Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“The colonizer writes the history, winning twice: A theft of land. A theft of witness.”

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

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In this third installment of Bray’s fantastic Diviners series, Libba Bray finally pulls together many moving pieces and lays down the major themes of the series with gusto. If I could sum it up in one phrase, I’d call this book “Ghosts are scary, but not as scary as evangelism” Or “Ghosts are scary, but it’s your fault.” The Diviners are a diverse group of supernaturally talented young people in 1920s NYC (who aren’t officially called “The Diviners” but simply “diviners” at this point).  In […]

Luke Cage meets noir meets The Diviners meets more please!

Abbott by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivelä

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Abbott is a brief, five-issue series set in 1970s Detroit about journalist Elena Abbott, lone black female reporter at the Detroit Daily. Abbott prefers to delve into the stories the paper’s board would rather not see printed. She’s recently getting heat for her piece on the death of a black teen at the hands of police, but so far she’s been protected by her loyal boss. She has a new case on the horizon and it’s a grisly one.  A mutilated police horse is found […]

Drop-kick That Magic Lamp into Mount Doom

The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (editors)

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Short story collections are like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you have to gnaw some nuts and chews to eventually find that chocolate truffle. That said, The Djinn Falls in Love is phenomenal. Six of the twenty-one stories are among the best short stories I have read. Ever. (Jhumpa Lahiri, I’m sorry to report that you’ve been bumped.)  The editors’s international ensemble of authors clearly did their research, populating their confident tales with every manner of djinn, jinn, and genie. Some lie in wait in […]

Classic King – not for the faint of heart

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I adore post-apocalyptic literature and have read many of the Stephen King biggies (The Shining, Misery, Carrie, Pet Cemetary, It, Salem’s Lot, Christine, Needful Things, Thinner) so not sure why I hadn’t read The Stand but I think the size of the volume probably had something to do with it. At 1153 pages The Stand is less a hobby and moreso a lifestyle choice. His fifth book, written in 1978, it was definitely a blast from the past. I snagged the copy held for me at […]

Yuri and Victor are Lady Werewolves

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Moonstruck (Vol 1: Magic to Brew) has the potential to be something like Yuri on Ice, in that the story revolves around a really adorable same sex couple trying to navigate a new and promising relationship. It also features one character with confidence to spare, and another who has a habit of getting overwhelmed by self-doubt. While the core relationship reminds me of the beloved skating anime, there are some significant differences. First, Moonstruck’s main couple, Julie and Selena, who are female, live in a […]

I don’t think I could name all the main characters if my life depended on it

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I loved the first season of the anime of Drrr!! (or Durarara!!), and I’m part way through season two; I liked the several manga short sets. I have liked several of the light novels. The light novel series is the only one though that seems to be going a little off the rails. The basic story is a bunch or random people cross paths in the Tokyo neighborhood of Ikebukuro, and eventually their various narratives start coming together. Main characters include high schoolers Mikado, Anri, […]



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