Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Being a ghost isn’t that different to being a war photographer. Long periods of boredom interspersed with short bursts of terror.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

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Malinda (Maali) Almeida is dead. He’s just taking his sweet time working it out. No, he’s not still hallucinating from some “silly pills” a friend might have slipped him; he is well and truly dead, and he has no idea how that came to pass? Maali is—or was—the son of a Sinhalese father and a Burgher mother. A closeted gay man with a gambling problem, he was also a photographer who served many masters during the political upheaval of 1980s Sri Lanka. As a man […]

Yabba Dabba Ghost

Diary of a Dinoghost V01Unlikely Friends by Monica Arnaldo

Diary of a Dinoghost V02 Sworn Enemies by Monica Arnaldo

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I had a list of online reader copies. And Diary of a Dinoghost boos …   I mean books … one and two kept coming up. I figured I had a few days to read them as the first Unlikely Friends was due in August 2026 and two is due in November 2026 under the name, Sworn Enemies. They are both written and illustrated by Monica Arnaldo and are part of the A Branches Book grouping. Anyway, I kept putting them off, but one day […]

Historian friends to lovers, a haunted mansion and a potentially explosive teaspoon

The Antiquarian's Object of Desire by India Holton

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Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Stirling are both history professors at Oxford with a speciality in magical antiques. They have been best friends since childhood, but any hint of affection between them could be ruinous to Amelia’s reputation and the careers of both. As a result, they have to appear to be enemies and stage elaborate public fights every so often to make sure all their colleagues believe them to be bitter rivals. One such fight, involving a volatile magical teaspoon, causes a big enough explosion […]

“It figured that she’d avoided getting nagged to go to law school, only to get nagged to become a vessel for the dead.”

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

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3.5 stars Jessamyn “Jess” Teoh is feeling aimless and adrift. Born and raised in the USA, she has just moved to Malaysia with her parents, and they’re staying with one of Jess’ aunts while her parents are looking for their own place to stay. Jess is unemployed, broke and hiding the fact that she has a girlfriend in Singapore. Her girlfriend wants her to get a job in Singapore, so they can be together, but Jess keeps lying to her about her job searches. So […]

A prime example of how a poor narrator can almost ruin a book

Phantasma (Wicked Games #1) by Kaylie Smith

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As you can probably tell from the title of my review, I listened to this as an audiobook. I didn’t fully dislike the book, but the narrator’s portrayal of the main character had me annoyed. Ophelia is a budding necromancer, and she’s reeling from the sudden death of her mother. She has to basically take over the family business of bringing back people’s loved ones for closure before she’s fully trained or ready. There’s a whole game aspect (some might call it the plot) with […]

“Like the old Shadowhunter motto says, “Shadowhunters: That Evil Demon Stuff Is What We Are Here For.” But in Latin, probably.”

Secrets of Blackthorn Hall: An Illustrated Shadowhunter Novel by Cassandra Clare; ilustrated by Cassandra Jean

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When the Blackthorn great-aunt dies, to the surprise of everyone she leaves her house in England to Julian, with the proviso he has five years to fix it up before ownership reverts to the Clave. So off Julian and Emma go to merry old England, to deal with large spiders, piles of dust, gnome contractors, and the ghost that is apparently tethered to the house. Can they solve the mystery and free the ghost, or will they be buried around all the secrets that lurk […]



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