Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Loves to read. Loves to travel. Doesn't get to do either enough.

esme's Reviews:

Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

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Shortly before Halloween, I was struck by the desire to read vampire books. I don’t think I had read any for years (although I have read many of the ‘classics’ including Dracula (obviously), Interview with a Vampire, Salem’s Lot, etc.), so I wanted a ‘fresh’ approach when I was searching. I was limited by what was available to download from our library, but ended up scratching this particular itch quite satisfactorily. Sunshine came several weeks after Halloween and I had completely forgotten why it attracted […]

Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice – if not whether, then how they may endure.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

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My thanks to murderofcrows for drawing my attention to this wonderful author! When I was miserably working on my dissertation nearly two decades ago, I read an article in the free weekly about the ‘most popular fantasy book that no one knows about’ or somesuch. It was, of course, A Song of Ice and Fire, and it really helped me escape from my day to day anxiety; however, the constant violence and brutality wore me down after a while. Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of […]

Sundown, you better take care if I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

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While I’ve been lurking and getting book ideas, I have had a terrible time focusing enough to write up any of the (few) books I’ve actually managed to finish – I blame the pandemic. The Sun Down Motel, by Simone St. James, sat on my shelf for at least a week before I peeked at it, but once I peeked, I was hooked! The plot follows two women, one a night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in 1982 and the other the current night […]

“Thanks, Shah Rukh”

My So-called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma

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Nisha Sharma’s My So-called Bollywood Life is a light, breezy YA romance with Bollywood movies as the not terribly well woven thread through the book. The protagonist is Winnie Mehta, an ambitious high schooler who is co-chair of the school film club. She is recovering from a broken heart because her ‘soulmate,’ who she believes was destined for her because of her horoscope (which identified her soulmate down to the first letter of his name), betrayed her. Despite the horoscope and the periodic dance sequences […]

“Honor is a light that brings trouble. Shadows are safer by far.”

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

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This continues my read of novellas; however, The Empress of Salt and Fortune was so richly imagined and described that it is hard to believe it is such a short piece of work. It is also remarkable that the entire story takes place at a moldering palace of exile and unfolds as interactions between a disgraced palace attendant and a cleric who is tasked with recording the history and cataloging the belongings of the place. Within this tight frame, a stunningly detailed world is built, […]

Lord I never drew first But I drew first blood

Jade City by Fonda Lee

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The Kaul family is one of several organized crime families on the island of Kekon. These Green Bone families use jade, which, with the right training, produces superhuman traits, including great strength, speed, clairvoyance, hardened skin, and so forth. Green Bones were instrumental in the guerilla warfare that occurred one generation ago to free Kekon from colonial rule, and this history realistically colors much of the underlying structure to the novel. The Kaul family, on the one hand, spends a lot of time and effort […]



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