Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Personhood in Sci-Fi

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon

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Volatile Memory fulfills the “purple” square on CBR17 bingo. Generally speaking, I don’t consider myself a sci-fi reader, but Volatile Memory kept coming across my feeds because it’s sapphic and I finally gave into the promo, and I’m glad I did because this ended up being a really interesting story. I’d put it in the same conversations as books like Automatic Noodle and The Stars Too Fondly for the ways it explores transness and gender through presentation as well as whether memories make a person […]

Multigenerational missing girls and ripple effects

Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

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Salt Bones fulfills the “family” square on CBR17 Bingo. Actual rating: 4.5 stars Salt Bones is a story of myth, which missing girls matter, and cycles of generational pain. I was really excited to read this based on the premise of Persephone and Demeter story through a Mexicali perspective, and this was great. There are so many different mother-daughter dynamics explored, and all of them dealing with different kinds of trauma. The Veracruz family seems to be cursed because twenty years ago Mal’s younger sister, […]

And the Rose Goes Oh No

Here For the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang

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Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: review. I read this based on the review here.  My journey into sapphic romance continues with this fun little number. Also, before I begin, the women who co-wrote this apparently fell in love each other while writing it, which is the most adorable thing ever. And in the last romance I read, the writers were a wife-wife team. So maybe I have a thing? Or maybe it’s just coincidence. Either way, I don’t follow The Bachelor or shows like […]

One of my favorite fantasies

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

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The Oleander Sword fulfills the “green” square on CBR17 Bingo. I read and reviewed this book for the first time back in 2022 and it still has me absolutely devastated and sitting here filled with feelings. Luckily this time around I have The Lotus Empire at hand and don’t have to wait to find out what happens next for Priya and Malini! The Oleander Sword takes place a year after The Jasmine Throne and is a story full of the ripple effects of war and […]

Ground Control to Major Tom

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Bingo Square: Work (because astronauts and NASA) I really enjoy Taylor Jenkins Reid and her novels – as books, Malibu Rising and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo are my favorite of hers but the audio version of Daisy Jones and the Six elevates that novel beyond what is on the page (I do consider audiobooks reading and they count as read book but sometimes I want to distinguish how I read succinctly because for things like Daisy Jones, it actually is kind of a […]

A warm squishy hug!

Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis

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[Nav’s Foolproof Guide releases April 29, 2025] I’ve been following Jessica Lewis’ books since her debut, and I was so excited to see what she’d do with a romance. Suffice to say I was not disappointed! Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love feels like a warm squishy hug and builds the tension between Nav and Gia so wonderfully. Nav doesn’t believe in love, especially not anything lasting after her mom left “for space” three years earlier, but her best friend Hallie loves to fall […]



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