Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Delightful Diversion

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming

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See what had happened was I woke up with a migraine. A real doozy of a skull-splitter. And there I was, in bed with medicines and comfort objects and drawn curtains and agony. Days like this I can’t watch tv, can’t do much of anything besides lie still and quiet and wait for sleep or sweet release of death. I open my kindle, throw it in to dark mode, bump up the text size until the words aren’t blurry and hope to find a story […]

A Fantastic YA Centering Queer History & Adventure

Lion’s Legacy by LC Rosen

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Gosh, gosh, gosh! This book, LC’s writing reminds me how reading a queer book by a queer author really does hit differently, in the best ways. Tennessee Russo is a teen who’s been going on adventures with his dad to find ancient artifacts for his dad’s tv show since his bar mitzvah, but at fifteen he starts to see the way his dad sells the artifacts as unethical, which results in a fight where his dad abandons him in Japan. Two years later, Ten has […]

The “horrible little attack weasel” gets to save the day and it’s not the hero

The Ivory Tomb by Melissa Caruso

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The Ivory Tomb is slow to start but once it gets going it’s a good adventure and solution to the problems set up in the first two volumes of the Rooks and Ruin trilogy. The first half is everyone running around trying to figure out a way to stop the demons who have all been released by the end of the second volume; then a cameo that way both fun but also not nearly as nuanced as I kind of wish given who it was […]

Sometimes things should be left in the past

Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler

Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler

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Why can’t I learn this lesson? Some books shouldn’t be re-read if you want to continue to remember them fondly. But maybe it’s better to have ripped the band-aid off so you don’t recommend them and regret it later? When I was in middle school, I discovered the books of Clive Cussler. They read like a cross between Robert Ludlum and Indiana Jones. A dashing hero, his best friend, obscure bits of history woven into a densely plotted adventure, classic cars, and while they’re all […]

“If I’m going down, I’m taking it with me. M.A.D., bitch. I’m up for Mutually Assured Destruction – if that’s what it takes.”

The Library of the Dead by TL Huchu

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Ropa, a teenage ghost-talker, is too intent on making a living to work for free. But when a ghost begs for her to seek out her missing son, she gets drawn into the magical underworld of Edinburgh and uncovers the grisly truth. Astonishingly, I have finally read a physical book! This is a series I’ve been eying for a while, and honestly I’m not sure why it took so long to get into it. Ropa is a snarky lead with a strong narrative voice; it […]

“Even small actions have consequences. And while we can often choose our actions, we rarely get to choose our consequences.”

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

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Backing Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Project Kickstarter is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. Tress of the Emerald Sea is the first of those four secret novels Sanderson wrote during the pandemic when he wasn’t touring and had some “free time” on his hands. Of course what Brando Sando does on his free time is write more books, because he famously takes a break from writing to recharge by writing something else. The guy is a straight up nerd and I’m so glad […]



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