Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Deadpool Does D&D

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

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Imagine if you took Deadpool, made him a her named Davi, made him the main playable character in a video game, and tossed into a D&D sort of world in which (true to video game), every time he dies, he goes back to the re-set position. And this happens hundreds of times as Davi keeps losing to the Dark Lord. But then, Deadpool/Davi decides that, instead of trying to save the world from the Dark Lord, why not just become said Lord instead? And let’s […]

A Well-Mixed Potion

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

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Harry Potter’s sixth-year at Hogwarts makes for an epic adventure tale. Harry and his classmates are more in control of their futures than ever, able to select the courses in which they want to specialize and prepare for the N.E.W.T. exams which will determine their prospects. When they aren’t hitting the books, their main preoccupation seems to be finding a classmate to canoodle with. The love lives of Harry and his friends have never been so front-and-center before, as Ron and Hermione each seek to […]

New. Dream. Retirement. Plan.

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

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I picked up Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner because it was a recommended book listed in the afterward of Weyward by author Emilia Hart (which I enjoyed very much and hope to also review, and even if I hadn’t enjoyed it very much it would have been worth the read for the inclusion of the recommended book list at the end!). I found Hart’s description intriguing: in 1920s Great Britain, a middle-class “spinster aunt” decides to move by herself to the countryside in order […]

A World You Want To Wear Like a Blanket

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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Becky Chambers’ first Monk & Robot book, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, struck a chord in me in a way that few other books have. Chambers built a world so beautiful, so full of hope, that I just wanted to curl up in it like a blanket. She continues that glorious world-building in the second book, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. Picking up right after book 1, we join Sibling Dex and Mosscap as they re-enter human territory and plan to introduce Mosscap to the […]

Sweet, Ghibli-esque cottage core fantasy

Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell

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What: Catherine Bakewell’s Flowerheart is a lovely coming into one’s power tale with Studio Ghibli vibes and a charmingly rustic setting,  It’s also a fairytale with wild magic, curses, witches and wizards.  Running through is the rebuilding of a childhood friendship that turns to romance. Who: Clara Lucas is a witch in training, about to turn sixteen, and afraid of her power.  Her magic surges in wild, and sometimes destructive, ways and is affected by her mood.  On the benign side flowers will spontaneously bloom in her […]

Tea and Books with some magic and dragons and soldiers

Can't Spell treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

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Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea very much matches the label on the front cover “cozy fantasy steeped in love”. It’s not exactly a romance though, since the main couple is already established at the start, and they actually seem to have a healthy communication dynamic (which it feels like most standard romances must avoid). Unless the love is actually the couple everyone knows are into each other but they refuse to admit it themselves, or maybe it’s the young teenage first love thing that gets […]



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