Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

She’s bad, bad Big Barda! Baddest gal in the whole of Apokolips

Barda by Ngozi Ukazu

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I do not know enough about Barda to understand all the ins and outs of her story. However, you can pick up some of it (the idea she is not the villain Granny Goodness wants, who Granny is, the Furies, etc.), in Ngozi Ukazu’s graphic novel of the same name. Some of the world was lost on me (why is the prisoner Scott Free the way he is? How did he get his name? What about the background he has with another person of Barda’s […]

Not All That Mathy! Trust Me!

The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Math's Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell

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I got this for a Christmas present – retired math teacher and all – and it turned out to be quite enlightening.  These types of books tend to run more along the “Hey did you know that a lot of important math discoveries were made by – wait for it – women and non-European white males?  That includes the lady with the best nickname ever, the Witch of Agnesi, based on a botched translation.  My theory is that these ladies came up with these amazing […]

“No,” she rasped. “I have chosen the abyss.”

Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti

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“Don’t worry,” Georgiana said. “Everyone else is invisible to Strathrannoch when Lydia is in the room. One becomes accustomed to it.” No one has to convince Arthur Baird, Earl of Strathrannoch, that Lydia Hope-Wallace is worthy of his love and admiration. He is heart-eyes over her not long after she proposes marriage and then faints on his doorstep. As he carts her to his dusty chaise lounge (titled, but poor), he notices the lushness of Lydia’s figure and the color of her eyelashes. In historical […]

Self discovery and gender with a little musical accompaniment

A Song for You and I by K. O'Neill

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I always enjoy K. O’Neill’s writing, however, I found A Song for You and I a smidgen not as strong as usual. I think the issue was I was reading via an online reader copy and there were black and white images and not the full color illustrations of the final product. And since the book relies on the illustrations for most of the story, it was not what I needed. However, the story of being “other” and the fear and confusion that produces is […]

When the clock doesn’t tick

Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi

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Twenty is just a cog in the wheel of the utopian society in Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi. Or at least for  the privileged.  Twenty is trying for one of the coveted positions on the team of engineers. If you make it to the top the reward is everything. But until then, they help keep the Hour Glass running so the privileged few can reap the reward of immortality. But when a real piece of the machine goes missing, more than the Hour Glass will fall […]

Let’s take this to the neck level

The Confessional by Paige Hender

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Recently I entered a “Grab a Galley” sweepstakes thingie and I have been honored to win a few that I really wanted. But one of them I was on the fence about putting my name in for. This was The Confessional by Paige Hender. But (and I know one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover) the cover was calling me. Which might not be a good thing since it is about vampires. Picture it: New Orleans, 1922. Cora Velasquez is a fairly newly turned […]



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