Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It’s magic, you know, never believe it’s not so!

Spell Bound by F. T. Lukens

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Spell Bound by F. T. Lukens was recommended to me by a YA librarian friend. ( I read this as a passport book – recommended by a friend.) The story is told in alternating chapters by two magician’s apprentices: Rook and Sun. Rook, who was raised by his magician grandmother, is deemed unmagical. After her death, he is sentenced by the Magical Consortium to move away from his home and live in the city without magic. He is a genius (he keeps telling us that) […]

I just can’t with this book

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

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Reasons why this book grated on me (mild spoilers but I don’t care, you shouldn’t read it anyway): Copious boob descriptions. Behold: The twin peaks that strain against the middle buttons of her blouse Her soaked T-shirt leaving her as good as naked from the waist up.  But even though her breasts were resplendent – small but perfect, with nipples standing up like finials in the pelting rain… The nipples inert in the heat of the day The way she let it all hang out […]

“The world was filling with ghosts. We were a haunted country in a haunted world.”

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

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This is a book I wouldn’t have picked up if not for one of my book clubs, and this is exactly why book clubs and stuff that makes you read outside your comfort zone are so fun. This book was so good! A real treat for book-lovers, and for humans who lived through (are living through?) the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn’t get excited about this one until somebody told me it was about a woman who is haunted by her least favorite bookshop customer, who […]

Oh, the foreboding!

The Marriage Portrait: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

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Maggie O’Farrell’s last two novels have been works of historical fiction that deal with heavy topics. In Hamnet, it was the death of William Shakespeare’s young son from the plague, and in The Marriage Portrait it is the death of the 15-year-old Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia de’Medici, thought to have been murdered by her own husband. O’Farrell is a master of foreboding, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat while waiting for the horrid event to occur. And yet, despite the fact that […]

A Cozy Story that Won’t Stress You Out

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

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I must have felt like I needed a book hug, since I chose this one, which was described as a cozy read. I’ve heard of cozy mysteries and have been curious about the quaint worlds they inhabit. To be clear this is not a cozy mystery, it’s a cozy story – a gateway drug of sorts into cozy mysteries. This is a story about Mika, a witch who lives in England. Mike meets with other witches, in a sort of bi-monthly support group, but members […]

A great debut novel

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo

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This is one of those books about what could very well be about normal life. But it’s told in such an engaging and intriguing way. Adebayo is able to take the things that we all deal with – longing, loss, infidelity, belief – and show us how extraordinary we all really are. In a lot of ways, Stay With Me is a mirror reflecting our own desires, shortcomings, and struggles. We learn this by experiencing the lives of Yejide and Akin, who live in Nigeria […]



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