Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

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I went back and forth on the rating on this one, and only because parts of it dragged. However, when Poston got into the rhythm of the book it really came together. How many romance readers among us would not love to be able to step into a romance series we love? It was a great premise and I liked the magical realism parts of the book a lot. I think the biggest issue I had was liking the character of Eileen. I just found […]

some content warnings mar an otherwise champagne-and-froth delight of a book

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

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BINGO: Rec’d, I suppose, as this was one of my birthday gifts this year–funny to go full circle from receiving books in elementary school because I had to invite my entire class and no one knew anything about me as I wasn’t friends with them, to receiving books for my [cough cough] from friends who know I read and are anxious to find things I haven’t! h/t to Ryan 🙂 hot take this book has some unfortunate racist bits, as is unsurprisingly common in literature […]

the presence of true innovation in literature is one of the most hopeful facets of reading

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

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BINGO: migrant, as everyone on these ships is migration to/from Earth and Alpha Centuri hot take who would have thought that a book about AIs and the limitations of their programming would touch my squishy organic heart so much and be the first thing in a while I’ve read that I genuinely didn’t want to put down, and which I didn’t know how it would end! What a quirky little book that absolutely nails its gimmick from the get go. Our POV characters are varied, […]

hot take exactly the book I needed, despite having literally no context or appreciation for the in-universe joke

Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon

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BINGO: Red, what a fantastic dress our female hero’s got on What a funny book, I knew it was something something but I didn’t bother to look too closely before picking it up — while I’ve found her Hurricane Wars series a bit uneven, Guanzon’s earlier fannish work remains some of my all time faves. I’ve grown out of the descriptions of clothes for sure, but she’s got a deft touch for dialogue and scene setting…and a very good touch when it comes to frick […]

hot take the vibe was good, but the magic system (or witchcraft, or what have you) suffered from some floppiness that ruins the tension

Weyward by Emilia Hart

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BINGO: “Green” — so much of the book is about the Weyward relationship t to nature, and while it’s more about animals than trees it still feels green to me It’s a classic issue: if there’s magic, there needs to be flaws which prevent our characters from just MacGuffin-ing their way to a happy resolution. Call it the Kryptonite Conundrum, wherein Superman is required to have a rather odd, easily transported weakness lest he turn up at every fight, punchy punchy stare-y stare-y and everyone […]

hot take, turns out even if you avoid the overt government racism, there’s still normal First Nations racism to deal with

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

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BINGO: the letter “B” Tis the season for multiple POV books, I guess, as this flips between two interwoven lives and also between timelines. In the 70s (?) (ish?) the youngest daughter of a Mi’kmaq family goes missing during the annual berry picking season in Maine. Joe, the second youngest, is the last to have seen Ruthie, but despite everyone’s strenuous efforts she remains lost at the end of the season when everyone has to leave and go back to the homestead in Canada. Joe’s […]



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