Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Plot, Character, Smut – you’ve got the whole package”

Stacked by Aviva Blakeman

Say My Name by Aviva Blakeman

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Y’all!!!! Firstly – I’m here! It’s been a very intense couple of years for me. This is my first review in a while and I declare complete review bankruptcy on anything I read during that time. No obligations, no guilt, no shame. (This review fills in the “And So It Begins” CBR11 Bingo Square) Secondly – y’all. Y’all? Y’all.  Sometimes a friend or acquaintance writes a book and I read it and it’s… well it’s bad! Sometimes it’s mediocre, sometimes it’s serviceable but not great, […]

“The apocalypse began at Starbucks. Where else did you expect the end of the world to start?”

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson

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#CBR11bingo – #cannonballersays Elena Mendoza is a totally normal high school student. She has a best friend named Fadil, an ex named Javi, a job at the local Starbucks, and a crush on the mysterious and beautiful Freddie. Oh, and also, Elena was born without her mother ever having had sex, leading to the EXTREMELY clever nickname “Mary” at school. And she hears voices from inanimate objects that tell her what to do all the time. One day, while Elena is busy at Starbucks, the […]

“Tough luck for elected officials. The beast you see got 50 eyes”

Infomocracy by Malka Older

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  This book was suggested to me because I was looking for something in the vein of William Gibson and it definitely fit the bill. Malka Older’s debut novel is a smart, fast-paced science fiction novel with tons of political intrigue and lots of action. Also there’s two more in the series that I can’t wait to get my hands on and read. The story takes place in the not to distant future. Nation states no longer exist and have been replaced by microdemocracies which […]

“You’ll feel light in your body”

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

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  I bought this book shortly after it came out because it sounded interesting and I want to support new authors. I also liked fantasy based on West African rather than European mythology for a change of pace. Overall I thought the story was solid and I’ll definitely be picking up the next one when it comes out. I found some of the main characters to be frustrating but this may just be a side effect of not reading a ton of YA lit. I’m […]

Fun, witty mystery set in a grim era

The Scandal at Bletchley: A Hilary Manningham-Butler Mystery (#1) by Jack Treby

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Cbr11bingo Summer Read The Scandal at Bletchley * is the first in what promises to be a fun mystery series featuring an unorthodox detective. Sir Hilary Manningham-Butler is a former employee of Britain’s spy agency, MI5, now married conveniently if not happily to the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. In October of 1929, as the world’s stock markets are on the verge of collapse, so is Hilary’s life. It is discovered at a weekend reunion of some MI5 veterans at Bletchley Park that a murderer is […]

A long apprenticeship for this final act of bad judgment

Orfeo by Richard Powers

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CBR BINGO: Awards (2014 California Book Awards Silver Medal Fiction/ Man Booker long list) Somehow I managed not to get the memo regarding Richard Powers earlier in his career. I picked up “Overstory” last year because it was displayed at the library, had trees on the cover and looked like it checked all of my eco-fiction boxes. (I’m still wondering what to call the nature/environmental/ecology centric fiction that I love. Is there an established understood category for this? Anyone?) Didn’t realize I was picking up the […]



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