Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A lovely middle grade fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

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#CBR11 Bingo: Far and Away (book set in fantasy version of historical China) Official book description: In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life’s questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask […]

A Mostly Average Riordan Novel

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After the last of the Norse mythology books, I honestly thought Riordan was losing his touch.  I don’t know that much about Norse mythology so I had been excited to use the series to learn more, but in the end, the series, and especially the last book, felt very rushed to me.  However, I was already two books into The Trials of Apollo series, and since I am nothing if not a completionist, I didn’t let that disappointment deter me from reading this one.  Overall, I actually […]

One to Bind Them All

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Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (1988) – There are several books on my shelves that I must reread every couple years because I miss them.  The Lord of the Rings is one of them (along with Dune, Harry Potter, and the Modesty Blaise books).  I guess I originally read it in the seventies and have reread it consistently through the years.  Although I’ll try not to compare the book with the movie, after you’ve seen Viggo and Elijah as Aragorn and Frodo, it’s […]

First the smiles, then the lies. Last comes gunfire.

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Homestretch on Ye Olde Darke Towere Marathone! I’m actually starting to be sad that there are only two left plus the movie. And there had better be whole bunch of those, too, is what I’m saying, do ya. If I’m being honest, I think that Stephen King didn’t start leaning into the conceit of this series until about the time that I went all in, and that’s probably the reason I was finally able to invest fully. The more I think about it, the clearer […]

I am, in short, a man on the edge of everything.

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OKAY FINE, STEVE. I am on record as not totally loving The Gunslinger but being willing to go along for the “Dark Tower” ride for a while to see what all the fuss is about. King has proven himself to me with basically everything else I’ve read of his as an adult, so he has a certain amount of capital with me. Plus, I like to read before watching, and if you think you can tear me away from Idris Elba at the end of […]

What do you seek?

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I have had this one on the bookshelf to read for quite a while and was looking for an audiobook to round out the year, so Mr. Penumbra’s is it. I struggled with my rating, vacillating between 3 and 4 stars. For me this book was uneven, in that some parts I loved, and some left me wanting more, but overall I found it a charming and delightful story, and definitely of interest to book lovers, nerds, the anyone who finds themselves in both categories. […]



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