Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A seasonal book that takes a season to read

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire

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Bingo 18: Earth Day   Seanan McGuire knows her folklore, and it shows. In Seasonal Fears, there’s a ton of tropes, but mostly well handled. Basic plot involves the King of Winter and the Queen of Summer dying, and their crowns being up for grabs to those with affiliations for that season. The whole season emphasis thus qualifies for general environment theme, especially since the recently departed King of Winter was cheating the system where he was always in ascendance, which was probably causing climate […]

“It took a tremendous effort for me not to rip his arm off, and I’d like that noted for the record, please.”

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

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Back in November of 2018 I joined the cult of Murderbot. After I had read and loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Emmalita and narfna had told me that Murderbot needed to be next up in my reading of contemplative, character driven space opera. I was immediately in love. I’ve kept up with the furthering adventures of Murderbot in the intervening years and had decided earlier this year that I wanted to do a full series re-read before I […]

Treasures around us

Pearl of the Sea by Anthony Silverston

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Recently I am finding several online readers that at first glance are not “grabbing me.” (But then again, if a computer grabs you, you have bigger issues than a book not being interesting.)  And, Pearl of the Sea by Anthony Silverston was one of those not at first grabbers. But once I got into it, things started looking up. Now, granted this is not a WOW BEST BOOK EVER! but a book that was a nice break from the fairly intense reads I was reading. […]

The not so good review because I lost the original review that also has good online images because I guess I didn’t take a picture of my book

Brooms by Jasmine Walls

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  So I was trying to copy and paste my review of Brooms by Jasmine Walls (and illustrated by Teo Duvall) and somehow hit the wrong button and the ENTIRE review disappeared!  I know I will never be able to repeat that really great (if I do say so myself) review! I will not be able to talk about how we deal with racism, queerphobia, economic differences, sexism and more. The story of 1930s Mississippi magic (of course, only allowed to the chosen few) has […]

Found Family with Spies, Killers, and Secrets but It’s Cozy

Spy X Family Family Portrait by Aya Yajima, Tatsuya Endo

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For some reason I really needed a cozy read not long ago; I’m part way through something that sounded like it should have but is turning out to not be that. I put down book #1, and went for option 2: manga. Or to be more precise, a series of short stories based on the manga (and also now anime) Spy X Family titled Spy X Family: Family Portrait. If you know the series it helps but it’s not totally mandatory as there is a […]

The Map to the Afterlife

49 Days by Agnes Lee

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Read the description of 49 Days by Agnes Lee as that tells the story. My review is one that focuses on the fact that this is an emotional, complex and beautifully done book. I am focusing on the pieces that really spoke to me. And how it is relatable in many ways.  I like the realism of the grief processes. It is strong and powerful, and the idea of “yes, I must grieve, but I also must keep on living” is an interesting twist. Usually […]



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