Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Exciting historical fiction for the kids

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

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The Bletchley Riddle, a novel for readers age 10-14, was co-written by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. The two authors take turns writing chapters from the points of view of 14-year-old Lizzie (Sepetys) and her 19-year-old brother Jakob (Sheinkin). It’s a fast-paced, thrilling and educational mystery/spy novel set in the early days of WWII at Great Britain’s top secret location for code breaking — Bletchley Park. Sepetys and Sheinkin include tons of fascinating historical facts and real historical figures in their story. When the story […]

“What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.”

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter: A Novel by Stephen Graham Jones

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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a wild and bloody novel, and I’ve never read anything quite like it. Stephen Graham Jones takes the vampire story into new territory – late 19th and early 20th century Montana, the Western frontier where whites are violently encroaching and native peoples find their communities and their environment subject to horrendous brutality and destruction. What better or more appropriate way to tell American History than through a horror story. The novel begins in contemporary Wyoming where 42-year-old Communications and Journalism […]

The Drama!

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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Iykyk- this novel brings to life Caity Weaver’s infamous and amazing 2018 tweet about the Canadians ice ‘skating’ to Moulin Rouge, just switch it up with Americans and seven different covers of Wicked Game. Katarina Shaw has always been determined to become an Olympic ice dancer. With her childhood sweetheart Heath Rocha as her partner, it looks as if their championship dreams are destined to come true. But the road to gold never does run smooth and their partnership seems to come to a messy […]

“…your ambitions are a feast, Amina Al-Sirafi…”

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

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I’ve seen Shannon Chakraborty’s The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi on a lot of book lists as an entertaining fantasy novel not to miss, and it has been given good reviews here on CBR, too. I enjoyed it immensely and was excited to see that a sequel, The Tapestry of Fate, is coming out on May 12. Based on The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, I would imagine that several more novels will be forthcoming. If they are as imaginative and well written as this one, I […]

Smashing the patriarchy is a brutal business

The Poet Empress: A Novel by Shen Tao

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I picked up this novel based on Narfna’s recommendation, and I’m glad I did. This is an intense fantasy novel about power, magic, literacy and women. And as Narfna says, it is NOT romantasy, no matter how it might be marketed. This is Shen Tao’s debut novel, and she warns readers that it contains violence, sexual abuse, and torture, and some of this involves children. It can be a lot but if you can handle it, it’s worth the ride. The Poet Empress is set […]

Why Would Anyone Prefer Yorkshire to Greece?

Bride's Lace by Violet Winspear

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Two years after Bliss’s family home is sold to Paris, she must petition him to save her brother from jail – and the only thing he’ll offer mercy for is her hand in marriage. I’m not entirely convinced that a family that would name their son Justin would name their daughter Bliss, but go off, Harlequin Presents. This has your usual Winspear trademark dark, rich, and apparently sinister hero paired with an innocent heroine rather down on her luck. There’s lots of drama between the […]



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