Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Beautiful illustrations and engaging start to a magical manga: CBR14 Bingo “Rec’d”

Witch Hat Atelier, volume one by Kamome Shirahama

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CBR14 Bingo: “Rec’d” – This book was recommended by Darcy, one of my favorite booksellers at Mysterious Galaxy bookstore. My favorite independent bookstore is also doing book bingo this summer.  With Witch Hat Atelier I was able to cross off a bingo square about recommendations on both my Cannonball Bingo (Rec’d) and Mysterious Galaxy’s (Staff pick) bingo cards.  Happily that was the last square I needed to complete a Mysterious Galaxy bingo and now I get a 20% discount on a book at the store! […]

Who are the dolls in the doll house? CBR14 Bingo: ‘Verse

The Sandman, volume 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg (illustrator), Malcolm Jones III (illustrator), Robbie Busch (colorer), Todd Klein (letterer), John Costanza (letter)

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CBR14 Bingo: ‘Verse – The Doll’s House is part of the Sandman ‘verse. The Doll’s House introduces readers to the schemes of the Endless.  It contains issues nine through sixteen of ‘The Sandman’ comics wherein Dream sets out to put his kingdom, the Dreaming, back to rights.  A census by castle librarian, Lucien, shows that four major creations have escaped; Brute and Glob, the Corinthian, and Fiddler’s Green. Threaded through is the story of Rose Walker, a human pawn caught in the machinations of the Endless. Desire […]

Much said beautifully but too much left unsaid

The Maker of Swans: A Novel by Paraic O’Donnell

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Cbr14bingo bird On the face of it, this novel has a lot going for it: murder, a secret society, an English manor, a man servant who has seen it all. And yet the book was quite frustrating to read. On one hand, the prose is exquisite and the premise of the plot arresting. On the other hand, O’Donnell teases the reader without providing a satisfying payoff in the end. I didn’t want to put it down, but ultimately, I felt sort of cheated. The novel […]

Dignity

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

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CBR14 BINGO: Adapt, because it was adapted into the wonderful 1993 film of the same name “I’m telling you, sir, you’ll be sorry if you don’t take a walk up there. And you never know. A couple  more years and it might be too late.” This advice from a stranger on a country road to the novel’s protagonist is meant to encourage the traveler to walk up a hill and enjoy a beautiful view, but it may as well be an observation about the protagonist’s […]

Cairo, 1912, with magic. Sign me up.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

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CBR 14 BINGO: Rec’d. MsWas recommended this one to me, and I will be recommending it to others. I also saw this recommended on NPR’s list of best sci-fi and fantasy books of the last decade. In 1912 Cairo, collector of antiquities, lover of the exotic, and all around British-colonial caricature Lord Worthington meets with his Brotherhood of al-Jahiz, a group whose noble purpose is to “recover the most sacred wisdom of the ancients, to create a greater tomorrow.” Worthington’s group has taken to collecting […]

So many monsters!

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch: A Novel by Rivka Galchen

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Cbr14bingo Monster The cover and the title of this book got my attention, and then I read the blurb. Did you know that in 1618 Johannes Kepler’s mother was accused of being a witch? (Read more here, here and here). Yes, that Johannes Kepler, the mathematician and astronomer whose works were integral to the Scientific Revolution! Author Rivka Galchen, a medical doctor by training, took this fascinating piece of information and imagined the events surrounding Katharina Kepler’s denunciation and trial. The novel is told from […]



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