Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Two Towers

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Years. It had been years since I read The Two Towers. Like, maybe 20? I recall it being slow as hell, ponderous, difficult to read, and full of too much poetry and songwriting. Part of that is accurate, part is completely nuts: there’s plenty of language porn for the linguifile, but the pacing is solid and so much stuff happens. There’s a ton of exposition, which is probably why it felt so slow and plodding to me, but that doesn’t actually represent bad writing or a […]

Like being on a pleasant scenic drive and then plummeting off a cliff to a fiery death

Playground by Richard Powers

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When people say that the ending of a movie, book, show ruined the whole thing, I rarely agree with them. There are some rare exceptions, looking at you Game of Thrones, but for the most part if I enjoy 90% – 95% of a story then ending being a bit underwhelming does not taint the rest of it for me. It’s about the journey, not the destination is what I say. And I really enjoyed the journey of Playground, but I think the destination is […]

‘Hill House is vile, it is diseased’: People may be haunted, but Hill House being the way it is probably didn’t help

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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“Fear and guilt are sisters” — this simple declaration comes mid-way through Haunting of Hill House as Eleanor and Theodora decide to go wandering out in the middle of the night. Author Shirley Jackson appears at first glance to be portraying both women as either emotion, as they are locked in a sort of childish standoff, so fixated on remaining engaged in their emotions that they don’t seem to notice that they were traipsing out of Hill House at night — at night! — into […]

A warm squishy hug!

Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis

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[Nav’s Foolproof Guide releases April 29, 2025] I’ve been following Jessica Lewis’ books since her debut, and I was so excited to see what she’d do with a romance. Suffice to say I was not disappointed! Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love feels like a warm squishy hug and builds the tension between Nav and Gia so wonderfully. Nav doesn’t believe in love, especially not anything lasting after her mom left “for space” three years earlier, but her best friend Hallie loves to fall […]

From the creator of Ranma…. It’s Inuyasha!

Inuyasha, vol 1-18 (vizbig) by Rumiko Takahashi

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20ish years ago, a cousin gave me the first volume of the Inuyasha manga because it was “just like” Ranma ½, which I loved. I found it was almost nothing like Ranma and the cousin admitted that even though the two series were both by Rumiko Takahashi, they didn’t actually have much in common (that I was interested in). No one would ever get hit on the head with a fowl training potty in Inuyasha. I’d never see a yeti riding a bull while holding […]

“For four years we spied and we worked damn hard and we saved people’s lives and we made a difference and nobody cared too much that we were women. And then it all ended.”

The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester

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Ex-OSS agent Alix St. Pierre seeks a fresh start in Paris as the PR agent for the freshly established House of Dior, but her actions and enemies from during the war continue to dog her steps. This was the oldest NetGalley ARC on my shelf, so it’s with a real sense of satisfaction that I’m crossing it off the list. And it was fun to see yet another fresh perspective on World War Two, that of a female OSS agent, and better yet to see […]



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