Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Don’t get too excited about the psychic cats

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

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From the official plot summary: Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The tagline for this book is “Kidnappers. Alien Emperors. Psychic cats. And she’s out of coffee.” Two of […]

“We are but fevered stars. Here a little while, bright with promise, before we burn away.”

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

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I’ve been struggling with review writing lately and decided to give the 5 Ws way a shot because this book/series is too good to not share. What:  Fevered Star, is the second book in Rebecca Roanhorse’s  Between Earth and Sky series.  The first is Black Sun, which I thoroughly enjoyed!  It is an epic fantasy tale where Gods seek to regain power in the mortal realm and human power players seek to reshape control of the land and seas. Who:  Naranpa, Sun Priest, who has now become […]

Another way to view nature

Birds of the West by Molly Hashimoto

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Over the past twenty years, I’ve become a fairly avid birder. More recently, I’ve begun to re-cultivate the interest in drawing I first developed as a young teen. During the pandemic, I started watching online tutorials about nature journaling and, more specifically, drawing birds. Molly Hashimoto’s Birds of the West, an Artist’s Guide, is a wonderful source of inspiration. It’s a combination field guide, art book, and how-to manual. Hashimoto specializes in block prints and watercolors, though she also shares some etchings and images she […]

“What I did know was that I had hit upon a truth of womanhood; however blameless a life we led, the passions and the greed of men could bring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do.”

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

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I’ve had a run of bad luck the past few years where the first book I pick to read ends up, at worst, pretty terrible, and at best, readable but not enjoyable. Unfortunately, Ariadne by Jennifer Saint falls into the latter. Since I spent a lot of 2023 reading and rereading Greek Mythological retellings (thank you Natalie Haynes and Madeline Miller among others), I honestly thought this would be a shoo-in as an easy read, my return to CBR, and jump starting my reading for […]

There’s a Girl in a Tower, But This Isn’t Her Story

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

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If you know me, you know that a good fairytale retelling or interpretation is totally my jam. Robin McKinley had me by the throat for years thanks to Beauty, Deerskin, Spindle’s End, etc. So when I learned that T. Kingfisher, an author whose books I’ve previously enjoyed (and who is a delightful follow on used-to-be-Twitter), had a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, I was more than down. Thornhedge is the story of Toadling, who was stolen by the faeries as a newborn babe, adopted by a […]

Stormin’ the Normans

Essex Dogs: A Novel by Dan Jones

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Whenever I’m at a bookstore, I seem to be drawn toward historical fiction more than any other genre. A month or so ago, I was browsing a table full of books when this one caught my eye. I’d never seen historical fiction set in The Hundred Years War, and the blurb made this sound like a “band of brothers” type of story — a company of men called the Essex Dogs who fight like hell, not for fame or riches or country, but for each […]



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