Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Intro to the Grishaverse

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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I’ve been wanting to read the Six of Crows duology and decided to start with the Shadow and Bone trilogy so I’d be more familiar with the Grisha and could enjoy references to past events. I was a little hesitant because a lot of people don’t seem to like the trilogy, but I enjoyed it. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was fun. I thought the pacing was pretty good throughout, and I appreciated the mix of plot-focused and character-driven story. In Shadow and Bone, we […]

Fairy Tales: a genre by and for “we the people”

Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book by Angela Carter

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I picked up this fairy tale collection in Tim’s Books, a tiny off-the-path used bookstore in Provincetown, because it had Angela Carter’s name on it, and I’ve been dedicating my book-buying to hoarding collections by the best fairy tale scholars, especially the feminist ones. It has, as you can see, a delightfully dated cover, but its ideas are very radical and timeless. The book is a selection of fairy tales and folktales chosen by Carter (author of the brilliant The Bloody Chamber), highlighting some of the […]

Beware the moat squid, magic garlic, and no memories

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis

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One of the worst things I think a book can do to you is totally ruin things with a two page change of tone. Dreadful seemed like a pretty inoffensive light-ish almost parody of D&D-type fantasy/isekai. Dread Dark Lord Gavrax suddenly wakes up in his lab with no idea where he is or who he is. He’s got no idea why he’s got Princess Eliasha captive, what scary Dread Lord Zarcon has him doing, why the villagers a re terrified of him, and why he […]

My love/hate relationship with this author continues.

House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3) by Sarah J. Maas

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SJM is just bad at endings, is what I’ve decided. I feel the same way about this as I did about Kingdom of Ash. And even though I think it’s the best of her three endings, I also had similar issues with A Court of Wings and Ruin. It’s a pattern, is what I’m saying. I don’t regret reading this book; the first half in particular was a major improvement over the meandering, uninteresting second book. And then she started wrapping things up. Sigh. I’m finding it […]

“Power doesn’t have to be the way the regent and your rebels make it be . . . Power can be looking after people. Keeping them safe, instead of putting them into danger.”

The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1) by Tasha Suri

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 I actually really ended up liking this and I’m going to need to use of one of my ten cheat books to pick up the sequel (I’m on a book buying ban for the whole of 2024 — I’ve already used three cheats 😬). It’s always lovely when as a lifelong fantasy reader you come across something that feels fresh and unique, and this book gave me that feeling the whole way through. The underlying story—about a society oppressed by an empire led by a […]

Two books. Two different adventures.

Campingland by Ame Dyckman

Team Unihorn and Woolly #1: Attack of the Krill by Alexis Frederick-Frost

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I follow Ame Dyckman on X (formerly Twitter). I think she is a hoot and a holler and most of her books follow that concept. They might not have her blue hair (or pink or yellow or …) but they do have spark and sizzle. And Campingland (illustrated by James Burks) does have spark and sizzle… and a skunk, a few squirrels, fish, buggies, marshmallows, hot dogs, a beaver and a very interesting way to go camping. This is a funny and cute way of […]



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