Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

One December night

The Birds of Christmas by Olivia Armstrong

by Leave a Comment

The Birds of Christmas by Olivia Armstrong and illustrated by Mira Miroslavova is a delightful spiritual story with a folktale approach. The colors and images are rich and move the story along. We follow the birds during the birth of the Christ child and the gifts they give to him. Yet, even though it Christian based (the birth of Christ) it is less religious and more wanting to give the spirit of the season. I loved how Miroslavova’s illustrations are rich, pretty and show how […]

They adorably find you when you need them

Adorable Empire: A Graphic Novel by Laura Terry

by Leave a Comment

Adorable Empire: A Graphic Novel by Laura Terry is a nice solid 3. The story is not new (magical animals, being yourself, divorce, complicated family and friends relationships), but it is nice (I will repeat this word) and has a few points that keep it new for someone who has read a lot of this theme, but also does not deter a newbie to the flock of coming of age books. There are nice illustrations that are not WOW, but not blah either. Overall, it […]

Because love isn’t just for the sane, undamaged people

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

by Leave a Comment

Bingo: I am counting this for the “White” square in Cannonball Read bingo. I know there isn’t a lot of white on the cover, but technically there is some, and also I just really needed this square so that I could get my first bingo. So there. “If we limited loving to just the sane, undamaged people, the next generation would have about three people in it and presumably humanity would die out shortly afterward.” Stephen was once blessed by a god, protecting the innocent […]

Just a truly lovely piece of high fantasy

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

by Leave a Comment

Bingo: I am counting this book for the “Borrow” square on my Bingo card, because I borrowed it from my local library via the Libby app. Sybel, a teenage wizard, has the ability to summon and control animals. She has inherited what is essentially a nature preserve for mythical beasts, where she spends her days caring for poetic boars, magical cats, and majestic dragons, and attempting to summon the legendary white bird known as the Liralen. She has no use for other humans, until one […]

It’s a lovely morning in the village, and you are a horrible goose.

Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge

by Leave a Comment

CBR17 Bingo: School – Literacy is considered dangerous in this world, but Mosca wants to keep learning what she can, which is why she goes with Eponymous Clent and searches out the secret school. Real life provides her a different kind of schooling. Armed with just her ability to read and her murderous pet goose, twelve-year-old Mosca Mye hitches her fortune to that of the smooth-talking conman Eponymous Clent and gets herself tangled up in an adventure that could change the world she lives it, […]

System Collapse by Martha Wells

System Collapse by Martha Wells

by Leave a Comment

“System Collapse” picks right up with the events from “Network Effect” and Murderbot, the ART crew, and others, working together to try to figure out how to keep the Barish-Estranza corporation from trying to “own” the planet and the colonists that have been living there. This was not a bad book by any stretch, but to me there was way too much going on that I just after a while stopped trying to track what was happening to who and why. The first portion of […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo