Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Live fast. Die young. Bad girls do it well.”

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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  I’m at a loss as to how to describe this book. It’s part science fiction, part fantasy, part locked-room mystery and that really only scratches the surface. Gideon the Ninth has gotten a LOT of hype in the book community and it absolutely lives up to it in my opinion.  I’ve already preordered the sequel, Harrow the Ninth (number 2 of a trilogy) from my book store. Gideon is an extremely reluctant servant of the Ninth House. At the beginning of the book we find […]

“This is how all Noirs end, with a hug.”

Cut and Run by Ben Acker, Ben Blacker

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Cut and Run was one of my free Audible Originals last month. It is an absurd little story about a rag-tag team of organ harvesting good guys down in Mexico. Honestly, its best not to care too much about the plot, because, as I said, it is absurd. But this thing has a murderer’s row of a cast! It was a delight to listen to from start to finish. The performers really raised the quality of the material. We have D’Arcy Carden as Sam, the […]

‘Cause you got to have friends, la la la la la la la la la!

Baptism of Fire: A Novel of the Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski

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Sapkowski is managing to keep my interest very high with this the fifth Witcher book (3rd novel). The stories of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer continue to develop along very interesting lines, with plenty of fighting, intrigue and double crosses. The truth about Ciri’s power is slowing being unraveled while Yennefer’s role in the problems at hand is only hinted at, and Geralt finds himself part of an unlikely band of people who decide, against reason and any thought of personal safety, to help Geralt find […]

“We need no introduction, for mass annihilation

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse: Book 1) by James S.A. Corey

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  This series of books already has a well loved television adaptation that, I believe is still in production. I gave it a try when the series premiered and I had trouble getting into it.  Still, people raved about the source material and it doesn’t take much to sell me on a SciFi series especially when you throw in the words “space opera” so I picked up the first two on sale.  The first installment absolutely lives up to the hype.  It’s an engaging combination of […]

“Neutrality is usually mean.” ~Sapkowski; “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” ~Rush

The Time of Contempt: The WItcher Book 2 by Andrzej Sapkowski

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The Time of Contempt is the second novel, fourth book, in Sapkowski’s Witcher series, and as with the previous novel, this one is full of political intrigue, war, and fighting. The overriding question for our main characters is whether, in a turbulent war-torn world, it is possible to maintain neutrality, and if not, is it possible to choose a side without becoming hateful and barbaric. The Empire of Nilfgaard is trying to take over world and is enjoying quite a bit of success in this […]

Her chatty and nervous daughter, and the quiet, thoughtful person she paid to love her.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

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Reid’s debut novel definitely got a lot of advance press. Everyone was buzzing about it. For the most part, everything that I read highlighted the same plot point: The young black babysitter of a white little girl is detained and interrogated in a grocery store by a security guard because what-on-earth-would-a-little-white-girl-be-doing-under-the-care-of-a-black-woman-dressed-in-night club-attire-at-that-hour. Is the book about this incident? Yes, in part, but it is just an unfortunately recognizable incident that becomes a gateway to so much more. Emira is a bit adrift after graduating from college. […]



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