Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I do love the cover of this book, especially paired with the title. It makes me laugh.

The Feeling of Falling in Love by Mason Deaver

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This was a cute story and well written, but I didn’t connect to it emotionally as much as I did with Deaver’s first book, I Wish You All the Best. Deaver still plays with themes of gender nonconformity and coming of age while queer and discovering your sexuality and gender identity, but their main character is a much more difficult and complicated person (read: kind of an asshole). This is also a romance, though as with their first book, the main character’s emotional growth is […]

A Few Squirts of a Turkey Baster

Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: New to you authors #1 Chrysta and her sister are the daughters of a dynamic and damaged woman, a single lesbian who yearned for a child in the rather unaccepting 1980s – and found her ideal sperm donor in a hair salon. But both Debra and Jeffrey hid many secrets from their children. There’s that oft-quoted opening sentence of Anna Karenina – “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I thought of that quote, and how […]

Probably the most creative werewolf book you’ll ever read.

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

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Oh, dang, I thought I had written a review of this one, but going through all my 2022 books to Review Amnesty, I see I have in fact, not done so. Real quick, if you’re looking for a starter horror/starter Stephen Graham Jones, this one might actually be a great book to read. And this book isn’t even all that horrific. It’s only really classified as horror because werewolves and because Stephen Graham Jones, but it’s really a coming of age story about a young […]

“They were supposed to grow up with their hands in each other’s pockets, compensating for one another’s weaknesses, encouraging one another’s strengths.”

Middlegame (Alchemical Journeys, #1) by Seanan McGuire

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This was my first Seanan McGuire book, which is a little unbelievable, both because she writes in genres I love, and because she writes so very prolifically. And I started with a really good one. I’m not against spoilers and frequently spoil myself for things, but I went into this book almost completely unspoiled, even for the premise, and I think that’s the way to go. The book is so weird it’s almost impossible to really sum up in a blurb anyway. So, how to […]

This Kitty has claws

Catwoman: Soulstealer Graphic novel by Louise Simonson

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The graphic novel adaptation of Catwoman: Soulstealer confused me at first. There are several of the Batman villains but no Batman. There are the people we know, such as Lucius Fox and Commissioner Gordan but not really “there” just “Oh yeah by the way…” And though she is a villain that we all know and love (or hate) Catwoman is the new gal in town, with Poison Ivy and Harley already established. We have Luke Fox as Batwing (yeah, I’m with Selina Kyle/Catwoman, what’s up […]

I wish I would have known Chloe was based on Paris Geller and Kat Stratford before I read this.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

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As nearly always happens with me upon reading a book that generates such strong opinions in both directions, I am puzzled by the negative reactions here. I’ve seen so many people saying they hate Chloe as a main character, and I’m like, why? She’s just a teenaged girl. Granted, one that is inspired by, among others, Paris Geller and Kat Stratford, so she’s a bit more intense and difficult than your average teenager, but she’s still just a kid, and kids make dumb choices. I […]



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