Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


He wanted to roll over and invite her to pet his belly, but he was in human form and it was a little too soon to be asking for that.

Fangs So Bright & Deadly by Piper J. Drake

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In the first of Piper J. Drake’s Mythwoven series, Wings once Cursed & Bound, Marie, a witch, is helped by two nine-tailed foxes while she is a part of a team rescuing Peeraphan. We know them only as Fox Number One and Fox Number Two, but that very short scene also reveals that they work with a morally grey organization called Babel, they took part in Peeraphan’s kidnapping and then regretted it when they learned the purpose, and they are very, very impressed with Marie. It […]

Bleeding Innocence Dry

Saving Susy Sweetchild by Barbara Hambly

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CBR16 Bingo: Disco – This mystery’s set amid the bright lights of 1920s Hollywood, featuring both it’s fast-living stars and the people behind the scenes who prop them up. English widow Emma has settled comfortably into her new life in 1920s Hollywood as her silent movie star sister-in-law’s companion and part-time script doctor. When a child star and her mother are kidnapped, she gets swept up in the mystery, if only because she and Kitty may be the only ones who really care if Susy […]

Conversations with Houses

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

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CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun – Both books play on your nerves, and just when you think the protagonists may be reaching safe harbor things only get worse for them. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – 4 stars Four people go to an allegedly haunted house to investigate – a scientist, a cheerful artist, a low down scoundrel, and a fragile, friendless young woman. All of them don’t return. This is a short book and slips by almost without you noticing it. At first […]

How could one ever capture a star?

The Muse of Maiden Lane by Mimi Matthews

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CBR16 Bingo: Celestial – Teddy paints Stella as Electra, one of the Pleiades of Greek mythology – the daughters of the Titan Atlas who were transformed into stars by Zeus. Grey-haired Stella is the only one of her friends still unwed, and does not expect to marry soon either. But between her new acquaintance with aspiring artist Teddy and the pressure from her brother’s impending marriage, Stella finds that her path may not be what she always envisioned. After a whirlwind read of the previous three […]

A very serviceable cast iron cookbook

The Encyclopedia of Cast Iron by Cider Mill Press

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Cider Mill Press’s The Encyclopedia of Cast Iron is a good, serviceable cookbook. As advertised there are more than 350 recipes in the book. What works: the recipes come from a wide variety of cuisines and look like they are solid recipes. I tried a few recipes. I appreciated that the recipes were presented cleanly on the page. For me, a cook with years of experience, the straightforward directions were great. For an inexperienced cook, this could be frustrating because the book assumes you know the […]

“Didn’t you know the insides of dogs and cows and birds and fish are exactly like that of man? The only difference is the clothes we wear!”

The Narrow Cage and Other Modern Fairy Tales by Vasily Eroshenko, Adam Kuplowsky (translator)

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CBR16 Bingo: Dreams – Eroshenko’s fairytales give us glimpses of his dreams for a more compassionate and peaceful future where all are respected no matter their gender, race, class, or ability – and the fears he has about what may have to be done to achieve them. Fairytales as oral traditions bear the stamp of the cultures that tell them; fairytales when written by an individual bear the stamp of culture channelled through that individual, which is a different thing altogether. There really are some people […]



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