Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Food, friendship, high school

Supper Club by Jackie Morrow

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CBR15Passport,(other format food as fiction story) If you want a teen graphic novel that is a funny, cute story of how food helps three friends deal with the ups and downs of being a senior in high school, a friend, and family member you need Supper Club.  Jackie Morrow’s story has one of those aged 10-to-14 feeling, but the subject matter is slightly on the older side (13/14 up). Still, I think a strong 10- to 12-year-old would be fine, as I am sure they […]

Old Magic in Not Too Old Times Past

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

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The Left Handed Booksellers of London sounds like an interesting premise, and thankfully one that gets pulled off reasonably well. One thing I will say right off is that it’s a lot more interesting if you know a little bit about British or Celtic folklore; I also think the 1980s setting doesn’t get enough attention and that’s a totally missed opportunity. In a lot of ways the story is pretty standard: country child comes to the big city to pursue an education and find the […]

I do love the cover of this book, especially paired with the title. It makes me laugh.

The Feeling of Falling in Love by Mason Deaver

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This was a cute story and well written, but I didn’t connect to it emotionally as much as I did with Deaver’s first book, I Wish You All the Best. Deaver still plays with themes of gender nonconformity and coming of age while queer and discovering your sexuality and gender identity, but their main character is a much more difficult and complicated person (read: kind of an asshole). This is also a romance, though as with their first book, the main character’s emotional growth is […]

A Few Squirts of a Turkey Baster

Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: New to you authors #1 Chrysta and her sister are the daughters of a dynamic and damaged woman, a single lesbian who yearned for a child in the rather unaccepting 1980s – and found her ideal sperm donor in a hair salon. But both Debra and Jeffrey hid many secrets from their children. There’s that oft-quoted opening sentence of Anna Karenina – “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I thought of that quote, and how […]

Probably the most creative werewolf book you’ll ever read.

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

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Oh, dang, I thought I had written a review of this one, but going through all my 2022 books to Review Amnesty, I see I have in fact, not done so. Real quick, if you’re looking for a starter horror/starter Stephen Graham Jones, this one might actually be a great book to read. And this book isn’t even all that horrific. It’s only really classified as horror because werewolves and because Stephen Graham Jones, but it’s really a coming of age story about a young […]

“They were supposed to grow up with their hands in each other’s pockets, compensating for one another’s weaknesses, encouraging one another’s strengths.”

Middlegame (Alchemical Journeys, #1) by Seanan McGuire

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This was my first Seanan McGuire book, which is a little unbelievable, both because she writes in genres I love, and because she writes so very prolifically. And I started with a really good one. I’m not against spoilers and frequently spoil myself for things, but I went into this book almost completely unspoiled, even for the premise, and I think that’s the way to go. The book is so weird it’s almost impossible to really sum up in a blurb anyway. So, how to […]



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