Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Archives for December 2021

Two KJ Charles books I loved

Subtle Blood by KJ Charles

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles

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When KJ Charles envisioned the Will Darling Adventures, she thought she was going to release them bing-bang-boom in quick succession, but then the pandemic happened, and Will and Kim stopped cooperating. While Will and Kim refused to get to their happily ever after, Robin Loxleigh and Sir John Hartlebury insisted on theirs. I loved The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting so much. I devoured the historical romances of the 1990s and 2000. In those books, Robin Loxleigh and his sister Marianne would have been the […]

A literary mystery where the stuff on the side is more interesting than the main course.

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

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I feel like this book proves how diverse the crime/mystery genre can be in terms of style and theme, and it proves that by not really being something I loved. I love mysteries, unsolved crimes being solved, themes of racial and gender equality, historical fiction mysteries, books about writers and journalists, and stories about women breaking free of their expected gender roles. And yet, I didn’t love this, even though it features all of those things. I like my crime and mystery books either to […]

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

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This one was fine! I liked the ending much better than I liked the first third or so. It was just, it was a lot of dramadrama, lots of characters, court politics, feelings, like a fairyland prime-time soap opera, and there’s a reason I don’t watch those anymore. But I did get pulled in as soon as Jude and Cardan started to interact more in a real way, because I am nothing if not a sucker for well-done enemies to lovers, and that part of […]

Fiction Reviews Dump

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chain

Another Place You've Never Been by Rebecca Kauffman

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Dietland by Sarai Walker

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

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Apologies in advance, and I hope I can be forgiven for the end-of-the-year review dump. I’ve had bits and pieces to say about the books I read but it never felt well-formed enough to tell others about them. So, here we go, a review dump of some of the fiction I read this year.  A Good Neighborhood |  Therese Anne Fowler We’ve all been reading long enough to know that a book titled A Good Neighborhood is not actually about a good neighborhood. It’s about […]

Space opera binge – “Nothing touched by empire remains itself”

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

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              ** Some spoilers for the plot of Ancillary Justice in the review of later books in the series ** Space opera can definitely be big, loud and dumb and that can be fun and exciting.  But I love my space opera to be populated by complex, conflicted people (and other beings) living in intricate worlds with a deep culture and history.  Add beautiful writing, and big questions about identity and ethics, and I am in heaven. So I […]

Fae trouble for Mercy Thompson

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

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After reviewing Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series last year, I  have come back for more with CBR13. I can’t seem to get enough! Mercy is a coyote shifter who lives in Washington working as a mechanic. She was raised by werewolves and attempted to strike out on her own. She keeps to herself mostly until she ends up tangled in werewolf business. Her neighbor happens to be the local were pack Alpha, Adam. With the first four books in the series, Mercy gets into trouble […]



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