Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


It could be (at least somewhat) my own fault this one isn’t my favorite

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

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It has been a long while since I read the first two books in Freya Marske’s Last Binding Trilogy, which may account for some of my complaints about A Power Unbound. I remember Adelaide being a part of the first but not the second story, and when she comes back in the third, I couldn’t remember much about her personality or backstory-wise. As a result, her parts (small but in one or two spots, important) felt underdeveloped and like I was missing something. She’s a […]

Jane Austen fan fiction with murder!

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

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Mr. Knightley and his wife, Emma (formerly Miss Woodhouse), have been happily married for several years. They are inviting a number of friends to a houseparty; Mr. and Mrs Darcy of Pemberley with their son Jonathan, Colonel and Mrs. Brandon (no children yet, as they are very newly married), Captain and Mrs. Wentworth,  Edmund and Fanny Bertram and Miss Juliet Tilney, daughter of  Henry and Catherine Tilney. Unfortunately, they also receive an unexpected and unwanted addition to the party, Mr Wickham, who has unfinished business with several of the members there. The Knightleys would […]

“Maybe all I need is a purpose.”

Singing With Elephants by Margarita Engle

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11-year-old Oriol wants to go back to Cuba. Ever since her grandmother died, she’s felt lost at her Santa Barbara, CA home. School is difficult, her older sister has less time for her since she got a boyfriend, and the only place she is truly happy is helping her parents at their veterinarian clinic. This clinic is no ordinary vet: her parents are specialty vets, assisting with wild and unique animals. In a show-biz state like California, they have a lot of work. One day, […]

Napoleonic Europe Weren’t No Fairy Tale

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

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The Wild Girl is a fictionalized narrative of the life-long relationship between Dortchen Wild and the Brothers Grimm.  Kate Forsyth has pieced together her version of events from the actual documents of the Grimms and the Wilds, filling in the blanks with inspiration from the Brothers Grimm collection of fairy tales.  We know that the Wilds and the Grimms were neighbors, that Dortchen was the source for many of the Grimm’s most famous fairy tales, and that she and Wilhelm married, but unconventionally late in their […]

April 2024 Leftovers

X = : Poems by Stephen Berg

Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

The Hurricane Blonde by Halley Sutton

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais

Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird

Sleep With Strangers by Dolores Hitchens

The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn by Josh Young

One of Us Is Wrong by Sam Holt

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker

The Second Murderer by Denise Mina

Blackmailer by George Axelrod

The Darkest Glare: A Story of Murder, Blackmail, and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles by Chip Jacobs

Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith

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Happy April, y’all! X = : Poems**** This is why library book bingos are necessary. I only checked this one out because I needed to read a book of poems and I wanted to check the nettlesome “X” off the A-Z reading list. A convoluted reason to begin with and this wasn’t even the book I thought I was getting! I thought I’d get a different X by a different author. I’m glad I got this one. Some of these really spoke to me, including […]

An Intense, Important Middle Grade

Lion of the Sky by Ritu Hemnani

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I was immediately intrigued by the cover of Lion of the Sky with the two boys flying kites, and when I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to read it. For some reason I’ve been coming across more books, and middle grade ones at that, talking about the Indian Partition and the experiences of those who survived. This was my first story which focused on a Hindu family migrating from Pakistan, and the similarities and differences of the experiences are striking, and utterly heartbreaking. […]



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