Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Interestingly written biography

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi

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CBR 16 Bingo – Celestial: The book is based around a continuous metaphor of Octavia Butler being from the stars or generally connected to them. A couple of years ago, I got the opportunity to go to the Walter Dean Myers awards, and this was one of the runners-up. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise, especially since I haven’t read any of Octavia Butler’s works, but I got it and it seemed like a good fit for Bingo this year, so I finally […]

Murderbot is not OK but the reason why is [redacted]

System Collapse by Martha Wells

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CBR16 Bingo: Rage (The Murderbot Diaries are all the rage all over the bookish internet, in addition, there’s a lot of rage-inducing behaviour from the evil corporation in the book) Spoiler warning! This is book 7 in the series, and absolutely not the place to start reading. This book will not make as much sense if it’s your first encounter with Murderbot. You should have read at least All Systems Red, Artificial Condition and the previous novel, Network Effect to have the requisite backstory for […]

“With the mystery genre booming in print and on screen at present, I have had no problem satisfying my cravings for crime.”

Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers by Marta McDowell

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Are you in the mood for a light and breezy book about how gardens and gardeners feature in crime and mystery writing? If so, I have the book for you. I am not a gardener, in fact my great grandparents who ran a greenhouse would be shocked at my inability to understand the finer points of plants and their needs and five years of working on a living history farm did not improve the situation. But it did introduce me to the author of Gardening […]

How Many Lies, How Many Truths

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

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The Truth According to Ember ended up on my reading list because of social media. When the ARC was released author and reviewer folks who I follow were promoting it because they liked what they were reading, but also it is a romance by and about Native people published by a mainstream publishing house (in this case, Berkley). While I didn’t receive an ARC, I was interested enough to keep an eye out for publication, and once that happened, I immediately placed myself on the […]

“But afterwards you went on remembering.”

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

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Confession time: this is the first Agatha Christie novel I have read. I know, I’m surprised too. When thinking about where I wanted to jump in one of her standalone novels felt like the right choice, and since I had watched the adaptation of Why Didn’t They Ask Evans and remembered the plot I figured going into one without any preconceived notions was probably for the best. As it was the end of October one with spooky vibes (a group of strangers invited to an […]

No one is born knowing how friends work. You figure it out as you go along.

Icarus by K. Ancrum

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This house was loud and bright and full, and Icarus shivered into it like it was the first time he was being allowed in out of the cold. ― K. Ancrum, Icarus CBR 16 Bingo: Celestial Icarus is a seventeen-year-old boy in his senior year of high school. As soon as he graduates, or even as soon as he turns eighteen, he plans to leave home. His father, Angus, is an art thief. However, he and Icarus only steal from Mr. Black. Icarus does not […]



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