Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Her magic was as blunt as she was: like a nuke hidden in a birthday cake.

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

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I don’t know what prompted Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey to write a book together, but I am so glad they did. I’m also very excited that there will be another book from them. The Dead Take the A Train is the first in the Carrion City duology. I saw an ad for the book a couple of days ago, and John Langan blurbed the book as “compulsively readable.” I can’t think of a better description. It was hard to put down, and even when I […]

“All it takes is one voice, singing in the darkness.”

Rainbow in the Dark: The Complete Saga by Comfort Love and Adam Withers

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Cbr15bingo nostalgia, bingo This 2013 graphic novel would fit a number of categories for bingo, but given its overall message, I am using it for “nostalgia.” Rainbow in the Dark takes place in a world that looks like ours but that has been taken over by a dark force called the Gloom. The people are unaware that they are in its grip until a band of warriors frees them. Their response to that freedom is what drives the narrative forward and makes the story relevant […]

A Change in the Weather

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

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From the outside the Barneses are a stereotypical Irish family. The father, Dickie, runs a car dealership and garage he took over from his father. The mother, Imelda, is a housewife still beautiful enough that strangers ask her if she’s a model. Daughter Cass is a bright student destined for university life in Dublin, while son PJ is a curious and rambunctious little boy. But, in parallel with the crashing economy, the Barneses are falling apart. Sales are down at the dealership, a problem exacerbated […]

The Lake House Meets Just Like Heaven

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

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Bingo Square: Sex Book publicist Clementine is about to move into her late aunt’s apartment. She doesn’t really want to, too many memories. She spent a lot of time with her aunt, travelling together over the years, and feels her loss immensely. But her aunt left the apartment to her, and she remembers how she’d told her it was magic. She doesn’t necessarily believe it until she finds a young man standing in the living room. A man who is living seven years in Clementine’s […]

“Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say”

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Bingo Square: Getaway, replacing Edibles Melinda has started her freshman year of high school as an outcast. Over the summer, she called the police on a party, which resulted in some people being arrested. Even her oldest friends are furious at her. Her parents seem mostly irritated by her, especially towards her lack of effort at school, but she finds some solace in her art class. There the teacher allows them to experiment and is encouraging of Melinda’s work. New girl Heather, desperate to fit […]

Enough really is Enough

Nat Enough by Maria Scrivan

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So this review is out of my comfort zone. While on a weekend getaway I wandered into a bookstore and got several book recommendations, including  Maria Scrivan’s Nat Enough.  I asked about graphic novels and the owner steered  me into the children’s section. I haven’t read any books directed at kids recently besides Harry Potter and Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. It was a fun read, and seems unlikely to cause any parents to get into an uproar. Natalie is starting middle school. She is […]



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