Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBRBingo11: Remix

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

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This was a GOOD BOOK, y’all. It definitely broke my streak of meh thrillers. It’s also a retelling of Beowulf (a book I remember WAY more of than I expected to, considering I read it almost 20 years ago) which makes it my Remix! bingo square. “Listen,’ someone whispers into my ear. ‘Listen to me.’ Am I dead? ‘Listen,’ the voice whispers. ‘In some countries, you kill a monster when it’s born. Other places, you kill it only when it kills someone else. Other places, you let […]

The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in.

Severance by Ling Ma

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Severance is a beautiful book with a lovely pink cover and a mysterious title. It opens and unfolds slowly as you read and then it just stops. It jumps backwards and forwards in time in a slow, meandering pace that feels like it ultimately amounts to nothing. We begin by meeting Candace in a post-apocalyptic world where most of the population has succumbed to Shen fever. Candace has joined a small band of survivors, but she spends most of her time reminiscing about the time […]

Paper-Thin Premise

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

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Bingo Update: This is my YOUTHS! square, as it was not only published as YA, but feels pretty stereotypical of the genre as a whole, and not in a good way. The Paper Magician ostensibly takes us on the journey of our protagonist, Ceony (whose name I never figured out how to pronounce and still don’t really like) as she learns the magic of paper. In this universe, the magically inclined are bonded to a specific material, and then that is the only form their magic can […]

Youths!

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan

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This is for the Youth Bingo Square. Rick Riordan is a pretty big deal in my house. My younger child (aged 11) has been reading through all of his books in a continuous, never-ending, are-you-really-doing-this-again loop for the last three years. Of the series written by Riordan, the Magnus Chase books are probably my second favorite. The Sword of Summer introduces Magnus, a homeless teenager living in Boston. He has been homeless for two years, since the death of his mother to glowing blue wolves. […]

Death and the Maiden

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

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I really, really wish I liked this book more than I did. It really has quite a bit going for it, I really enjoyed about 85% of the book a lot, but it didn’t quite stick the landing for me. Set in Nineteenth Century British Malaya, Li Lan is the only child of a Chinese businessman. The family fortunes have dwindled to almost nothing since the family was hit with small pox, disfiguring Li Lan’s father and killing her mother when she was very young.  […]

“One should not make a pet out of a wild beast.”

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold

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cbrbingo11 – Cannonballer says! In the kingdom of Harding, heir to the throne Emory must go through the ritual every king has had to take on before being granted the crown: slay a dragon, rescue the damsel captive there, and make her your queen.  Emory conquers this task as he conquers all of his conquests, and the young woman he takes back to his kingdom is like the ones who came before: no memory of her past or her time in the dragon’s lair, nameless, […]



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