Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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An author to watch, even though this one had some bumps

Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett

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Everything I can think of to say about this one makes it sound like I didn’t like it, but it really wasn’t bad! It’s the author’s second book, but it still really feels like a debut novel. But it feels like a debut from an author I would read more of. I feel like Tim Gunn telling a Project Runway contestant that they had too many good ideas and should have saved a couple for the next challenge. There were some really cool things going […]

Family is everything.

Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai

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I’m a huge fan of Thanhha Lai, so when I saw this book on clearance at my favorite indie bookstore, I was more than eager to snatch it up. The description intrigued me, so I am glad that the book lived up to my high expectations. Lai is a really talented writer, and here she embodies several characters and voices that could not be more completely different. Hằng is a young woman who has survived unspeakable horrors trying to get to the United States. At […]

When “You don’t like where you’ve been, the place where you are is grim, and the only place you see yourself going is not an improvement on what’s gone before,” you’re a malcontent

Out of the Dead City by Samuel R. Delaney

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This book did a great job with the world-building, but not such a great job with the plot-building. I’m not sure this review can describe what it was about, because I’m not entirely sure I understand what happened. But it sounded very pretty while whatever it was was happening! Far away in a beryl sky, three suns rushed madly about one another and gave a little heat to this farthest of their six planets.” We start the book with Jon Toshar, who has just escaped […]

“Now we have the opportunity to start over and try to do better this time around.”

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Hutchinson, Shaun David

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Elena Mendoza is called “Mary” at school, because she was the product of a virgin birth and her classmates are cruel idiots. Other than that factoid, her life is fairly routine: a shitty first boyfriend, an unrequited crush on her beautiful classmate Freddie, a deadbeat stepdad and overworked mom, and now a typical teen job at the local Starbucks. Oh wait, except that Elena has also been hearing voices most of her life – voices from random otherwise inanimate logos, toys, and statues. And today, […]

I’m No Hero . . . I’m More of a Last Resort

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

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“But I’m no hero. I’m more of a last resort, a scorched-earth policy. I’m the person you hire when the heroes have already come home in body bags” (2). There’s nothing like the feeling when you discover the first book in a series and it hits all your readerly buttons.  I was pretty sure I was going to like Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse when I read about it—searching for women Native American authors to support (in the aftermath of the Sherman Alexie scandal.)  […]

Here There Be Giant Catfish Monsters

A World Below by Wesley King

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When Mr. Baker takes his sixth grade class to the Carslbad Caverns for their end of year field-trip, he assures them they’ll find awe and adventure. Turns out they find a little too much of both. Wandering the cavern’s depths, they get caught in an earthquake that sends them deeper underground and the students find themselves split up, teacherless, and lost in the middle of the earth. As they try to find their way back, they will encounter unrecognizable wildlife, conquer their own fears, and […]



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