Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Unextreme Utena

Revolutionary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito

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CBR18 Bingo – Justice: it’s about a girl who fights for what she believes is just, instead of just being a normal girl who doesn’t need to duel. Because it’s not normal (or just) for middle school girls to duel for their life all the goddamn time. Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of my favorite animes and I had no interest in ever reading the manga because I was not interested in the story without all the things that the manga cut. That all changed […]

Proud, loud and fabulous

Play Proud: Fiercely Fabulous Queer Athletes by Rob Sanders and Izzy Evans

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Recently published in May 2026, Play Proud: Fiercely Fabulous Queer Athletes by Rob Sanders and illustrator Izzy Evans has an enjoyable concept and the extras at the end were clever and helpful, but it felt a bit rushed at first. Once I got into the flow of things I realized that the book is a poem about people who “did the thing” proudly. Some would come out later in life, others have been out for most of their athletic careers, but that was not the […]

Water and fish

Fish and Water by Gengoroh Tagame

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Cbr18 Bingo – And: see title, although I’m not sure why it’s called that though. Maybe because that’s how natural the two characters are together. Fish and Water by Gengoroh Tagame just came out in the US, and even includes non-permission to use the content of the volume for AI. It’s the first time I’ve seen (noticed) an AI training prohibition statement. However, the story is from 2022. And it feels like it. Koji is a freelance writer and the pandemic lockdown didn’t change his […]

Time traveling lesbian here for a good time AND a long time

The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan

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CBR18 Bingo – Summer: I read this in the summer, which is when peaches are ready. The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan is very short, but it packs in a lot. I might have preferred something longer or more comic book. But it’s not hard to find Chinese fairy tales and the cover artist (Jenn So) not illustrating the entire book isn’t a real issue. So I have no actual complaints. Mei is Chinese-American, but wasn’t raised by her white adoptive mother […]

trying to femme-queer up my romcoms

Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun

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CBR Bingo: Map, because this entire book is frameworked by the map journey that Sadie takes along the Camino de Santiago. hot take: I like the concept (although I did like The Pairing better in the questioning queers questing genre) but found myself annoyed with the extreme insistence that there’s some mandatory experiences needed to be queer. Because even if Mal constantly emphasizes that they’re not necessary, it still implies that without some combination of alt hair/tattoo/Birkenstocks/grunge hair you’re doing it wrong…and a book meant […]

Sparse yet dreamy atmosphere

The Wolf and his king by Finn Longman

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Bingo Square: You (one of the novel’s POVs is 2nd person) I quite enjoyed this novel. It has a kind of dreamy quality to the writing; it’s a queer retelling of a 12th century French werewolf story, and it has a bit of barebones feel to the storytelling that makes it feel like a fairy tale and transports the reader back to an older time. The chapters alternate between “Him” (Bisclavret), “You” (the king), and “Other” (the wolf). Bisclavret has lived with his curse his […]



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