Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Camp Half-Blood 4 Life (Percy Jackson and the Olympians series review)

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

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I read this series when it was originally published and didn’t think about it much after I’d finished. I liked it, yes, but it wasn’t a new obsession for me and I never really planned on revisiting Percy’s world. Then I watched the teaser for the Disney+ show coming out next year and checked them out from the library and that’s how I spent my last two weeks. The series follows Percy Jackson, who finds out he’s a demigod, the son of Poseidon and a […]

5 Stars for a Great Fantasy Adventure Graphic Novel

Dungeon Critters by Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter

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I’ve been following Sara Riess-Goetter’s autobio work for years but I knew she and her wife Natalie had also been working on this all-ages fantasy graphic novel for a long time. I finally picked it up recently and loved it so much that I’ve pre-ordered their next book so I won’t miss it. I could scold my past self for not reading this earlier, because it was so up my alley, but I’ll cut myself some slack. This is a really great book and I’m […]

“It was a trap after all,” Alric said. He turned to Royce. “My apologies for doubting your sound paranoia.”

Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2) by Michael J. Sullivan

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This was fun! It was a plot-forward fantasy adventure story, and even though we’ve seen many of these plots before in different configurations, I think because I haven’t read a lot of plotty adventure fantasy in the past several years, it felt fresh to me. Also, it’s just a really well done version of this type of story. I will definitely be continuing in the series. Okay, but Theft of Swords! Which is a bind-up of the first two books in The Riyria Revelations (The Crown […]

Magical Tea Mystery

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

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I like the story, the characters, and the loose historical basis, but I don’t quite get how the magic fits into things in A Magic Steeped in Poison. Working with tea and medicinal plants certainly can involve the potential for poison, but I wish there was more detail about how the magic that can allow for tea to be used for emotions, healing, or telling the future worked. I’d settled for a little more about the historical aspect of traditional Chinese medicine; there’s an index […]

The popular thing I don’t get

Tower of God, vol. 1 by Siu

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You know how when there’s all this hype over a story and then you finally get to it, and it just doesn’t seem that special? That’s Tower of God vol 1. Granted, the anime is the thing that really took off and I’m looking at the comic strip version that the anime’s based on, but still. This seems so generic, I don’t get it. Basically, there’s this mysterious tower, and if you get in (and apparently only the chosen usually are allowed) then you have […]

D is for Disappointing

D (A Tale of Two Worlds) by Michel Faber

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Here’s the thing, I read a lot of books! I read a lot of genre fiction in particular, the sort that has set tropes and predictable story beats. The joy in reading a book whose overall plot I can guess based on the cover is the ways the author takes those expectations and subverts or enhances them. I love “through the door” stories!! I love how we get to explore our own worlds and beliefs when confronted with a topsy-turvy dimension. Which is why I […]



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