Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“The fairy silver brought you a monster of fire for a husband, and me a monster of ice.” (Bingo)

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

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#CBR11 Bingo: Listicle (on a bunch of best of 2018 lists, including NPR, Bustle and Bookbub). Would also work for “Award Winner”, as it’s won a Locus Award, and ALA Award and an Audie, or “Remix”, as it’s a fairy tale retelling. Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of Jewish moneylenders, but her father is a dreadful one, who doesn’t have the heart to actually claim back the debts that the villagers owe, even when his daughter is starving and the long, cold winters are making his wife sicker and […]

A lovely middle grade fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

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#CBR11 Bingo: Far and Away (book set in fantasy version of historical China) Official book description: In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life’s questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask […]

In which I rant about the heroine

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

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I was about the day I finished The Girl in the Tower-years old when I realized two things: one, this series is YA darkish fantasy romance; and two, I don’t especially care for YA darkish fantasy romance. The problem is that there are a few characters I do want to see what happens to and the setting is interesting, with its mix of Russian folklore and history. I also do like the conflict from the first novel, not so much present here, between the old […]

A promising start to a new series

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

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Spoiler warning! While this is the start of a new series, it does follow on directly from Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy and her Six of Crows duology. While you will understand the plot fine if you haven’t read the previous books, you WILL be spoiled for events in both series. Spoilers may also appear in this review. Proceed at your own risk. From Goodreads, because I finished the audiobook two months ago (sigh): Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in […]

A Little Less Sparkle the Second Time Around

The Ancient Magus Bride The Silver Yarn by Kore Yamazaki et al.

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The second The Ancient Magus Bride short story collection, The Silver Yarn, had some ups and downs, and in the end I wasn’t quiet as in love with the stories as with the first collection. I think maybe it was partially expectations, and partly the fact that the first collection had more references to the original characters and series. This set was still entertaining, it just didn’t have the same sparkle. Three stories stood out for me this time, and as it turns out, they […]

Great from beginning to end.

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy, #3) by Katherine Arden

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Time to buckle down and once again go at my review backlog. Apologies in advance for the sloppy or haphazard reviews about to spew forth from my keyboard. This trilogy, to sum up, is worth it. It’s a bit of a slow burn in the first book as Arden really sets her stage, with amazingly detailed descriptions of what life was like in medieval Russia, but I think all that set-up is more than worth it for the end product, which was a coming of […]



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