Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

“But it was a mistake thinking of that as an end. There is no end. Bad things happen, and then they stop, but they keep on wreaking havoc inside of people.”

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

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CBR 13 Bingo: Rep – Rowell’s portrayal of Simon’s depression is a very frank picture of what depression can feel like and how it affects relationships. Contains Spoilers if you have not read Carry On and Wayward Son. This is Part Two of my rereading books one and two of Rainbow Rowell’s, Simon Snow trilogy, before starting number three, Any Way the Wind Blows.  Part One can be found here.  And if you’re interested in my original thoughts on those two books, they can be found  here. […]

Epic enemies to lovers and queer romance for The Chosen One

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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CBR 13 Bingo: Gateway – Carry On is the gateway to Simon Snow and Rowell’s World of Mages. After watching Rainbow Rowell for the book release of Any Way the Wind Blows, I wanted to re-read Carry On and Wayward Son to fall in love with Simon and Baz all over again.  However, they didn’t fit into my bingo plan, then Malin helpfully suggested that Carry On works for Gateway and Wayward Son for Rep.  I didn’t have a book picked for either square yet so […]

Fun with Family Secrets

Spy x Family vol 4 by Tatsuya Endo

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So far in Spy X Family, the Forger family consists of dad Loid (real identity: master spy Twilight), mom Yor (real identity master assassin Thorn Princess), and daughter Anya (a telepath). None of them knows the others’ secrets, except for Anya, except that she’s about 6 and thus misunderstands a lot of what she catches her adoptive parents thinking. Loid and Yor marry sort of out of convenience; he needs a family for a mission (she doesn’t know that) and she needs a family to […]

“Hope, because that is what we must give him, what we must give all of them. Hope and guidance and a place to call their own, a home where they can be who they are without fear of repercussion”

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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It’s rare that I say everyone should read a particular book, but this is a book everyone, of all ages, should read.  TJ Klune has spun a beautiful story in The House in the Cerulean Sea.  It’s about finding one’s place in the world, learning to re-write the narrative others have placed on one’s self, that bigotry and fear can be overcome, and that acceptance can be found, starting sometimes as small as with one person to then slowly grow. Linus Baker is an investigator […]

So much fun it helped with my reading slump!

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn

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Fellow Cannonballer, Teresaelectro, first brought Heroine Complex to my attention.  Then it was a featured book title for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month at Mysterious Galaxy.  I was about to go and to pick up May’s book order, when on a whim I called and asked if Heroine Complex was in stock.  It was and I purchased it over the phone, to bring home with the books that were waiting at the store. Due to events this year, I have found reading to be […]

A lot of characters to follow, three plots, and wondering if or when it will all make sense

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

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It took me way longer to really get into A Desolation Called Peace than it did A Memory Called Empire. Part of the problem in A Desolation Called Peace is that there are too many different groups and places that take almost ¾ of the novel to really come together. I get that that is a technique for suspense, but it doesn’t work terribly well here, especially when Mahit’s thread has so little to do with everything else which actually does eventually connect. It feels […]



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