Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Archives for December 2021

Naughty Santa Does Not Mind the Gap

Santa Clause is Going to Town on Me by M.L. Eliza

Santa's Baby by Chloe Maine

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If you are looking for an erotic romance with Santa, they are out there. One of these has actual Santa and his reindeer, and the other is a guy who sometimes plays Santa. Both are age gap romances and the one with the really big age gap worked better for me. M.L. Eliza, aka Marie Lipscomb, is writing erotic folklore romance. The story in Santa Clause is Going to Town on Me is much sweeter than the title implies.  Holly has disliked Christmas since a […]

A cloth mage, a journalist, and some bad guys walk into a bar (this does happen at one point)

Innate Magic by Shannon Fay

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Innate Magic is an alternate history dark fantasy set in 20th century London. “The War” and associated arms races have happened and there’s the threat of some new major conflict on the horizon; this is mostly background though. Paul Gallagher and his best friend/found brother Thomas Dawes have just graduated magic college ready to pursue careers as Cloth Magicians; it seems like there’s basically 2 types of allowed magic: cloth and book. The ‘innate magic’ of the title is technically only allowed to one person, […]

Not as good as The Martian but still pretty good

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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I’m not a big reader of science fiction, but when I stumbled on The Martian by Andy Weir about six years ago I was more than pleasantly surprised. I loved that book. So, when I eagerly picked up his second book, Artemis, I was disappointed. Thus it was with some trepidation that I started reading Project Hail Mary (2021)–Weir’s latest novel set in space. Fortunately, I’m putting Project Hail Mary firmly in second place. It’s not nearly as good as The Martian, but it’s much better than Artemis. Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship. There […]

“Some kindnesses you do not ever forget.”

Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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I read Americanah back in 2014 and I really enjoyed it. So when I saw that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had written a short story, Zikora (2020), I picked it up. This is definitely only a short story, clocking in at about 30 pages or so. But Adichie has a way with words, and she explores a number of different themes including: family, pain, love, and motherhood in a very short amount of time. The story begins with Zikora, a successful lawyer in Washington D.C., in labor at the hospital. […]

No more Riley Sager books *pour moi*.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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I do not understand why people like this author so much. Is it the guaranteed twist at the end? The cliched story elements? The flavorless writing? The overblown dialogue? I’m sorry, everyone who loves this dude* (which is like 90% of Goodreads apparently), but his whole thing just does not work for me. Everything in this story has been done, and done better, in other books. For me, this book wasn’t scary or thrilling at all. I finished it because it’s the literary equivalent of […]

“You asked me questions nobody ever asked me before. You knew that I was a murderer two times over, but you treated me like a man.”

Native Son by Richard Wright

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My brain is mush today, but I have time to try and catch up on reviews, so I’m going to attempt to review a masterpiece of literature while coasting on an ebb tide of intelligence. This is, I believe, the book I have owned the longest without reading. I’ve moved ten times since I bought it in college for a class that didn’t even end up reading it. I have kept it all this time, through lo so many book purges, because I always meant […]



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