Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A Long and Speaking Silence: “Certain Compassion. A wish for kindness, a hope for the future…., and what everyone hopes to find on a journey far from home.”

A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo

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CBR Bingo: Steal – One of the characters, Ha Beili won’t stop stealing things. In her defense, she doesn’t have anything or a job so obtaining necessities through standard means isn’t really available to her. This entry in the Singing Hills Cycle is one of the few, if not the only one, that has sufficient context clues to place it in the timeline of Cleric Chih’s adventures with some amount of confidence. Chih has only recently become a full cleric, and this is one of […]

Tusk Love: D&D and romance, what’s not to love?

Tusk Love by Tea Guanzon

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This book is both precious and horny, delightful and strange. It is a tie-in with a D&D actual play. This is the IRL book version of a fictional book that exists in a Critical Role campaign. Even without that context, I think that Tusk Love is a good story. Guinevere is supposed to appear like your standard DID (damsel in distress). However, she also has a magical secret. She harbors an enthusiastic fire spirit that she is able to keep at bay, but does not understand […]

Harlot’s Bay: A bit hit and miss

At First Spite by Olivia Dade

Second Chance Romance by Olivia Dade

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CBR Bingo: Season – Second Chance Romance is set in autumn, and we see the characters dressing for the season on at least one of their dates. I really like (most of) Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert series, so I decided to give her other work a try. I ended up DNFing At First Spite, but did finish Second Chance Romance even if I was a bit unenthusiastic about it. At First Spite Even from the beginning, I didn’t love this one. The premise is that the […]

Let’s Start At the Very Beginning

The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon

The White Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon

The Silver Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon

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Skandranon Rashkae, the Black Gryphon, is probably the most famous of the Mage of Silence Uthro’s creations.  He specializes in getting out of tight spots and completing missions that are said to be impossible.  However, even if Skan can pull off the impossible on a regular basis, the war isn’t going to be won by one gryphon.  Skan’s closest friend, Amberdrake, constantly worries every time his friend is out on a mission that this time will be the time that Skan doesn’t come back.  Amberdrake […]

historical fiction that was a bit too much fiction for me

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

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CBR Bingo: wealth, because this entire book is a monument to the wealth of J.P. Morgan A book suggested for IRL Book Group! This is a work of historical fiction, about the woman hired by JP Morgan to build out the collection of the Morgan Library. Belle da Costa Greene was a white-passing Black woman, who remained JP Morgan’s personal “librarian” until he died, never marrying but responsible for the accumulation of millions of dollars of rare manuscripts. And when I say millions of dollars, […]

the book that snapped me out of my funk

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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CBR Bingo: Bird, because this has birds on the cover (that counts, right?) hot take: This book grows up and becomes Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. longer take: so that’s the wrong title entirely and the wrong book, and now I’ve read the Wikipedia summary for said book I’m not going to go read it. Whoops all around. The book I was actually thinking about is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which is also about a slightly unpleasant older woman who’s reckoning with her past and how it’s impacted […]



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