Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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CoffeeShopReader's Reviews:

A seasonal book that takes a season to read

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire

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Bingo 18: Earth Day   Seanan McGuire knows her folklore, and it shows. In Seasonal Fears, there’s a ton of tropes, but mostly well handled. Basic plot involves the King of Winter and the Queen of Summer dying, and their crowns being up for grabs to those with affiliations for that season. The whole season emphasis thus qualifies for general environment theme, especially since the recently departed King of Winter was cheating the system where he was always in ascendance, which was probably causing climate […]

Found Family with Spies, Killers, and Secrets but It’s Cozy

Spy X Family Family Portrait by Aya Yajima, Tatsuya Endo

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For some reason I really needed a cozy read not long ago; I’m part way through something that sounded like it should have but is turning out to not be that. I put down book #1, and went for option 2: manga. Or to be more precise, a series of short stories based on the manga (and also now anime) Spy X Family titled Spy X Family: Family Portrait. If you know the series it helps but it’s not totally mandatory as there is a […]

A few muffins, scones, and cakes to go with the stories

Donna Bell's Bake Shop by Pauley Perrette, Darren Greenblatt, Matthew Sandusky

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Bingo 17: Vintage Cookbook about vintage style baking bakery. Donna Bell’s Bake Shop apparently closed in 202, thanks to the pandemic. But before that, it was a Southern-style bakery in NYC. One of the main selling points was the recipes from the name sake Donna Bell, who is one of the owners’ mother. Most of the recipes are pretty straight forward, almost to the point of basic. I kind of have to wonder that if this kind of thing is what the bakery actually marketed, […]

“The Dead Cat Tail Assassins are not cats. Nor do they have tails. But they are most assuredly dead.”

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark

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Bingo 16: Cult This is “cult” in the sense of member of a guild of undead assassins dedicated to a specific goddess, not exactly in the sense of abusive religious or otherwise controlling organization. The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is a novella centering on Eveen who is a member of the titular guild of killers for hire dedicated to their goddess Aeril. The undead thing is part of the membership; somehow, when you dedicate yourself to this goddess and her cult, you have to die […]

Evil Wins by Controlling the Narrrative?

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Bingo 15: Scandal Rahela Domitia is the most scandalous Lady in Waiting in court; she’s really got a reputation, and her voice and figure support it, along with the nickname/title “Beauty Dipped in Blood” (apparently she likes wearing white with red accents). Think Evil Stepsister Game of Thrones style. Rae is not so much scandalous as unlucky and probably a little bitter; she’s got terminal cancer at the age of about 20. Rae and her little sister Alice are major fan girls of a fantasy […]

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Balls, and it’s a war story

Henry V by William Shakespeare

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Bingo 14: Détente I’ve re-read Henry V the Shakespeare history play because I’m teaching it and haven’t actually re-read it for a good long while. This play both ends and begins with questionable peace between England and France, so it’s suitable for this square. I don’t actually remember my first read, just being really impressed by Kenneth Branagh’s film version, or perhaps more specifically Patrick Doyle’s score. The choral bit after the battle of Agincourt is pretty impressive. One big thing I noticed upon re-reading […]



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