Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


These (Slow) Burning Stars

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

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These Burning Stars, by Bethany Jacobs, is a revenge-driven, bloody, action-heavy space opera. It’s full of political intrigue, social commentary, and gun fights. And I thought it was excellent. It was, however, slow to start for me. In fact, I originally started it several months ago and got a little stuck in the first chapter due to all the unfamiliar terminology. The author doesn’t include a glossary, so it was a bit hard for me to keep track at first. That feeling went away after […]

They go into the woods and do what?

An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr

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In the lives of these two young people there was no middle distance. The result was bound to be either love or hate, and in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Bodman it was hate of the most bitter and arrogant kind. ― Robert Barr, An Alpine Divorce The term “Alpine Divorce” came to my attention a few weeks ago. Last month, an Austrian man was convicted of manslaughter after leaving his girlfriend behind so he could get help during their mountain climbing expedition. I […]

“In-Yo would say that the war was won by silenced and nameless women, and it would be hard to argue with her.”

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

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Nowhere Bingo 26: Novella Dark Corner Selection: January 2026 Chih is a young cleric from the Singing Hills monastery who travels around the country searching for stories and history. At the shores of Lake Scarlet, Chih finds the abandoned dwelling where the former Empress In-Yo (the titular Empress of Salt and Fortune) spent her many years in exile. Chih encounters the elderly Rabbit, one of the Empress’s former handmaidens, who tells Chih stories of her own past and how it intertwined with that of the […]

A perfectly fine book, just not for me.

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

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Honestly, this is a good book, and I knew when I bought it that things might turn out this way, but I wanted to give it a shot. This is a vampire story, and above all, a story of revenge. I enjoy a good revenge story now and then, but this is the type I do not care for: one that takes its characters to places they cannot come back from. Also, depressing. Specifically: SPOILERS their journey of vengeances leads our two main characters, an […]

Magical Girls Grown Up

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

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Bingo 24: Swap Free Space for Diaspora Free Space invoked because I don’t have anything specific in mind for the Diaspora square and time is not on my side. I picked up The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry for the title. No other reason. Turns out this is actually book 2 in a series, but that doesn’t actually matter, as this story is pretty stand alone as far as I could tell. A lot is classic fantasy and romance tropes getting mixed up. Sometimes there’s […]

Revenge on a Train

With A Vengeance by Riley Sager

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Before embarking on a journey of revenge, dig a lot of graves. More graves than you expect to need and then maybe one more for good luck. You just never know how many you might need to achieve it. Stay flexible. Anna Matheson lost her entire family due to the actions of six people. She’s spent the last twelve years plotting their downfall, culminating in a twelve hour train ride from Philadelphia to Chicago. She’ll confront them with their crimes and then hand them to […]



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