Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

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 […]

A thoughtful mix of poetry and fairy tales

The Seventh Raven by David Elliott

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The Seven Ravens is a cool fairy tale. It’s very similar to The Six Swans – both are categorized as “brothers who turn into birds” folktales. But I prefer The Seven Ravens. It focuses on a peasant family instead of a princess.  The parents are lovely people – no evil stepmothers or greedy fathers here.  A brave girl saves the day. And ravens are cooler than swans. Sorry, swans. If you don’t know the folktale, it is the story of a peasant couple who have […]

Warrior Women with Bad Attitudes

The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston

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When I spotted The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston, I had a vague memory that yesknopemaybe gave it a positive review for CBR10. I also remembered that the protagonist was a former Marine. The expectation of a legion of ass-kicking women convinced me to buy it on the spot. With the start of CBR11 Bingo, I was spurred to action to read it for the Cannonballer Says square. As the first book in Laurenston’s Call of Crows series, we are introduced to Kera Watson, the ex-military […]



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