Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it.”

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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Back in 2022 I read and loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built and its companion book Prayer for the Crown-Shy so when I came across the Read Harder task this year to read a novel where a character uses they/them pronouns I immediately took the excuse to add a re-read of these Becky Chambers books to my annual to do list. I normally don’t use re-reads for Read Harder challenges, but because my soul has been crying out for a good cathartic cry with Sibling Dex and Mosscap I decided that it was okay this time.   […]

A weird heartwarming story about dead people

Hotel Limbo V01 by Ben Harel

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Okay, Hotel Limbo V01 by Ben Harel….  What the h-e-double hockey sticks did I read? This is one confusing, wild, unusual and crazy book. In other words, it is a must read. Okay, readers. I cannot tell you the story. Sure I can but it then tells you everything you would experience and honestly you should go into this book with no preconceptions other than that it is a journey and experience. But I will say we deal with death. Except it’s funny. Until it […]

“They were to one another what fixed stars are to sailors: The only way through the dark.”

The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow

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I’m gonna start with a blanket spoiler warning, and also this: If you haven’t read The Everlasting, don’t look at any of the graphics, or anything I’ve written past this point, because nearly every sentence could be a spoiler, if taken in parts or sum.  Just know that this book is excruciatingly good and you should read it, without knowing anything… else about it, if at all possible. If you have read The Everlasting, come, follow me into what’s probably already the beginnings of lifelong […]

On Proust, memory, and relationships

Departure(s) by Julian Barnes

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CBR18 BINGO: Left, because this is Julian Barnes’s last novel; ergo, there’s nothing left I’ve always had a difficult relationship with Julian Barnes. Sometimes I read a line and think, “What a genius. No wonder he won the Booker Prize.” Then I read a bit more, and I just feel tired. Departure(s), which Barnes has said is going to be his last book, is a blended novel, comprising elements of memoir, essay, and fiction. This format is what prompted me to realize that, as a […]

Heavy on Quirkiness, Light on Depth

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

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CBR18 BINGO: Wheels I have been wanting to try Andrew Sean Greer, and this really piqued my interest when it came out. Plus it has such a charming cover. Alas, it did not meet my hopes or expectations. The narrator is semi-nameless. He is called Giovedì by his employer, but that’s not his real name. He was hired just out of college to travel to Italy and archive the contents of Villa Coco, owned by the Baronessa Lisabetta (AKA Coco). While there, he hopes to […]

The Enemy of My Enemy is… Weirdly Hot?

Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers

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CBR18 Bingo: Bird – Sir Cameron gets turned into a vulture by the evil sorcerer Merulo, in which form he enjoys eating various rodents and pooping on Merulo’s castle walls. When Sir Cameron narrowly escapes death from the hands of his friends in an effort to fulfill a prophecy to defeat a mad sorcerer, he flees for help to the only other person who is now invested in keeping him alive – the sorcerer Merulo himself. This is a light-hearted and charming adventure with some […]



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