Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Archives for December 2021

Proud Graduate of the Harpy Institute for Crone Sciences

All the Feels (Spoiler Alert, #2) by Olivia Dade

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Two weeks later, still swooning on my fainting couch over this one. It definitely hit me in my swooners. I want to be friends with Lauren, and I want to hug Alex, and I love them together so, so much. I did end up rounding down, though, for a couple of reasons. But first, the positives. This is a direct companion to the first book, Spoiler Alert. You get a lot more context for Alex’s actions in that book, and a key climactic scene there is […]

One of the first queer novels has a happy ending.

Maurice by E.M. Forster

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“A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.” -E.M. Forster Secretly, E.M. Forster had the heart of a romance novelist. I say that half in jest, but also half seriously. Romance novel HEA’s are serious business. We come to them for solace, for surety and […]

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All the Names Given: Poems by Raymond Antrobus

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I was unable to finish this book of poetry by Raymond Antrobus easily or quickly. While I enjoyed what I read of All the Names Given: Poems the poetry felt repeated and best suited for a novel and not poems. This bogged me down, making me have to stop and analyze what was read. It was not something that could be consumed in one reading. Antrobus speaks on the page, as if he is having a conversation with you. Which is an interesting concept as […]

I wanted to like this one so bad!

The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams

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Mallory is a lowly intern at Swansby’s Encyclodpaedic Dictionary in present day. Her main job is to answer the phone and be berated by some anonymous troll who is upset that dictionary definitions are changing. Specifically, the definition of marriage. Tension at work is compounded by the fact that Mallory herself is gay and not out, and this troll has now called in a bomb threat. Oh, and she’s just been tasked with going through an entire encyclopedia from the 1920s and finding all of the […]

A Sugar Spun Fantasy

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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I don’t normally use the word exquisite to describe a book, but Erin Morgenstern’s book The Night Circus is exquisite. Thanks to the generous Ale, who sent me this book for the holiday book exchange, I got to read one of my favorite books of the year. The Night Circus is about two talented enchanters, Celia and Marco, who have been brought up since childhood to engage in a mysterious challenge with each other. Both take part in creating the night circus, a magical circus […]

Kissing the groom on his wedding day is not the best idea

Who's That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane

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I finished Just Last Night, but I apparently didn’t have my fill of Mhairi McFarlane, so I immediately picked up Who’s That Girl? (2016) in order to appreciate a little more of her writing. Like all of her books I’ve read, I enjoyed this one as well. McFarlane writes complex, emotional, fun, and entertaining romance novels. She includes some dark topics in realistic ways that make her characters feel more real and relatable. I plan on reading all of her books eventually. Edie is attending the wedding of […]



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