Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

i would like more books with octopus protagonists

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

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Tova is a quiet, hardworking woman who still mourning the loss of her 18 year old son and more, recently, her husband. She has taken a job as a night janitor at the Sowell Bay Aquarium in order to keep busy. Marcellus is the resident Giant Pacific Octopus in the aquarium. And Cameron is an unmoored young man whose search for information about his parents leads him to Sowell Bay. What would have been a perfectly nice little story about people finding and making family […]

Kaput

Kaput: The End of the German Miracle by Wolfgang Münchau

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One of the non fiction books I picked up to interspace my typical fantasy reading, Kaput is a relatively short book that goes over the problems facing Germany right now. One of the things that I like to think about myself is being relatively up to date with world politics. And while that’s true, one thing that struck me while reading this, is that I had no idea what was happening under the surface in German politics. It’s hard to write a book review about […]

Don’t you know there’s a war on?

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

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This book very much suffers from middle book syndrome. This is supposed to be a five book series but I’m not sure Yarros has enough story for it, so this is a lot of filler. One issue is that Yarros isn’t necessarily a good enough author to write entertaining filler. Fourth Wing was incredibly derivative of so many other fantasy novels and tropes but it was also action packed, with fun characters, and there was fun world building. It was just a highly readable page turner. […]

Enemies to lovers at a performing arts summer camp

Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday

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Why: Learning that I adore Jenny Holiday’s Christmas in Eldovia trilogy, Emmalita recommended that I should read Into the Woods and I’m glad I did! What: Into the Woods is a contemporary romance.  Wild Arts summer camp is in last minute need of two artists in residence for the July and August sessions.  Through acquaintances Gretchen Miller and Teddy Knight end up filling in for the dance and instrumental music programs respectively.  After an initial round of wrong impressions and then bonding through camp experiences, Gretchen and Teddy […]

An Ode to my High School Crush

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

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I’ve read a number of books by Rainbow Rowell and always enjoyed them. She writes quiet, introspective, romantic, young-adultish novels with atypical protagonists. So, when I saw that Rowell had a new book out, Slow Dance (2024), I put it on hold immediately. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed this novel. It had well-written, flawed, believable characters, and a similar feel to her other books. Cary, Shiloh, and Mikey are best friends in high school. But Cary and Shiloh have a special bond. He drives her home every […]

“The hearts of men are alike wherever you go. The rest is scenery.”

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

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In the midst of the Peloponnesian War, more than 7000 Athenian prisoners of war are left to rot in Syracuse’s quarries – except a select few whom unemployed Syracusan potters Lampo and Gelon decide will be perfect to mount a pair of plays by the great tragic playwright Euripides. You might have to reread that premise. It’s a pretty whacky one, though some mild trawling of Wikipedia later revealed to me that allegedly some Athenian prisoners in Sicily did buy their freedom by reciting Euripides […]



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