Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Community is better than going it alone

The Demon Inside Me by Chace Verity

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I adore Chace Verity’s queer demon romances. Their human characters are working class and their sensibilities are solidly anti-bootstraps. Colby works at a low end big box store where, as he says, dreams go to die. Colby makes enough to pay rent and occasionally have a night out with the guys he has been friends with since junior high. He’s in the group chat, but their lives have diverged from his – they make more money and have office jobs that get more respect. Colby […]

Epic bravery and sensible fears

Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders

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There was a point several years ago when I got frustrated with YA and all the teenagers saving the world/saving the universe. Part of my frustration was that I don’t want kids to have to save the world. I got over that fairly quickly, but I remembered that feeling towards the end of Promises Stronger Than Darkness. Now I am so grateful that teens have a whole body of literature about fighting oppression and fascism. I might get a bit esoteric, because I don’t want to […]

Honor is a personal choice, and one which humans will admire—up to a point.

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

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This book is grim, well written, but grim and I didn’t enjoy reading it. I know plenty of other people will like it, because some people enjoy grim. I nearly abandoned it several times. Emily Tesh’s main character, Valkyr, starts off Some Desperate Glory as a joyless, intolerant fanatic who thinks she is better than almost everyone else. To be fair, she has been raised to be so, in what we come to realize is an extremist death cult. Earth has been destroyed and a […]

Almost specifically tailored to my interests

Funny Guy by Emma Barry

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When I got to the end of the arc for Chick Magnet, there was a teaser for Emma Barry’s next book Funny Guy. After I read it, I barged into Barry’s mentions on Instagram and screamed my excitement. Sam is a difficult, prickly person – a comedian with his finger on the self destruct button. His best friend, Bree, also lives in New York City and works as an urban planner. She is very good at what she does, but struggles with imposter syndrome. Bree and Sam […]

She had sex before pizza, which didn’t surprise her in the least.

Identity by Nora Roberts

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I have an occasional argument with a friend who is certain that Nora Roberts has a stable of ghost writers and I am certain that she writes every word of her own books because the author voice is so consistent. I haven’t actually read a new Nora Roberts book in a few years, but Identity was like putting on an old familiar sweater. Of course Nora Roberts has evolved as an author over her 40+ year career, but I still know a Nora Roberts book […]

“I keep trying to make sober, evidence-based statements. And you try to make me jump you like a cat.”

The Art of Losing by Ruby Lang

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As soon as I heard about Ruby Lang’s novella The Art of Losing, I started plotting how to get my hands on an arc. I saw an Instagram post that linked to an arc giveaway and I entered so fast, I practically reached through the internet and snatched the file. As you can see, I was successful. And I am completely unsurprised to announce that I loved it. A lot. The Art of Losing is drenched in grief and vulnerability. Gia was born in China […]



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