works, unlike the last one I wrote about! I don’t want to include a summary of each story, but I do want to mention my favorites: I have not stopped thinking about The Gondoliers or Orange World since putting this book down two weeks ago. In The Gondoliers, 4 sisters use echolocation (!) to navigate the waters in a presumably post-climate change world. Incredible world building, amazing character study, just all around wonderful and weird. In […]

Don’t Look Now…and some other random stories

Don't Look Now & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

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I was several pages into the first story of this collection, the titular Don’t Look Now, when I realized that I’ve seen this movie! I remember liking the movie just fine, mostly because I love Donald Sutherland, but also thinking that the pacing and climax were a little strange and unconvincing; the horror elements were there but it didn’t quite pack a punch for me. This is also how I felt about the short story, and indeed, about this collection as a whole.  I won’t […]

Mio, My Son, an A+ read-aloud

Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren

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This is the 7th book in our read-aloud journey of 2025. (Previously featuring: The Hobbit, Travel Light, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Jenny and the Cat Club, The Dragon of Og, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.) Astrid Lindgren is most famous for Pippi Longstocking, but I was enchanted with the cover of this little book so I decided to read this one first.  Andy is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle in Stockholm. He is lonely and unloved, save for his neighbor […]



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