Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“All I’ve ever tried to do is the right thing. If that’s so very different from how things have been done before, then what’s done before was wrong.”

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

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CBR16 Bingo: Smash – This book combines elements of fantasy (dragons) and science fiction (steampunk). The cultures depicted also smash and clash together throughout the book. All Anequs wants to do is live in peace with her tribe, content to be ignored by the Anglish conquerers who’ve taken over most of the continent. However, when she bonds with the first dragon to hatch on their island in generations, she must attend their academy and adapt to their ways if she hopes to keep her dragon. This […]

For what was earth but a mirror of heaven? And what was she but a thing caught in between?

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

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The first two books in Rebecca Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky series, Black Sun and Fevered Star, are two of my favorite books of the last five years. I’ve proselytized these books so many times, and now, at last, I can tell people the end is worth it. Mirrored Heavens is a tense read. There were many points where I had to put my tablet down and pace in circles because otherwise I would scream just to relieve the pressure. This is exactly the kind of […]

When Clever Isn’t Quite Enough

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

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In the satirical novel Guards! Guards!, a secret brotherhood of (mostly witless) Ankh-Morpork citizens is led by the Supreme Grand Master, who wants to summon a dragon to the city to wreak havoc. They plan to invent a long-lost king to defeat the dragon and end the oppression they think they are experiencing. Of course, plans go awry and this story intersects with that of the Night Watch, a small group of officers who get no respect because their role is essentially pointless given that […]

“When you’re growing up, you don’t ask whether your family’s good, do you? Especially if you don’t know anything else. They’re just your family.”

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

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Stepmoms in pop culture get a bad rap. Actually bad rap isn’t right. We are maligned and reduced to a trope, typically gold diggers, people who don’t like kids, and someone who isn’t at all interested in the work of parenting (i.e., the original OG stepmoms like Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White or modern like Parent Trap, or the newer Parent Trap, repeat infinity with basically every stepmom forever). In a recent episode of my podcast (linked here, self-promotion is never done) I […]

“The problem with family is that they know where all the levers are that make you move. They’re usually the ones who installed the levers in the first place.”

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

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I picked this book up for a  read along with a few friends and it’s a great one for the season: one part silly, one part spooky, one part WAIT WHAT?! The general consensus from the group was that we liked it, but maybe didn’t love it and that it was a bit of a slow build, some felt it was too slow, I was along for the ride. Someone who had read other Kingfisher novels was surprised at how differernt it was in tone, […]

Some Minds are Better Off Not Read

The Journey by Isobelle Carmody

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What a perfect pick for the ‘And Also…’ bingo  square. I started bingo this year with the ‘Part 1’  because I decided to re-read the Obernewtyn Chronicles, and it really helped me get out of a rut.  Now as part of my re-read, I’ve leant about a very short Obernewtyn prequel story available on Audible and now I guess I have a new ‘Part 1’ to review? The Journey is set before the Great White and it gives us a glimpse of  what the world was […]



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