Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Moriens sed Invictus ~ Dying but Unconquered

O Caledonia: A Novel by Elspeth Barker

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O Caledonia was originally published in 1991 and was reissued last year with a new introduction by Maggie O’Farrell. I’d never heard of this book before but saw it at the bookstore. The cover looked like it would be suitably dark for a Halloween-ish read, and it is. This book might be for you if you enjoyed I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith) or We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) as, like those two novels, it features a teenaged protagonist living in […]

I’ll make a man out of myself (Bingo!)

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

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CBR14 Bingo: Star (Zhu might be described as something of a rising star within the Chinese power structure of the day, and also the sun is literally a star. I’m so very clever). Back in the 14th Century, the Mongols had conquered and ruled Imperial China. In a small village, drought and famine have killed the majority of the population. A nameless girl (one of the few children left in the village) has managed to stay alive thanks to her ingenuity. When her older brother, […]

You’re a cold-hearted snake…

Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire

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CBR14 Bingo: Series (this is book 17 in an ongoing series, do NOT start here). Could easily also have used this book for Snake and New.  Spoiler warning! This is book 17 in the series. It’s impossible to review the book without referring to events in earlier books, so if you want to remain completely unspoiled, skip this one. I’ll try to avoid any big spoilers for this book. October “Toby” Daye not only survived her wedding, but so did her husband, Tybalt, King of Cats, and all […]

“Do you know who I am yet?”

Nona the Ninth: The Locked Tomb vol. 3 by Tamsyn Muir

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CBR14 Bingo: “Question” – Figuring out Nona’s identity is a core element of the book. This is a spoiler free review.  I am so glad to have made the decision to throw my reading plans out the window and reread Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth  before reading Nona the Ninth.  Having everything fresh in my mind was helpful because once again Muir throws the reader into the deep end of the pool, expecting one to keep afloat until things gel together. Nona is unlike […]

Blind Date with a Book

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

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Last spring I read about something called “Blind Date With a Book” that sounded like fun. Libraries apparently do them, and it involves choosing a book, wrapped in paper so you cannot see the title, based on some descriptive words (mystery, romance, other voices, etc). It’s a fun way to change up your reading and maybe try something you wouldn’t have picked for yourself. Over on Etsy, a number of sellers offer this same service for a range of fees and I decided to give […]

“Can I still listen to BTS if I’m a lesbian?”

Ti kniver i hjertet (Ten knives in the heart) by Nora Dåsnes

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3.5 stars Tuva is about to start seventh grade (age 11-12 here in Norway) and is very much looking forward to seeing her best friends Linnea and Bao and catching up after a long summer apart. She shares all of her hopes and fears writing and drawing in her diary. When she gets back to school, however, nothing is as she was expecting. Linnea has a boyfriend now, and doesn’t really want to hang out, playing in their secret treehouse in the woods. She just […]



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