Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I have a secret I want to share

Nour’s Secret Library by Wafa’ Tarnowska

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Nour’s Secret Library is a book that is about the power of books, the power of one person, the power of a community and how we can learn from each other instead of fighting. The emotional and chaotic images by Vali Mintzi show the ugly of war but also the hope people can find when looking. Wafa’ Tarnowska took a true event (children of Syria finding books and making a hidden library for anyone who wished to partake of books of many languages and subjects, […]

Manly Men Doing Manly Things

The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte

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It didn’t take too long for me to realize who this author reminded me of.  Not particularly his style, but more his content.  Hemingway.  Coming from me, that is not a complement. Faulques is a professional photographer who specializes in the battlefield.  In Serbia, he photographs a young Croatian fighter, Markovik, and the picture wins a prestigious award, and is also published widely.  Unfortunately, it also makes Markovik himself famous, and his wife and child are killed.  Thus, he is searching for Faulques.  Meanwhile, Faulques […]

Get the scooper, ’cause I got the scoop on a robo-dog and its girl

D-39: A Robodog’s Journey by Irene Latham

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I am not really a dog person, but something about the idea of D-39: A Robodog’s Journey was grabbing. Maybe the androgenous look of the character on the cover or the fact it was a robot dog and as far as I could remember I had never read a book with a robot dog. Maybe because it was free. But what kept me reading this novel by Irene Latham was two main things: first it was done in a poetic prose manner. But it was […]

Is this the final Grishaverse book? I hope not

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

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4.5 stars CBR13 Bingo: Fauna (dragon, wolf, falcon and fox on the cover) In this second part of the King of Scars duology, the stakes are ridiculously high, pretty much as soon as we start off. The book starts pretty much immediately after the end of King of Scars, and if you’re not caught up with all the books in the Grishaverse so far, this review will probably spoil things for you. Continue at your own risk. Nikolai Lantsov has made some peace with the […]

The Book We Need For This Moment

Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman

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The best, simplest review I can give it is to quote from political operative Robert Wheel (@bobbybigwheel on Twitter): You know it’s a good book because every page pisses you off. I was 17 years old when we invaded Iraq. At the time, I was a champion for the war because I believed our government. Why would our government lie? Even as I began to question things in 2003 and 2004, I still voted for George W. Bush in my first presidential election. I was […]

This Is How You Break Your Readers

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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I don’t think Faintingviolet had even finished this book before promising to hand it off to me. And at this point in our friendship, I don’t question her if she’s recommending a book. I just accept, and this book…..holy moly, this book….. Before we get to why I was utterly destroyed at the hands of This is How You Lose the Time War, we have to go back to my first book recommendation to Faintingviolet. I had read a book called The Illuminator that wrecked […]



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