Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“In the daylight, his hair was a riot: a true, bright copper. It looked as though he’d sat in front of a mirror with a curling iron and painstakingly coaxed small pieces of it to curl in different directions. Or else he’d crawled out from a pile of pillows and not bothered to run a comb through it, and gravity had been so amused at the sight that it hadn’t interfered.”

Swordcrossed by Freya Marske

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Mattinesh Jay (Matti to almost everyone), dutiful heir to his family’s struggling wool business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. His fiance Sofia Cooper, heir to a thriving wine business, is the object of obsession love for one Adrean Vane.  (Who also happens to be, awkwardly, the son of the Jay family business’s senior agent.) A successful Sword-challenge at the ceremony would destroy any hope of restoring his family’s wealth (and keeping their reputation), something that […]

“Perhaps being a Light of God is difficult when you’re in a dank box on the ocean.”

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

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I am very glad that I read this book: one, it washed the taste of The Maiden and Her Monster out of my mouth; and two, because it was compared to Good Omens and (luckily) it earned that comparison. When the Angels Left the Old Country is about a small Polish shtetl (in fact, it is so small that it is only known as Shtetl) and the angel and the demon who are chevrusas (or Talmud study partners) there. The angel (occasionally called Uriel, usually […]

To know the ocean, I have always felt, is to recognize the teeth it keeps half-hidden.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

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Miri said this to me once: Every horror movie ends the way you know it will. ― Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea Having people be kind to you is so important, but it’s also incredibly irritating. It’s hard to find the balance of what you’re actually able to accept without wanting to hit someone. ― Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea When Miri’s wife Leah, a scientist and explorer, returns home safely after a submarine accident, Miri has to learn how to […]

The meter of the poem fired his blood until he was a molten core. The hammer’s song was a charm for living, a way to keep singing himself into existence.

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis

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The word eôel meant home turf. People trust home. Through years of investigation, her grandmother had learned that what people told you depended on where you talked to them. Lies for every space, but occasionally a truth snuck its way in.” ― Jes Battis, The Winter Knight When she had interviewed him, she’d traced a discreet rune on his phone case. It was sketchy magic, but it should have given her access to the phone’s GPS. The problem was that it wasn’t working. His location […]

Fantasy is Social Commentary and I Love It

Witch King by Martha Wells

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CBR15Bingo — Relation “ship” — This is a very relationship focused book and they spend time on two different ships as well. My first Martha Wells! And a nice way to start, as I fully enjoyed this book and am glad I went ahead and bought it at full price after dithering over it at the bookstore two days in a row. I got the B&N signed edition, which is a sturdy hardcover with her signature embossed in gold on the inside cover. I thought […]

Hot Fun in the Summertime (#CannonBookClub, June 2023) Discussion Post—Romance Edition

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(You know, you should probably also check out the discussion post for our Hot Fun in the Summertime cozy mystery selection, Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala.) The Romance Extravanga Whether you’re a returning CannonBookClub participant or a newbie, welcome! This is the place to discuss the three (count-em, THREE) Hot Fun in the Summertime romance selections. You don’t have to be registered for CBR15 to comment below, but there are a few ground rules: The topics are numbered, so please refer to them […]



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