Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The real bookstore was the friends we made along the way

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloane

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  A book about a bookstore is catnip for me. I’ve had this one on my shelf and I selected it randomly. The story follows Clay Jannon, whose tech job goes away during the Great Recession (2008 edition). Clay takes a job working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Penumbra himself is a benevolently odd man who imposes very few rules on his employees. It soon becomes apparent to Clay that there is something out of the ordinary about Mr. Penumbra, his store […]

“Will they stand their ground? Will they let you down?”

The Return by Rachel Harrison

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The return is Rachel Harrison’s debut novel which I listened to on audiobook from my library. It is the story of four old college friends; Molly, Mae, Elise and Julie. Not long after getting married, Julie disappears without a trace during a hike and is eventually presumed dead. Elise, our narrator and the friend who is closest to Julie, does not believe she is dead. She is proven right when, two years after her disappearance, Julie appears back home with no apparent memory of her […]

I’ve got the music in me!

Soul Music: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

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Soul Music is the third novel in Pratchett’s Discworld “Death” series, and as in the previous two novels, we see Death abruptly abandon his duties and behave, or try to behave anyway, as a human would in his attempt to deal with an unexpected problem. Unlike the previous novels though, Death this time has an able replacement — his granddaughter Susan. This does not mean, however, that there won’t be trouble, and in Soul Music, the trouble has to do with a young musician and […]

It’s not easy being a woman in a man’s world

Lady Killer, Volume 1 by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich

Lady Killer, Volume 2 by Joëlle Jones and Michelle Madsen

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Someone in the CBR community recently mentioned that they are curious about how books come into our lives. I’m not typically a comic book reader (with a few exceptions), but I read this one when it came to me in the mail. More specifically, it came to my husband, a recommendation from one of his coworkers. After he read Lady Killer, he passed it on to me, thinking I might enjoy it The cover is the first thing that intrigued me: a stylish Betty Draper-esque […]

Long, yes; lovely, yes

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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I’m staring at a 771-page novel, replete with sticky notes I’ve placed to mark passages of interest, and I don’t know where to begin. The Goldfinch is an epic tale encompassing themes of loss, fate, friendship, family, love, accountability, and the nature of art. This is a novel for which future teachers of American literature will assign very specific essay topics to their students, such as “Describe Andy’s relationship with water and how it correlates to his relationship with his family,” or “What makes art […]

Back in Ilona Andrews’ Atlanta, this time with a new protagonist

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews

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Info to new readers – while this is the first book in a new series, and as such, should be perfectly accessible to readers completely unaware of Ilona Andrews’ previous books, it references A LOT of stuff that happened in the ten-book Kate Daniels series, as well as in Iron and Magic, a spin-off book of that series. I would highly recommend that you start there. Aurelia Ryder arrives back in Atlanta after an eight-year absence, trying to keep her presence mostly under the radar. The last time […]



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