Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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We go from military campaign to political intrigue in book two

The Shadow Throne: Book Two of the Shadow Campaign by Django Wexler

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At the end of last year I finally got around to reading The Thousand Names: Book One of the Shadow Campaigns and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Thousand Names is primarily about a Vordanai military campaign, in the foreign desert land of Khandar, told through a couple of perspectives.  The Shadow Throne completely switches gears and setting.  It keeps Winter Inhernglass (Lieutenant and female in disguise) and Marcus d’Ivoire’s (Senior Captain) narratives and adds two new ones; Raesinia Orboan (heir to the throne) and Duke Orlanko (Ministry of Information, spy […]

If you love fairy tales

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

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I’ve always enjoyed fairy tales and became a bit obsessed once I discovered the darker original Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson collections.  This book evokes those tales but the stories have been spun in different and interesting directions, in part because it was created as a volume of fairy tales that the characters in the Grishaverse (the world setting Leigh Bardugo created) would know.  In 2012 Leigh’s publisher asked if she would write a prequel story for her first novel Shadow and Bone.  But instead […]

In which the cute cooking manga takes a depressing turn

Kitchen Princess: Vol. 5 by Natsumi Ando (artist), Miyuki Kobayashi (writer)

Kitchen Princess: Vol. 6 by Natsumi Ando (artist), Miyuki Kobayashi (writer)

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Last year my seven year old got into a cute cooking manga called Kitchen Princess.  I read and reviewed book one for Cannonball Read 10 but then only skimmed through the second through fourth books.  After reading volumes five and six my daughter somberly told me that a character had died and requested that I read them too.  This was an unexpected turn for a shojo manga.  The first four volumes contained a beginning love triangle between female protagonist Najika Kazami and brothers Daichi and Sora […]

Dare to be different and true to yourself

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

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Sebastian is a prince who, when looking in a mirror, sometimes sees a princess instead of a prince.  Sebastian longs to express this other side of himself but is afraid of the resulting reactions, particularly what his parents will think.  Frances is a low level seamstress in a shop.  She has daring fashion designs in her heart but the shop Frances works for does not share her artistic vision. Seeing one of Frances unique designs at a ball sparks an idea in Sebastian, to hire […]

Muskets and magic, and females in disguise, oh my!

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The Thousand Names has sat on my 2013 TBR shelf for five years now.  Each time I would pick it up I would go, “Eh” and set it back down.  There wasn’t any real reason for my dislike.  My husband had read this and two subsequent books and liked them all.  But for some reason each time I picked it up and the knowledge that it was in part about a colonial like military campaign would give me pause and back on the shelf it […]

Cannonball! – I crushed my goal with Ms. Marvel

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Earlier this year I accidentally read the fourth Ms. Marvel graphic novel before the third, Ms.Marvel: Crushed.  Instead of immediately going back and reading number three I went on to read other things.  When I was ready to pick it up, I couldn’t find it, the house seemed to have eaten it.  About two weeks ago it resurfaced and I decided to save it to complete my cannonball.  Sosuke is not as thrilled as I am, since his nap was disturbed to take this photo. […]



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