Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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when I hold you like I hold that bakelite in my hands

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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Can you really like a book while still strongly disliking nearly everyone in it? I found Landline to be compelling and affecting, but I was driven to states of near agony by the overall behavior of the protagonist and almost everyone else in her orbit. The setup: Georgie McCool (a name that could be very silly, but as a person with a seemingly “fake name” I am on board) is a writer on a cheesy TV sitcom. She and her writing partner, Seth, have been working […]

Magical Realism and Baked Goods

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber

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As I come off of winter break and into the craziness of a new semester, I’ve been drawn to books that are a bit lighter in tone, to balance out the more serious stuff I’m reading for work.  I’m looking for things that go down easy and don’t tax my brain or require intense concentration.  Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber provided just the mix of magical realism and baked goods that I needed. This novel tells the story of two daughters who […]

Run, don’t walk, to read this trilogy!

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, 1) by N.K. Jemisin

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And a happy new Cannonball year unto you! It’s my first review of the new year, and as last year my full cannonball slipped through my fingertips I’m hopeful that this is the year…of redemption. But like, also, this is the year of realizing that it’s just a number and as long as I’m reading I’m a winner. Onto my first review! I had already heard of N.K. Jemisin from LeVar Burton Reads, the podcast wherein the ever delightful LeVar Burton reads short stories. He […]

“It is very important to approach all unpleasant tasks in life as a performance art piece, especially if you are a teenager.”

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country & Other Stories by Chavisa Woods

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Goth or not, country or not, if you have ever been a teenager then SOMETHING in this collection of stories will speak to you. Maybe you’ve never befriended a drug addict squatting in a mausoleum, and maybe you’ve never had a bad trip at a MENSA party hosted by your girlfriend’s parents, but there are definitely some teenage feelings rolling dark and deep in all of us! Chavis Woods has labeled and celebrated that feeling of “something more”; most notably in the titular story, “Things […]

less practical, more magical

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

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Twenty two years after the publication of Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman fired up the ol’ Owens Family Cauldron to brew up (I apologize for NOTHING) the story of “The Aunts”. Before Jet and Franny were kooky caregivers with cupboards full of teeth and dove hearts, they were kids squirming under the overbearing but uninvolved eyes of their midcentury modern parents. Necessarily, when re-approaching a well-defined but of-its-time creation, one must get a little creative with facts and figures. Practical Magic was already a bit screwy with time, […]

the Sanderson sisters are still my favorite witchy siblings, but the Owens family are not messing around!

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

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Lookout y’all, it’s re-read time! Alice Hoffman used to be a favorite author of mine; we slowly went our separate ways after The Museum of Extraordinary Things. There was no big breakup; we just grew apart. We wanted different things. The separation was so slow and gentle that I forgot that she was an author that I really liked, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a new prequal to Practical Magic hitting the shelves, oh wait, there already was a prequal? This […]



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