Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Maybe it would work as a movie but needed more for a book

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

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I saw some of the blurbs and reviews make references to Studio Ghibli and The Night Circus as comparisons for this book but they are superficial comparisons – this novel doesn’t come close to reaching the emotional depths of The Night Circus, even as it takes the reader on a tour through a magical world. I have never actually seen a Studio Ghibli movie (I know, huge gap) but I have seen trailers, and I know vaguely from paying attention to pop culture how deeply […]

Side Quest Central

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

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Carl’s Doomsday Scenario is a pretty good continuation of the Carl and Donut dungeon crawl. The characters and seat of the pants problem solving are still there, the dark humor that’s both tragic and still entertaining is still there. Plot-wise this volume gets thin; much like the side quest emphasis (new feature of this volume), there is not a lot of progress in the main overall situation. There’s also isn’t  a ton of character development beyond the “game character” that everyone has to perform to […]

The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2

The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2 by Martha Wells

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Wow. Again the two novellas I read were really good, no notes, five stars for both of them. I got asked about my book last night (I was out eating dinner solo) and I think I maybe got a former librarian to give this series a try. I love meeting book lovers out in the wild. Rogue Protocol-I will just say this ending gutted me, but I loved everything that lead up to it. We have Murderbot focusing on gathering evidence against GrayCris Corporation and […]

Right book at the right time

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

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I recently finished the last book in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series, and it pretty much made me into an emotional wreck for at least a few days. I needed a bit of a palette cleanser book, so I picked up The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, mostly because out of all the books on my TBR, it looked like one of the least likely to make me want to ugly cry. Kiela is a librarian, taking care of the spellbooks at the […]

Are All of Robin Hobb’s Books a Masterclass in Writing?

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

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While I don’t mind multiple POV books, I generally prefer single POV. This book, though, masterfully demonstrates just how useful multiple POV can be. It was so different from the Farseer trilogy in which we’re always in Fitz’s head, and the emotions are unrelenting. In Ship of Magic, when you need a break from the drama with one character, there’s a different character whose drama you can jump into! It’s written in the 3rd person, but don’t expect that to spare you from the author’s toying with your […]

Calvin and Hobbes or Jackson and Irwin adventures?

Jackson's Wilder Adventures V02 Dentistry and Dreams, by Sarah Davidson

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I found a series awhile back that I thought was one of the best I had read. It was Jackson’s Wilder Adventures by Sarah Davidson. It was clever and unique. A young boy, Jackson, and his Calvin and Hobbesesque Hobbes, called Irwin the Thylacine, were the perfect narrators. Davidson mixed time travel in a Dr. Who manner with fun educational facts. Granted, there is no actual Tardis (and/or fill in your favorite doctor), just an old cardboard box, but the adventures were as fun. We […]



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