Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I had to get out of my own way to enjoy

My Tokyo Summer: A Graphic Novel by Abby Denson and Utomaru

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My background is in English and editing (though I admit editing my own work isn’t my strongest area of expertise). Therefore, when I read a book my adult editor comes out. They pick apart things in a story that most people won’t see, or if they do, they accept it as just a quirk of the story.  With the graphic novel My Tokyo Summer: A Graphic Novel by Abby Denson and illustrated by Utomaru, I found myself “editing” the content, the flow of things and […]

Growing with dance

Dare You to Dance by Rebecca Mock

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Lately I have been finding myself reading books that have a couple bumps in the flow of the story, but eventually once I let myself get into things, I’m good to go. And Dare You to Dance by Rebecca Mock is another one of those stories. This does not mean I disliked the story, but I won’t be putting it in my Top Ten Best Books of the Year. I will, however, put it on my couple dozen You Might Like This Book list. Overall […]

My most surprising 5-star read of the year (also Cannonball, finally)

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

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Monthly Keyword 26: Bright Reading the Rainbow: Yellow CBR18 Bingo: Versus (The brave, tenacious and determined women vs the spineless and depraved serial killer Official plot synopsis: Tallahassee, 1978. Sorority president Pamela Schumacher wakes to a shocking scene of implausible violence and death, and is drawn into a mystifying crime that grips the nation for decades . . . In Seattle, Tina Cannon connects her best friend’s disappearance to the Tallahassee tragedy, and is convinced that a single man is responsible. Determined to find justice, […]

Are all fictional detectives neurodivergent?

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

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4.5 stars Dark Corner selection: April 2026 Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Award Winner (Hugo and World Fantasy Award 2025) CBR18 Bingo: Map (there’s a map at the start, showing the various walls to keep out the Levianthans) Official plot synopsis (since I’m reviewing a book I finished in APRIL): <i>In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and […]

Watch out for Grandma Billy and the crazy Gods (I’m more scare of GB though!)

Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

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No matter how many times you tell me, I cannot believe that T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon (and Vernon is Kingfisher). They must be two different people! After all Vernon has one voice and Kingfisher has another. Okay, maybe four people actually, as Vernon has three main tones that I have found. The first is fun, quirky, and young. The second has a middle ground voice but can be edgy. And the third is mature and not to Kingfisher’s level, but is not Vernon’s middle […]

I’m enjoying how eclectic my books in the photo are

Alison by Lizzy Stewart

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Alison by Lizzy Stewart is an illustrated novel/graphic novel that is an intense, slow burn, but reads quickly, story of coming of age in your adult years. The world of art, women and sex explodes off the pages, yet the narrative remains slow and deep. Best described as “literary,” and that means whatever that means to you. It includes sex, alcohol, death, women’s rights, infidelity, and more.  That is the emotional review, an academic is how we follow a woman through her twenties to sixties […]



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