Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Life, love and rock climbing

Kirby's Lessons for Falling [in Love] by Laura Gao

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Kirby’s Lessons for Falling [in Love] was neither loved nor hated. I mean, Laura Gao did a lovely job of story, text and art, but at the same time, I was thinking, “Something is missing.” It moved quickly, has some new takes on familiar themes, and for the most part I like how things turned out. Yet, giving it a score is hard as I loved most of it, but there were places I did not. Probably why I am having trouble figuring out a […]

“She was a half-wild thing of ink and grass and sea breezes, raised by books and rabbits and fairy lore, and that was all she cared to be.”

The Magician's Daughter by H. G. Parry

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Biddy lives on a small, magically isolated island off the coast of Ireland with her guardian/foster father, Rowan, and his familiar, the rabbit Hutchincroft. No one who doesn’t know that it’s there can find it. While Biddy has no magic of her own, she has grown up with it all around her. Yet magic is fading in the outside world, and far too often, Rowan has to leave Biddy to go to the mainland in bird form to find some small reserves of it. She […]

Two erasers in a pencil case

Inbetweens by Faith Erin Hicks

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When you are a fan of an author, or at least with me, I find one of two things happening with a book: Either  I love it so much that even if it is bad, I don’t notice. I am just a fan blinded by my fangirling mind. Or I am terribly disappointed and figure that there is no way my author wrote it, as I have way too high expectations for it. Thankfully Inbetweens by Faith Erin Hicks was neither.  It is in between […]

Princess and the bird

The Magical, Wonderful Bul Bul Bird by Jonathan Kruk and Rob Bridges

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When I sit to write out a draft of a review of The Magical, Wonderful Bul Bul Bird by Jonathan Kruk and illustrator Rob Bridges, I have trouble finding the right words. After mentioning that the book is a rich story, with elegant illustrations that are keeping with traditional inspiration and modern sensibilities making what the author and illustrator made an interesting experience to read. Well,that is pretty much it. One could mention that the book is longer than the usual picture book, but I […]

Me and my neighbor

The Blackout by Luis Amavisca and Francesc Rovira

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The cover of The Blackout by Luis Amavisca and illustrator Francesc Rovira (due October 2026, read via an online reader copy) makes the book look like it would be a slightly different and more mature story. Instead, it is a sweet picture book (that I hope is not oversized as it has an unusual look to the actual cover illustration) about how family—even found family, who is literally in the dark—makes everything a little better. The illustrations are perhaps my favorite part of things as […]

“I’m a fuckin’ honey badger and by this claw”— she held her hand up—“ I fuckin’ rule.”

Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston

In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston

Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston

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I picked up the first book on Saturday and was done with the third by the end of the week. Like Pringles, you can’t have just one. Hot and Badgered – 4.25 stars When a naked woman tumbles onto his hotel balcony while escaping her enemies, Berg’s happy to give her a T-shirt and a gun, but doesn’t expect to see her again. But it turns out that Charlie’s problems are manifest, and when they bring her to Manhattan, he’s happy to lend her a […]



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