Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I Thought There’d be More Unicorn.

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden

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Arden has returned to mixing historical fiction with fantasy again. This time insead of medieval Russia, Arden is taking inspiration from the life of the last heiress of Brittany—before France married her off to force a union between the two crowns. The historical Anne of Brittany didn’t exactly have the happiest of lives, but maybe in retelling, things may go differently? The first half of the book did an excellent job pulling me in: Anne is in a precarious position; she knows France is trying to […]

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it.”

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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Back in 2022 I read and loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built and its companion book Prayer for the Crown-Shy so when I came across the Read Harder task this year to read a novel where a character uses they/them pronouns I immediately took the excuse to add a re-read of these Becky Chambers books to my annual to do list. I normally don’t use re-reads for Read Harder challenges, but because my soul has been crying out for a good cathartic cry with Sibling Dex and Mosscap I decided that it was okay this time.   […]

We all find refuge any place we can.

Refuge by Dina Nayeri

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Refuge is, appropriately, about the places we seek refuge: partnerships, houses, families, communities, meals, spaces.  The narrative is mostly about Niloo, a young Iranian-American who emigrated to the U.S. with her mother and brother in the 80s.  Niloo’s father, a dentist with a proclivity for opium, remained in Iran.  Niloo is now a 30 year old living in Amsterdam and married to a French dude who by all accounts adores her, and her father is divorcing his third wife and apparently interested in rekindling some […]

Life is just a bowl of (sour) cherries

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CBR10Bingo: Delicious Finding a book for this CBR10Bingo square was oddly tough for me, as nothing in my TBR list really jumped out at me as being obviously about food. When I started pulling my books off the shelf, one by one, and saw those gorgeous yellow cherries on the cover of Dina Nayeri’s Refuge, I knew this was the one.  Early in the book, Niloo’s father imparts his life’s philosophy to his young daughter.: “Life in Ardestoon is a shank of lamb so bursting […]



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