Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“‘So their leader looks pretty dead’,” said Istvhan, who was at the point where a corpse was a welcome break in the tension.”

Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher (author), Joel Richards (Narrator)

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Thanks to Wicherwill’s review of the latest book in the Saint of Steel series last year, I was reminded that I needed to get back to reading this series!  I read the first book in the back in 2023 and enjoyed it, and then a million (approximately) other books jumped in between me and the other books in the series.  But I’m back into it! Plot-wise, this novel is about Istvhan, a paladin (god-touched warrior whose order was prone to berserker fits brought on by […]

“Oh Catskins, why aren’t you dead yet?”

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

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I first became aware of Roshani Chokshi when my kiddo discovered her Aru Shah middle grade series, the Pandava Quintet.  Printed in the “Rick Riordan Presents” line it focuses on Hindu mythology as Aru Shah embarks on adventures with her friends.  We even went to one of the Aru Shah book signings.  Chokshi was witty, charming, and engaging.  I left wanting to read the books but never got around to it.  In the past year I became aware of her fiction for older readers, particularly […]

Interesting Even if You’re Familiar with the Topic

All That Remains by Sue Black

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Best for: Those interested in forensic anthropology. Not for those who find the discussion of death (and specifics surrounding the investigation of it) to be traumatizing. In a nutshell: Forensic Anthropologist Black shares her experience with the dead and the living. Worth quoting: “If we cannot influence it, perhaps we shouldn’t waste precious time worrying about it.” Why I chose it: I’ve been interested in the field of forensic anthropology for awhile. Review: If you’ve read my reviews a bunch of the years (or if […]

Reading it for a friend

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

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My first book of 2025 is an audiobook that I read for my book club. I wouldn’t have heard of it or chosen it on my own, but that’s (partly) what book clubs are for. The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America (2021) by Elizabeth Letts is the story of Annie Wilkins and her horseback adventures from Maine to Hollywood, California. Annie was a 63-year-old farmer, on her own in Maine, and things were not […]

Understandable how you could mistake this knife fetishist for a murderer, but he didn’t do it.

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

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Thanks to NetGalley, RBmedia, and Recorded Books for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Yes, this book was written by a TV chef. Apparently he was on Masterchef—I’ve never seen it. But unless he used a very secret ghostwriter, he did a good job! I truly have no idea why the ratings for this book are so low coming out of the UK*, or why the cozy mystery people have not come flocking (though this isn’t a cozy, it does have […]

“You could call T. Rex the James Dean of dinosaurs: it lived fast and died young.”

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte

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This, friends, is a dinosaur. I believe Pesto’s ancestors would be confused by him, but that’s the beauty of nature. It’s super weird and always doing unexpected things. This book manages to impart a lot of information about the evolution, time on earth, and extinction of (most) dinosaurs while at the same time being very readable and fun to consume. At one point the author uses the phrase “crow-sized weirdos with wings on their arms and legs” to describe a species of dinosaur that differed […]



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