Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Red Bones

Red Bones by Ann Cleeves

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I inherited this one from a book club friend and read it on a little weekend beach outing. I don’t usually seek out thrillers/mysteries – I find that their quality/pacing/gore levels/etc. vary so wildly that I have a hard time finding one that sticks. In other words: I’ve given up on a lot of thrillers, but I finished this one! It’s apparently #3 in Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series, and apparently also has been made into a BBC show. The more you know! Anyway, here’s the […]

Mists and Mystery

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

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Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson, is Book One of the Mistborn Original Trilogy. Although I read a good amount of fantasy, I have, for some reason, never read any Brandon Sanderson. But, since this year is the 20th anniversary of the original publication of Mistborn, I thought I’d give it a shot. And I’m glad I did. Mistborn is a very good book. The world-building is phenomenal, from the political system to the actual sad, gray, ash-covered lands. The magic system is new and interesting, and […]

Hawthorne & Horowitz go to the movies (sort of)

A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz

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CBR18 BINGO: And, because this is the 6th book in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series Anthony Horowitz is back with another Hawthorne mystery, and the premise this time is that his novel The Word is Murder is being turned into a movie! As you can imagine, this novel has fun skewering the movie biz, including pretentious directors, diva actors, ultra-progressive writers, and cut-throat agents. On the other hand, Horowitz the character is surprisingly chill about the modifications being made to his story, saying, “When a […]

This would have been better as a YA fantasy

Dominion by Jean Kwok

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CBR18 Bingo: 26 (published this year. This month, in fact) Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now. Rubi is an azure, a group of displaced and badly treated refugees. In this fantasy world, there are four dominions, each with its own specialities. There is the Azure Dragon dominion, which can control plants and all things growing, and many of their people can shapeshift into animals; the Scarlet Phoenix dominion, which […]

Get Off My Island!

Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler

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CBR18 Bingo: Sheep – The doctor and Dore, and later the Wittmers, all come to Floreana hoping to live simpler, more rustic lives, growing their own food and tending to their own animals. When Friedrich, a German doctor, and his former patient and lover Dore decide to move to an uninhabited Galapagos island in search of a pastoral setting for their self-improvement, they did not know the publicity and violence that would follow. I had a vague recollection of this bizarre story from hearing about […]

Yes, hello, we are here, perched on the balustrade, biding our time and being magnificent.

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

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I had to take a breather from Hugo award voting for a while, but I thought I’d jump back into it this year. Only to have this doorstopper from an author I had not come across before dropped on my feet. Thankfully, The Raven Scholar turned out to be an absolute page turner, a bit of a kitchen sink of fantasy tropes, and a lot more playful than I expected. An absolute joy to race though.  Now to those fantasy tropes: one of the things […]



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