Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

When you’re Evil (ish) and make a mean latte

teenagers, self-esteem, good and evil, fame villains, by Kennedy Tarrell

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When I saw the cover of Evil-ish by Kennedy Tarrell I figured it would be in the fantasy genre and I hoped for a graphic novel. The graphic novel hinting covers have fooled me often of late so I was hoping I was not going to be disappointed and instead of a good, old fashioned graphic novel, I would find myself reading a (gasp! clutching pearls) a NOVEL! Actually, that hyperbole works well for this cute, fun, and cozy familiar story. Our main character is […]

The Patriarchal Cult

The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: green cover. See photo. I’ve had some major life changes this year; mostly good, some not so good. As a result, I’m not only behind on my reading but I’m not cataloging here like I usually do. Maybe at some point, I’ll do a series of posts on the books I’ve read this year that I just didn’t have time or energy to write about. I lift this up because I’ve been diving through the Department Q series thanks […]

It appears that 19th century soap opera adventure stories are my thing!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

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Reviewer Note: In 2024, I started to read the free version of The Count of Monte Cristo that is available from Project Gutenberg (my go-to resource for novels in the public domain). After reading 200 pages, I couldn’t understand why I was so bored. This novel has more action than a Die Hard movie, yet I was struggling to stay interested. I decided to do some research into what’s considered the best translation of this novel, and I found recommendations for the edition translated by Robin […]

A nice anthology of mildly gruesome stories

Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

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This is an anthology of interconnected short stories that takes place in Tokyo in an indeterminate time, but presumably sometime in the 1990s. Each of the stories (of which there are eleven) is from the perspective of a different character, and shares some commonality to the story that immediately precedes it. In “Afternoon at the Bakery”, for instance, the narrator enters a bakery for some strawberry shortcake. It’s her son’s birthday who (it is revealed) is now dead. That is what his last birthday cake […]

Rage Against the Machine

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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This review contains some mild spoilers which I think are given away in the book jacket. Iron Widow is a YA story set in a future city of Chinese inspired Huaxia where men and women pilot mecha type suits to protect the population from aliens around the Great Wall. The suits are called Chrysalises, and the pilot, a man, teams up with a woman in the back in a merging of energy and minds that usually result in the woman’s death. This is how the […]

Push their faces together and make them kiss already

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

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When her gaze finally reached his face, she had to swallow a sigh and bury it where nobody would ever find it. But how could she help it? His jaw was sharp and angled enough that it could be a weapon itself, strong enough to make her insides quiver. Don’t let him quiver your insides, Evie. ― Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Assistant to the Villain When she cannot find a job, Evie stumbles into the new role of the assistant to The Villain. Not “a” villain […]



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