Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Neighbors

My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and  Edward Gauvin

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When I get on a browsing spree, I find myself down so many rabbit holes, I twist my brain. This means, I will find something I like the looks and/or sound of and find a copy. But when I do finally get the copy, I forget why it drew me in. So it is a wonderful surprise. This happened with My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and  Edward Gauvin (author/illustrator and translator respectively).  In the end, the reason I wanted to […]

I probably shouldn’t admit I liked this…

Hide and Seek by Naono Yoshiko and Ryan Holmberg

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Hide and Seek by Naono Yoshiko and Ryan Holmberg (translator) is not a nice book. But an amazing read.   I would have given it a 5 but a few pieces of “scare” and culture might have been lost in translation so I was not sure why the situation was supposed to be “that scary” or the exact “thing” that was going on. Also, the images were a bit “blended together” for my tastes. I do like the black and white look as it keeps […]

One of the few rated five

Festival of Shadows: A Japanese Ghost Story by Atelier Sentô, Cécile Brun and Oliver Pichard

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When I read Festival of Shadows: A Japanese Ghost Story by Atelier Sentô, Cécile Brun and Oliver Pichard, I had two feelings about it. The first was that it was horrible. The second was that it was amazing.  These conflicting feelings are both real. This book is a book that I felt as much as I read. And all the feels I was having, got mixed and mashed together and made me not have a happy tummy. Yet, I can’t get over how good things […]

Supernatural friendship

Frank the Monster by Mats Strandberg and Sofia Falkenhem

Maud and the Very Eventful Week (The Adventures of Maud the Vampire) by Lisa Anchin

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Short books are the reader’s friend. You get to read and not take a long time doing it. You accomplish something. And honestly, sometimes those “little wins” mean a whole lot. That’s one reason why I like children’s books. Not only are they fun, neat and good stories, they can be ways to entertain yourself when you don’t have a lot of time to spend on something longer. Recently, I needed some quick reads to clear the mind of the serious books I was reading […]

Book currently out, reivew written well before and not edited….

Three Little Witches and the Spooky Old House by Peggy Archer and Gaia Bordicchia

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The cover of Three Little Witches and the Spooky Old House by Peggy Archer and Gaia Bordicchia (illustrator) makes it look like a sweet story. But, no! It is a spooky, creepy, scary tale! It has three little witches who are sneaking around, in the middle of the night! With brooms and sacks and cauldrons! And look at those impish grins appearing on their faces! Or at least it starts that way. As you move along, the three witches cook, clean and do witchy things, […]

Are all fictional detectives neurodivergent?

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

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4.5 stars Dark Corner selection: April 2026 Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Award Winner (Hugo and World Fantasy Award 2025) CBR18 Bingo: Map (there’s a map at the start, showing the various walls to keep out the Levianthans) Official plot synopsis (since I’m reviewing a book I finished in APRIL): <i>In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and […]



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