Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

There are no distractions from you. You’re every idea I’ve ever had.

The Roots that Clutch by TheCryingClub

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The Roots that Clutch ― TheCryingClub (A Normal People AU) I’ve taken a liking to Hozier’s music lately and I can trace the origin back to when I read this fic for the first time. I think what keeps pulling me back to it, and what resonated with me in Normal People, is the feeling of bittersweetness that lingers, mellowing from a sharp pain to a dull throb. It’s this gorgeous aching that pulls my mind back to this story again and again. The title […]

Mr. Willoughby Rides Again

The Late Mrs. Willoughby (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney, #2) by Claudia Gray

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I enjoy this series so much. There’s just something so pleasurable about watching a talented author who knows Jane Austen’s work in all the right ways play around in that world and with those characters, and then add in a well-executed murder mystery on top of that and I’m gonna be happy no question. This is like, the essence of good fanfic, except it’s polished, professionally published fanfic (hence my shelf name). So last time we had Mr. Wickham getting his just desserts, and this […]

Adding vampires to history and historical fiction, metaphor or plot device?

Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman

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Bingo 16: History Scarlet is basically fan-fic of historical fiction; totally counts for history since the historical part is real (revolutionary-era France). The historical fiction base is The Scarlet Pimpernel, set in the aftermath of the execution of the rulers of France; if you don’t know the story basically the mysterious masked hero from England saves the lives of French nobility by sneaking them out of France while the French authorities try to put a stop to that. So, basically, Batman who is British and […]

Does what it says on the tin. #CBRBINGO – Snake

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

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The short, spoiler-free version: Two thumbs up, very fun. Surprisingly angsty. Does justice to murder mysteries and to Jane Austen. The longer, mostly spoiler-free version (spoils the premise and which characters are in the book from the Jane Austen canon): But where is Elinor?? I am disappointed that she only merits a couple of mentions in this book when we are in Marianne’s POV, but maybe Claudia Gray just doesn’t love her as much as I do. That’s pretty easy to do, I guess, because […]

Found Family is Just My Favorite Trope, Forever

It's Called A Flush by Deniigiq

Flush: Chatlog by Deniigiq

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My brother is an OG-we-had-the-Darth-Vadar-Cases-for-our-action-figures Star Wars fan. One of the only things my brother says he will never forgive my mom for is falling asleep in the theater when she watched A New Hope for the first time: In her defense, she was 16, and leaving the house childless for the first time since my brother was born, so she was pretty tired. She remembers the words crawling up the screen, a ship, and that’s all folks. New moms everywhere can understand. I know […]

Extra Reading March 2022

Batman: The Killing Joke by Christa Faust and Gary Phillips

The Big East: Inside the Most Entertaining and Influential Conference in College Basketball History by Dana O'Neil

In The Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

The Banks by Roxane Gay, Ming Doyle (Illustrator)

One Night, New York by Lara Thompson

The Secret Lives of Married Women by Elissa Wald

Lost and Found in Harlem by Delia C. Pitts

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Scandal in Babylon by Barbara Hambly

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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These are the books I finished in the month of March in which I didn’t have time or words to elaborate on… Batman: The Killing Joke *** Two of my favorites team up for a Batman prose novel? Yes! But the end result is just okay. Interestingly enough, I think both writers do a better job with the random Gothamites than they do with the Caped Crusader and his primary nemesis. You’re fine just reading Alan Moore’s legendary graphic novel. The Big East: Inside the […]



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