Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

A hopeful future with robots and food

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

May 27, 2025 by LB 1 Comment

If you need a story of chosen family and hope and good food, Automatic Noodle absolutely fits the bill. This is a delightful novella of a near-future where California has split from the United States after war, and part of California progressiveness was to give civil rights to human equivalent embodied intelligence (HEEI) robots. But those rights are limited – they’re not able to use a bank, own property, and there’s lots of prejudice against robots (very allegorical to American attitudes towards immigrants and marginalized […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #food, Annalee Newitz, friendship, near future, noodles, novella, queer, Romance, San Francisco, tor publishing, trans

LB's CBR17 Review No:5 · Genres: Featured, Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #food, Annalee Newitz, friendship, near future, noodles, novella, queer, Romance, San Francisco, tor publishing, trans ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment
Cover of Knife River by Justine Champion with a small house with lights on in the windows and darkening purple sky

“I would shiver the whole night through”

Knife River (2024) by Justine Champine

April 20, 2025 by drmllz Leave a Comment

When it comes to mysteries, I find the plot to be almost the least interesting thing–as long as it’s not too lazy or derivative or actively insulting to the reader, and fits into the vibes of the story. What I do care about, then, are the vibes–if the vibes are there, if the texture of the story is something I can snag myself on, I don’t really worry about clues or reveals (which I’m bad at predicting anyway). The vibes are pretty immaculate in Knife […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: cbr17, crime fiction, drmllz, Justine Champine, Justine Champion, mystery, queer, Small town

drmllz's CBR17 Review No:3 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: cbr17, crime fiction, drmllz, Justine Champine, Justine Champion, mystery, queer, Small town ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

The splash of my tongue melting you like a sugar cube

Crush by Richard Siken

April 14, 2025 by carmelpie 5 Comments

I learned about Richard Siken through Pinterest of all things. For those of you who frequent Pinterest, especially those dedicated to romantic pairings from books, the boards are littered with snippets of poetry rendered in retro fonts. Bits of Siken’s poem Little Beast kept showing up in my feed. However, finding a copy of his Yale Series of Younger Poets poetry collection was challenging and I had to special-order it from the UK. Since it is only sixty-two pages plus a forward, I thought I […]

Filed Under: Featured, Poetry Tagged With: abusive relationships, gay author, poetry collection, queer, queer author, Richard Siken, violence, Yale Younger Poets Prize

carmelpie's CBR17 Review No:10 · Genres: Featured, Poetry · Tags: abusive relationships, gay author, poetry collection, queer, queer author, Richard Siken, violence, Yale Younger Poets Prize ·
Rating:
· 5 Comments

Queer fantasy novella feat. shape-shifting, mammoths.

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

March 19, 2025 by Fiat.Luxury 1 Comment

This was a delightful novella, surprisingly rich for its 100 pages! Here’s the summary: Cleric Chih is a cleric in an order whose mission is to record history accurately. They are traveling via mammoth (!) with a guide, Si-yu, but are attacked and trapped en route by three wild – and hungry – tiger sisters who are also shape-shifters (!) To stall their captors, they propose to tell the human version of the story about the tiger Ho Thi Tao and the human scholar Dieu. […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories Tagged With: Nghi Vo, queer, shape shifter, when the tiger came down the mountain

Fiat.Luxury's CBR17 Review No:10 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories · Tags: Nghi Vo, queer, shape shifter, when the tiger came down the mountain ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

New Cool Book Alert: The Thorn Key

The Thorn Key by Jeana Jorgensen

March 6, 2025 by cosbrarian Leave a Comment

The very cool Jeana Jorgensen – folklorist, professor, dancer, and sex educator – has published a gorgeous collection of her fairy tale themed poetry in her new book The Thorn Key! I love Jeana’s academic work. Her books Fairy Tales 101 and Folklore 101 are amazing introductions to both studies, teaching its readers a TON in a way that is fun and conversational. I should have reviewed those here LOL! If you have been interested in learning more about the history and study of fairy […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Poetry Tagged With: Fairy Tales, feminist, Jeana Jorgensen, poetry, queer, queer author, Quick read, women's issues

cosbrarian's CBR17 Review No:15 · Genres: Fiction, Poetry · Tags: Fairy Tales, feminist, Jeana Jorgensen, poetry, queer, queer author, Quick read, women's issues ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
Cover of Nav’s FoolprGuide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis . In the illustration, a young white woman with long brown hair and glasses, wearing a pink and red strawberry print dress faces a young black woman with short curly brown hair, longish on top with a fade on the side. They are smiling at each other. Between them is a corgi.

A warm squishy hug!

Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis

February 7, 2025 by LB 1 Comment

[Nav’s Foolproof Guide releases April 29, 2025] I’ve been following Jessica Lewis’ books since her debut, and I was so excited to see what she’d do with a romance. Suffice to say I was not disappointed! Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love feels like a warm squishy hug and builds the tension between Nav and Gia so wonderfully. Nav doesn’t believe in love, especially not anything lasting after her mom left “for space” three years earlier, but her best friend Hallie loves to fall […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction, Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: contemporary, friendship, Jessica Lewis, lesbian, queer, Romance, romcom, sapphic

LB's CBR17 Review No:3 · Genres: Featured, Fiction, Romance, Young Adult · Tags: contemporary, friendship, Jessica Lewis, lesbian, queer, Romance, romcom, sapphic ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment
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