Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Was 2025 the Year Toxic Masculinity Became a Recognised Problem?

The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana

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  For a novel that has the hallmarks of a roadtrip, this story is very claustrophobic, seeing events through the thoughts of the two male leads (and a 3rd character towards the end) and their own self-made prison of emotional immaturity, seething insecurities, and toxic masculinity. The novel feels as though it seizes the zeitgeist discussions around the challenges faced by (young) men in learning to integrate into a world which is feeding their darker sides. To an extent, this book makes an interesting companion […]

Super Toxic Romance

Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings

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Is this Harry Styles fan fiction? I kept waiting for someone’s parents to try to sell them to One Direction to cover their gambling debts. Magnolia Parks is a young and beautiful London socialite. BJ Ballentine is the bad boy influencer who broke her heart. They grew up together, were dating, broke up because of his infidelity, and now they’re “best friends”. I totally got suckered into this book by the cover. The pink heels are very cute so I threw this on my holds […]

Now they can go and be awful together

Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

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Jamie Canning always wondered why his best friend from elite summer hockey camp ghosted him. He has an idea though, and it’s the semi-drunken hookup they had during their last week of camp. Still, to Jamie, one bad decision shouldn’t break up a seven-year friendship. Years later at the Frozen Four (cringe) college national championship, Jamie and Wes manage to chat a bit. It is still awkward, but they both push through it with the hopes that they can at least be friendly acquaintances. So, […]

He couldn’t tell them that the right one had come along, and it was the pissed-off Russian man heading to the penalty box.

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) by Rachel Reid

The Long Game (Game Changers #6) by Rachel Reid

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Heated Rivalry Ilya smiled to himself. He actually loved this. He loved being on the road, and disappointing home crowds across North America. He loved the insults, the booing, and, most of all, the sound of a crowd so gutted by his team’s performance that they couldn’t even bother to boo. A winded, humiliated crowd. That was Ilya’s favorite sound. ― Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalry “Um, and this is….Ilya. Rozanov. You probably know that.” What were they, exactly? It occurred to Shane that he and […]

Angst!

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

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“It was funny, the Gray Man thought, how humorous she always appeared, how that smile was always just a moment away from her lips. You really didn’t see the sadness or the longing unless you already knew it was there. But that was the trick, wasn’t it? Everyone had their disappointment and their baggage; only, some people carried it in their inside pockets and not on their backs. And here was the other trick: Maura was not faking her happiness. She was both very happy […]

cbr12bingo – white whale (and BLACKOUT!!!! now I if only I could blackout and forget that this book exists!)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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Lolita is absolutely vile, and I cannot be convinced otherwise. Yes, Humbert Humbert is the worst, and yes, we are supposed to know that he is a monster, but good lord this book is venerated from here to kingdom come as if it is the be all-end all of twentieth century literature. The edition that I picked up, which was published in 1997 as a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the original pressing- and is still the one in current re-prints and mass circulation, STILL […]



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