Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Gratuitous Jason Isaacs

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

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Big Sky Private investigator Jackson Brodie is on an assignment to spy on a cheating couple. He has taken his thirteen year old son along with him. The son is bored and, quietly, so is Jackson. One night, he meets a desperate-looking man, standing at the edge of a crumbling cliff. Though Jackson manages to get the man off the cliff, the chance encounter leads him to something far more sinister.  I love Kate Atkinson and I’ve read the entire Brodie series up to this […]

How To Be A Groovy Witch

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

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“In this world there is one truth; everything has a price, and every price must be paid.” -Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix Fifteen-year-old Fern (not her real name but the name she is given for most of the book) is a girl in trouble.  It’s Flordia in the summer of 1970 in this novel (although Fern hails from Alabama) and Fern is in the unwed mother-to-be kind of trouble.  She is also, I will point out fifteen, but in the time and place in […]

Loss, Race, and Self Determination

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

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This book is, among many other things, about grief and loss, and about women unwilling to diminish their desires to live full and complex lives. – Author Danielle Evans I didn’t know anything about Danielle Evans’s book The Office of Historical Corrections when I bought it, but I loved the title. The book is a series of short stories and one novella. Although I earned my MFA in short fiction, I have discovered I don’t really like to read short story collections that much. Not […]

Optimistic dystopian fiction?

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

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In an alternate universe in 1899,  travelers wishing to cross the land between China and Russia have only one option: the Trans-Siberian Express. The area known as the Wastelands is a dangerous zone: it’s populated by monsters, the air is poison, and even staring at the view too long will mess with your head. Still, the train has a reputation for luxury, especially if you can afford a First Class ticket. Who wouldn’t want to experience the adventure of a luxurious trans-Siberian excursion, with a […]

This one’s for the birds

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton

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Stupid Dungeon Crawler Carl books! Ever since I finished them, I have been struggling to find a book that really sucks me in. I have read decent novels since then even, but nothing has absorbed me as much or felt as “un-put-downable” since. This novel is another like that – cute, whimsical, not at all serious, and pleasant to read but it’s not the kind of novel that has me staying up past my bedtime to keep reading. As the magical birds might give away, […]

Magic isn’t real

The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods

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The story: Abby Mendenhall runs the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers in Minneapolis in the 1890s. A new girl, Faith, appears on the doorstep needing a place to stay. Faith doesn’t speak and quickly creeps out some of the other girls with her slightly witchy ways that hint at mesmerism, a sort of hypnotism that was trendy at the time and that didn’t require any words, only actions. Abby has Faith room with May, who is eager to leave the Bethany Home but only if […]



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