Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Archives for December 2021

A trope to get rid of and maybe some more worldbuilding to add

Burn the Witch vol. 1 by Tite Kubo

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I already knew the story going into Burn the Witch (vol.1); the graphic novel is an adaptation of a limited episode series, and they match pretty closely. What I don’t quite get is the title; there aren’t really any witches. There are people with special powers but it’s not really magic exactly in that there is no real system explained and those who are licensed aren’t vilified. The concept is partially familiar: there is a mirror world to our own in which dragons are real, […]

“Don’t look at me like that’s my fault. I’m just telling you shit I know.”

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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We have a Murderbot murder mystery novella. It is almost as if this book was written specifically for me. Although published after Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry takes place before it, after Mensah brings Murderbot to Preservation Station. We join action in progress as a body has been discovered on the Station and Murderbot accompanies Dr. Mensah and Senior Officer Indah as an investigation is undertaken. Dr. Mensah does her Dr. Mensah thing and Murderbot is contracted to aid in the investigation (neither Murderbot not Senior […]

Books for Spooky Season

The Last Book on the Left by Marcus Parks, et al

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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As a fan of Last Podcast on the Left, I both looked forward to reading the book by “The Boys” (Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel, and Henry Zebrowski) and also wondered how they would pull it off. The podcast is irreverent and explicit, with Parks (usually) providing the research and central narrative of a particular topic, while Ben and Henry offer asides and impressions. The good (?) news is that The Last Book on the Left essentially replicates that structure. Each chapter provides information on a serial killer (ten […]

Let’s Make Our TBR Lists Even Longer: Submit Your Best and Worst of CBR13

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What books made you run for the hills this year? Submit the three best and one worst books you read during 2021 below. Include links to your posts so people can read your reviews. The books may have any publication date, you just need to have read them this year. If you have something you must tell the world about any of the books, add your comment. Please submit your choices by Friday, December 10, 2021. Now extended to Monday December 13, 2021! Then watch for our yearly […]

Red or Dead

The Pledge by Kathleen Kent

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This one followed the same pattern as the Hunger Games trilogy: interesting first book followed by an excellent second and a concluding one that basically made me say “Eh, ok, I guess that’s an ending.” Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is because I thought Kathleen Kent did an excellent job covering Betty’s PTSD from the end of the events of the first book. Too often, series writers put their characters through hell only to have them […]

Two Hits and a Miss

Designs on a Duke by Ellie St. Clair

A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean

Fatal Affair by Marie Force

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You have to hand it to Sarah MacLean. While she takes romance seriously, her books are fun. The banter is good, the scenarios are imaginative, and the characters are self-aware. I had this realization early in A Rogue By Any Other Name, when, as part of his attempt to kidnap and marry our heroine, the titular rogue spanks her, a move that is equal parts sexy and comical. MacLean is especially good at writing conventional aristocratic women who find themselves plunged into a London underworld, which is the case […]



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