Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Even in an Alternate History, the Great Game is Still Played

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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A Master of Djinn is phenomenal. At the most basic level it is a very good murder mystery. On top of that it is a fantastic alternate history fantasy. The whipped cream on this sundae of a book is the smart commentary. It is layered, atmospheric, tense, and sharp. The two novellas that came before, A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 are wonderful in their own right, but utterly necessary as an introduction to Clark’s world. I love it […]

She was all danger, all aerial murder waiting to happen

The Jaguar Knight by Ann Aguirre

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The Jaguar Knight is the final book in the Ars Numina series, which I see I’ve managed to read and reread, but not review. If you are interested, and why wouldn’t you be, you’re going to want to start with the first book, The Leopard King. This final book in the series completes the arc and provides the emotional payoff set up in the first book. Ars Numina is a series of interconnected stories which over 6 books tell the story of allied societies whose […]

A is for Anchovy

Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes and Stories by Nigella Lawson

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A book is often many years in the making and over the last year, I have read many authors reflecting on the strangeness of trying to write and release books during a global pandemic. Writing a cookbook, especially one that envisions family gatherings and entertaining around a table of food must have been particularly challenging. A couple of the essays in Nigella Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat refer to the lockdown she is experiencing while writing. I’m glad she included those mentions because it adds a pathos […]

I Wanted to be the Enchantress of the Woods, Beautiful, Powerful , and Wild

The Companion by E.E. Ottoman

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I joke sometimes that I wish I could turn into my great grandmother with her big kitchen table at which she turned produce into preserves with such competence. EE Ottoman’s The Companion is really tapping into that desire. It’s also reminding me that Granny canned fruits and vegetables so that her family would have enough to eat, not because she thought it was fun. Set in 1949, Madeline Slaughter is on her way to a small town in up-state New York, exhausted and demoralized from trying […]

So Many Tiny Hearts of Light

Victories Greater than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

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One of my most common anxiety dreams is having to do something I have already done well, but I can’t remember how I did it. I start off confident and everyone around me is confident and full of expectation. It slowly becomes clear that I don’t know what I’m doing. My panic grows as I feel everyone’s disappointment. Charlie Jane Anders turned my nightmare into the premise of a space adventure. Imagine that you grow up knowing you are the clone of an intergalactic leader […]

A Cathartic Marriage in Trouble Romance

Shame by Ainsley Booth

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Ainsley Booth’s Shame took me back to the year I lived in a friend’s house while she and her husband were grappling with his infidelity. I was not the person harmed, of course, but it was a strange situation navigating the intense emotions and trying to be supportive without being a prop. Reading Shame was a catharsis I didn’t know I needed. It’s angsty, painful, and very messy, but ultimately kind and healing. Booth prioritizes Grace over Luke, though they both have POV sections. Throughout […]



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