Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Basically a princess and bodyguard romance, but in Spaaace!

Aurora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik

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This is the second book in a series. While this book can be read independently, there are details to the world building and continuity that’s better explained in book 1, Polaris Rising, so you may want to begin with that one. Official book description: Bianca von Hasenberg did her duty for High House von Hasenberg and ended up trapped in a terrible marriage. When her husband dies unexpectedly and leaves her a happy widow, she vows never to marry again. Instead, she uses her connections to […]

Cannonball! I wasn’t prepared for this read

Educated by Tara Westover

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I’ve been hoping that I would read something amazing for my first Cannonball. I had heard so many good things about Educated that I put a hold on it in my library and was excited when I got the call last week, timed perfectly to be read over the long Thanksgiving weekend and become my fifty-second review. Educated is an incredible, thought-provoking memoir. Yet I find myself writing this review quickly not because I’m so eager to share my opinions with other readers, but because I […]

The redemptive power of empathy

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

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Lincoln in the Bardo is a fitting novel to read during November, the month of the dead. Set in a Washington, DC, cemetery in February 1862, the novel combines real historical events and an imagined spiritual realm. This is a story about death and loss, moving on (or not), and redemption. As in the film The Sixth Sense, the dead of Oak Hill Cemetery don’t know they’re dead (or if they do, they are not saying so). These souls refer to their coffins as “sick […]

Continuing Tsubasa read through. Volumes 7 – 13

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 7 by CLAMP

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 8 by CLAMP

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 9 by CLAMP

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 10 by CLAMP

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 11 by CLAMP

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 12 by CLAMP

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 13 by CLAMP

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Here is the start of my Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles volumes 1-6 journey if you’re curious as to how this started.  The manga is rated 13+ but when I let my seven year old start reading it I couldn’t think of anything that would be inappropriate.  However, on this re-read I believe the rating is due to alcohol consumption.  It doesn’t happen often but the characters do indulge from time to time.  And as the ages of Syaoran and Sakura are not stated, and they seem […]

This is (almost) the end

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

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Mary Roach’s Stiff is a paean to dead bodies. She notes in the introduction that “Cadavers are our superheroes: They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from head-on car crashes into walls. You can fire a gun at them or run a speedboat over their legs, and it will not faze them. Their heads can be removed with no deleterious effect. They can be in six places at once. . . .  What a shame to waste these powers, to not use them for the […]

Mysterious as the dark side of the Moon

The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas

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Official book description: CHINA, 484 A.D. A Warrior in Disguise: All her life, Mulan has trained for one purpose: to win the duel that every generation in her family must fight. If she prevails, she can reunite a pair of priceless heirloom swords separated decades earlier, and avenge her father, who was paralyzed in his own duel. Then a messenger from the Emperor arrives, demanding that all families send one soldier to fight the Rouran invaders in the north. Mulan’s father cannot go. Her brother […]



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