Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Aquillia

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PhD in Ancient History. Wannabe fantasy writer. Likes ancient coins, imaginary kingdoms, and failed emperors. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Aquillia's Quick Questions interview.)

Aquillia's Reviews:

Getting a FRESH START on my reviews with Bingo…

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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I have been sorely lax with my reviews this spring (gee; I wonder why?) even though I have actually been reading up a STORM since May. The great thing about Bingo is that sense of competition (with myself) that inspires me to actually write up reviews. So to be on-topic, I decided to start with the Fresh Start square and The Cruel Prince–the first in a series that has been on my Twitter feed for a while, a YA trilogy by Holly Black. I’d actually […]

The perfect emotional gut-punch for the time (my June #CannonBookClub pick)

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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In contrast to my last book review, where I thought reading about a plague probably wasn’t the best read for the current time, An Unkindness of Ghosts is the perfect book to read during this week especially. More than that, it is an important book to read during this week. And I am completely, utterly, devastatingly unqualified to review it. An Unkindness of Ghosts is an emotional gut-punch throughout. The premise alone is brilliant: a spaceship, the Matilda, is taking the remnants of humanity to an unknown destination, a […]

Delightfully dark (though perhaps not for the current situation?)

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

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I read The Monster of Elendhaven (listened to it, actually) months ago, but never got around to reviewing it. It’s more of a novella than a novel, and was marketed as horror but I think the fantasy elements come through more strongly at times. It revolves around “Johann”, the titular monster who cannot be killed and loves killing others, and his relationship with the young, handsome, and equally monstrous Florian, the last surviving member of a rich and powerful family in Elendhaven. Together, they plot […]

Beautiful prose and a beautiful take on an ancient tale

Circe by Madeline Miller

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Madeline Miller’s Circe has been on my radar since it came out, and The Song of Achilles even longer. There were many reviews on CBR last year of the book, most of them praising it if I remember correctly. But it took me a while to actually pick it up. Clearly I should have before, because I loved it! The novel tells the story of the long life of the demi-god/witch Circe of ancient Greek mythology and her interactions with mortals and monsters and gods. […]

A whole lot of Christie short stories

The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

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Recently, my husband went away for work for a few days, and I treated myself to a puzzle and took full advantage of my Scribd subscription. After a while, I wanted a break from fantasy and also wanted something that didn’t involve too much thinking, so I returned to one of my old comfort reads: Agatha Christie. I’ve read and re-read most of the novels, so now I turned to her short stories collections. Some of them I had read before, some I recognized from […]

A decidedly average Pratchett

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

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Another year, another book down on my meandering tour through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. This time it was Pyramids, which I had high hopes for because it was published around the same time as Mort, which was great, and Guards! Guards!, the perfection of which is only muted by the fact that Men at Arms and Feet of Clay are even better. Pyramids was… eh. It was fine. There were some funny moments. I listened to it on audiobook, and as usual enjoyed Nigel Planer’s narration. The story is about Pteppic, the […]



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