Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Another uneven entry to The Circle Opens

Cold Fire by Tamora Pierce

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Daja and her instructor Frostpine leave their home at Winding Circle, so Daja might be exposed to other smiths and metalworkers in the world, both magical and mundane. They find themselves the guests of one of Frostpine’s friends and his family, the Bancanours. Frostpine assists the local police mage on tracking down the person responsible for creating forgeries of the local currency and Daja stumbles upon the innate magic of the two Bancanour twin girls, Nia and Jory. As was set up in previous books, […]

Wished I’d read this back when I first put it on my TBR!

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

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CBR13Bingo: White Whale For CBR’s white whale challenge, I’m going way back in the time machine to a book that’s been on my TBR (eventually) list since I was in middle school. Tamora Pierce’s work, especially her Alanna books, were often recommended as a read-alike to Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword, which was a hugely formative book for me a kid, mainly I guess because both were books by women starring heroines with swords. For whatever reason, my local library didn’t carry it so I gorged myself […]

With set-up all taken care of, Pierce shines again

Street Magic by Tamora Pierce

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BINGO – Cityscape Briar Moss and his teacher Rosethorn have travelled to Chammur in order to expose Briar to the greater world and help farmers with their crops. While in Chammur, Briar gets to know the local street kids. He was a former street kid himself, so he feels an automatic kinship with these ganged up kiddos. One child, Evvy, stands out to Briar and not only because she’s the only street kid who isn’t in a gang. She has ambient magic that presents itself […]

A boring introduction to a series with a lot of potential

Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce

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BINGO – OLD SERIES (originally published in 2000) Sandry has been living with her uncle, the Duke of Emelan, ever since he had a heart attack a few months ago. Her teacher is still at Winding Circle, and all of her friends are travelling around the world with their teachers. For the first time since joining Discipline Cottage at Winding Circle Temple, Sandry is without her chosen family. But she has plenty to keep her busy like helping her uncle run the Kingdom in his weakened […]

What a fantastic ending to a phenomenal series!

Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce

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BINGO – Pandemic (I know this category is a catch-all, read-what-you-want category, but this book is also about a pandemic) SUMMARY – Oh boy, what a book to read during a pandemic. Briar Moss and his teacher Rosethorn head to the city in order to provide healing services to the sick there. Briar, a former street kid, can’t help but give special attention to all the homeless, poor children while there. While attending to the street kids in the Mire, the poorest part of the […]

Magic takes a backseat to marvelous worldbuilding

Daja's Book by Tamora Pierce

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BINGO – FREE (Checked out from my local library’s digital audiobook collection) (This is the start of my second BINGO sheet) Daja and her three friends find themselves outside of Winding Circle for the first time since they met. They and their teachers along with the Duke of Emelan travel north to Gold Ridge Valley to assist with a drought. Upon arriving, they learn that there hasn’t been a forest fire in the Valley in years due to the efforts of a mage named Firetamer. […]



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