Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A minority opinion: This book is fine

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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Last month I went away for a long weekend and stopped in a lovely little independent book store with a great backstory. Predictably, being away on holiday coupled with an adorable shop put me in book-buying mode, so when I spotted The Correspondent, its enticing cover and knowing it received so many excellent reviews compelled me to buy it. I love independently owned book shops, so I feel good about this purchase. The book itself turned out to be in the “could have been a […]

“Like the old Shadowhunter motto says, “Shadowhunters: That Evil Demon Stuff Is What We Are Here For.” But in Latin, probably.”

Secrets of Blackthorn Hall: An Illustrated Shadowhunter Novel by Cassandra Clare; ilustrated by Cassandra Jean

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When the Blackthorn great-aunt dies, to the surprise of everyone she leaves her house in England to Julian, with the proviso he has five years to fix it up before ownership reverts to the Clave. So off Julian and Emma go to merry old England, to deal with large spiders, piles of dust, gnome contractors, and the ghost that is apparently tethered to the house. Can they solve the mystery and free the ghost, or will they be buried around all the secrets that lurk […]

“I know you cannot be swept away from sanity by a popular movement which has so much that is bad about it, no matter how strong it may be.”

Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressman Taylor

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A very slim but powerful read that I really enjoyed. This was a Christmas gift/recommendation from my mom, and I’m glad she did gift it to me, as it’s right up my alley of related interests. This book especially struck me because it was published before the war began in 1938, but it is so prescient and clear minded about the moral and physical dangers of the rising fascism in Germany. It has that timeless air to it of a book that saw the future […]

“The world changed faster than I could”

Don't Cry For Me by Daniel Black

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BINGO – Minds (the narrator reflects at the end of his life in the various ways that he has changed his mind on certain truths he once believed) Jacob is dying. He knows that his time is almost up, but he has some things to resolve, namely with his son Isaac. In a series of letters to his son Isaac, Jacob tries to go back to the very beginning of his life and explain where he comes from, where their family has roots, how his […]

The *uick Brown Fox

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

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“I am so fearful, Ella, as to where this all may lead. A silly little letter, to be sure, but I believe its theft represents something quite large and oh so frighteningly ominous.” There is small island called Nollop off the east coast of the United States named after Nevin Nollop, the author of the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. In Nollop’s honor they have erected a statue of Nollop’s likeness with his famed sentence hung underneath. One morning, the […]

A gorgeous love story that develops through time and letters

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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This is How You Lose the Time War deserves the hype. The more fantasy I read, the more I crave something that pushes the boundaries, something that really wows me. Several of the books I read did this year by being ‘utterly bonkers’, as I’ve described them, but This is How You Lose the Time War managed it in an entirely different way. Technically, I think this is science-fiction, not fantasy, but it still pushes the boundaries because it is, first and foremost, an epistolary novel, […]



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