Cannonball Read 12

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A Title Both Literal and Not

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

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I saw the author post something on social media before this was released about how some early readers didn’t think the novella had enough fighting to be wuxia. Zen Cho said that was because she meant for the novella to be a fan-fic of an imaginary 50 episode tv series of that genre. I don’t really know much about wuxia but I do think that The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water has the flavor of it at least. The general premise is […]

Kidnappings, murders and snooping around in a high-class brothel

A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn

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This is the fifth book in the Veronica Speedwell series. There will absolutely be spoilers for some of the previous books in the series. Skip this review if you’re not up to date. It’s an excellent series; if you want to start at the beginning, pick up A Curious Beginning.  Official description: Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian colleague Stoker are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to help with a potential scandal so explosive it threatens to rock the monarchy. Prince Albert Victor is a regular visitor to […]

A book and a protagonist who are many things at once

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

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Margaret Atwood is nothing if not a hardworking novelist, and often something of a genre chameleon: she has made her work in science fiction with the MadAddam trilogy, dystopian fiction with The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, literary retellings with The Penelopiad and Hag-Seed, and historical fiction with works like The Blind Assassin. Alias Grace, her 1996 Booker-finalist novel, is another of her forays into historical fiction, and it showcases Atwood at the top of her game, with a subtle, elusive narrative that employs narrative uncertainty and distinctive character voices, as well as […]

An Native American novel “tender with significance”

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

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“The sun was low in the sky, casting slant regal light. As they plodded along, the golden radiance intensified until it seemed to emanate from every feature of the land. Trees, brush, snow, hills. She couldn’t stop looking. The road led past frozen sloughs that bristled with scorched reeds. Clutches of red willow burned. The fans and whips of branches glowed, alive. Winter clouds formed patterns against the fierce gray sky. Scales, looped ropes, the bones of fish. The world was tender with significance.” It […]

Smash the Patriarchy

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

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The Mirror and the Light ends Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell, a commoner who rose to the heights of power serving Henry VIII only to die by the axe as a traitor. This third volume is a slog — 759 pages devoted to the last years of Cromwell’s life, from the summer 1536 to the summer of 1540. While volume two tripped along a good clip in its depiction of the fall of Anne Boleyn (always interesting to read about), this […]



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