Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


‘He is in a dream but the beast is not. It comes! Wake!’

The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody

by Leave a Comment

Ok, I am trying my best to keep the momentum up here because I feel that I may not have much free time in the next few weeks after quarter starts. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, Obernewtyn, The Obernewtyn Chronicles ended up expanding beyond the author’s original plans. There was originally going to be five books in the series, making The Keeping Place, the penultimate volume. Instead, The Keeping Place ended up as book four of seven. And maybe the […]

‘Futuretellers Ken th’ Danger of Dreams Best’

Ashling by Isobelle Carmody

by Leave a Comment

In my previous reviews for the Obernewtyn Chronicles, I made the twin observations that Obernewtyn is a very contained story and it’s The Farseekers where the series starts to find its feet. Now I can state that it’s in the third volume, Ashling, where the plot starts to learn to run. Ashling takes place about a year after the events of The Farseekers, and we open with Elspeth rescuing a gypsy woman from being burnt at the state by the Herder Faction. While the woman is […]

“And now, born from the ashes, she’s a warrior in bloodied black.”

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

by Leave a Comment

CBR16 Sweet Books: Binge Nowhere Book Bingo: A YA novel Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Epistolary romance CBR16 Bingo: Part 1 and Part 2 (the book has more than 600 pages) This is the second book in a series, and starting with this one means a lot of stuff won’t make much sense. I also don’t think it’s possible for me to review this book without spoiling the previous one, so if you’re not up to date, start with Illuminae. After the disastrous events, first on […]

Confusing, but fun

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

by Leave a Comment

Nowhere Book Bingo: Award Winner (Won the Hugo and Locus awards in 1998, plus a bunch of others) Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Scene on a boat or body of water (there’s a lot of rowing on the river) CBR16 Bingo: Tech (time travel requires pretty specific technology) This is the second book in the Oxford Time Travel series, but you really don’t need to have read the first one, Doomsday Book, to understand and enjoy this one. In the universe these books are set in, […]

Animal Prophecy? The Bird is the Word.

The Farseekers by Isobelle Carmody

by Leave a Comment

Well, that bingo card is keeping me motivated— ‘Part 2’ is sitting right there. And my need to procrastinate from packing and moving. That too. One of the more tricky things about reviewing books from a series is that I’m always wary about giving too much away. I think this will be a constant issue for the Obernewtyn Chronicles, since there are seven  books. So while I’ll try not to reveal too many big spoilers from the current book I’m going over, the previous ones […]

Nostalgia. And My Favorite Cat.

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

by 2 Comments

Obernewtyn, by Australian author Isobelle Carmody, is the first book in what was originally meant to be a five part series. However, this original plan didn’t quite pan out and The Obernewtyn Chronicles ended up pulling the same kind of seam-splitting expansion that would later be codified in popular culture by The Song of Ice and Fire by growing to a total of seven books. Which were published across nearly thirty years*. The series itself is as old as I am.  I’ve always had a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo