Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I am the servant of the sword,” he said. “I obey the will of the—great god, woman, put on some clothes!”

Swordheart by T Kingfisher

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In my review of A Sorceress Comes to Call, I mentioned that T Kingfisher has a number of books that have slightly older women as protagonists. Halla in Swordheart might be a little younger than Hester in A Sorceress, but she’s not an ingenue.  Halla is in her mid thirties and a widow. The passing of her husband has not freed her from the clutches of her in laws though. This is both a blessing and a curse in some ways; thanks to her basically […]

“At Gatsby’s, the clock stood at just five shy of midnight the moment you arrived.”

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

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The Chosen and the Beautiful is a retelling of The Great Gatsby, which is told from Jordan Baker’s point of view. Except in this version, Jordan is Vietnamese and has been adopted into the Baker family (via a Missionary member of the family who adopted her in her travels). And oh yes, there is magic—lots and lots of magic. Full disclosure, I have read The Great Gatsby all of once, seen the Baz Luhrmann movie once, and listened to the Broadway Cast recording of the […]

Cozy Fantasy at its best

Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce

Tris's Book by Tamora Pierce

Daja's Book by Tamora Pierce

Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce

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Sandry’s Book These were a re-read on a recent flight, and I blipped through all four of them like they were candy, but with a newfound appreciation. Or maybe the same appreciation I’ve had all along? These books were, and continue to be, a lodestone for how to write ‘cozy fantasy,’ where the stakes are real but the peace between (and the world building, aside from the magic rule building) is as important. Should go without saying that of all the Pierce quartets of books, […]

now we’re cooking (re: writing reviews)

Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

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I really am just getting more confused as we go along, but it’s the type of confused where I think I should understand just slightly more than I do! Luckily there are no end of guides to the Cosmere, and if all else fails there is Evin the Magnificent and their Magnificent Brain to answer questions for me, even when they are so very spectacularly boneheaded (the Lopen woud laugh). SO rather than try and do a bit of a plot synopsis–there is a blurb, […]

cannonball complete on my other favorite book of the year

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

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The embarrassment of this book is this: I’m positive I loved this book, but honestly I struggle to remember more than a handful of (rather vivid) scenes from the book. In my defense there are a lot of characters and a lot of mythology (and pop culture!) referenced, so you spend a lot of your brainpower trying to understand what you’re reading and putting it in context of everything else you know about Arthurian retellings. But all in all, this book is a marvel of […]

something very satisfying about reading this as an actual book!

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

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Hmm okay this can be a four star review, except that I do think that it dragged a bit in the middle and put it down (!!!) a handful of times, including once quite near the end to see whether I could get my hands on the next book in short order (as it turns out yes, I can) (thank you public libraries!). I noted this in my recent White Sands review, but this book has the turn towards the “okay, diplomacy and talking might […]



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