Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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More (Magical) Real Than The Regime

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

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  I’ve been thinking a lot about why I appreciate magical realism but fantasy does nothing for me. For me, it reaches truths that fantasy (and other genres) can’t quite grasp. It gives a voice to othered writers, be they minority writers or from the Global South, or more often than not, both. In the hands of a skilled writer, it can express deep emotions like grief, love, and those invisible bonds that link us across generations. It can feel like a folkloric tale, touching […]

Botany, Bears and Beaver Ponds

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

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This is a lovely, sad, beautifully written book. I feel bad for everyone who rated it one star on Goodreads just because it wasn’t a faithful retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Because if you read it for what it is, instead of what it isn’t, it’s really quite wonderful. Ivey touches on themes of motherhood, love, personal freedom, mental health and the natural world, all in a dark fairy tale setting. Single mom Birdie does the best that she can for her daughter, Emaleen, […]

Picture it, Haiti, 1930s

When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede

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When the Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede is a romantic telling of a young girl learning her real place in the world through a perhaps lesser-known piece of history. A bit fanciful at times, and the ending a bit too convenient, but overall well done. A solid 3.5 for the rating and I will be looking for more by this author, but that might be awhile as this is their debut prose poetry novel. Lucilles’s (the narrator and heroine of our story) journey seems as […]

Brutally beautiful historical fantasy

A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang

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I was immediately drawn to this book, but struggled with eyeball reading, so I was so glad when I got an advance listening copy as well, especially so I wouldn’t be butchering the Chinese words and intonations. This is really intense and deals with a lot of really difficult topics, and it’s hard to say any of the characters (though especially Ba) were likable, but the ending left me with a feeling of hope and healing. Told through three (four?) perspectives, A Beast Slinks Towards […]

“The town of Stony Lonesome spreads like scrambled eggs. It spills, runny, over the hot desert pan, but then heaps up all around you, making this place feel smaller than you thought.”

Gumshoe by Brenna Thummler

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I was unsure about this when I saw it in the bookstore, but I’m glad I gave it a chance because I ended up thinking it was quite good. Sometimes it’s good to push through my initial negative reaction! Gumshoe is a magical realist middle grade/YA graphic novel (definitely appropriate for middle schoolers, but it’s dense and complex enough that I think it’d be good for the YA reader as well) about Willa, who has intense social anxiety and wants more than anything to be […]

It’s hard to resist a book with a cat on the cover

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida

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I’m probably late to the trend (I usually am), but I hadn’t noticed until fairly recently how many books written in Japan center around cats. Last year, I read the touching If Cats Disappeared from the World, and the surprisingly comforting Blanket Cats. The disappointing Before the Coffee Gets Cold did not include a cat, but it should have, and I think the publishers knew it needed one because they put a cat on the cover. Anyway, I’m continuing the trend in 2026 with a […]



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