Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What if you could have your entire appearance altered by magic, over and over again? – UnCannon

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

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UnCannon: Dhonielle Clayton is a young (37 is younger than me so it counts!) black woman so she is pretty polar opposite of an old white man.  I had my eye on The Belles for a while now and when the Black Publishing Power Initiative came up, it seemed the perfect time to buy the book. Clayton created a world where beauty is the ultimate, ever changing goal, and access to beauty is controlled.  Cursed by the God of the Sky the people of Orleans are […]

Incredibly timely, CBRbookclub is two for two this year in books that are unexpectedly relevant

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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The themes of gender identity and the LGBTQ+ spectrum were always going to be relevant for Pride month and An Unkindness of Ghosts was thoughtfully chosen for this book club.  However, current events have given an added layer of pertinence.  Earlier this year, the CBR Book Club had chosen Station Eleven and then we found ourselves in a pandemic.  This month we are seeing protesting to change a racist police system (and institutionalized racism) and An Unkindness of Ghosts has an outright rebellion against the […]

Loved the mystery and secret societies, current events made the excessive privilege stomach churning

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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As much as I adore the Grishaverse, it was nice to see Bardugo flex her writer muscles in something new.  She certainly starts this book with a vivid sentence that seized me right away. By the time Alex managed to get the blood out of her good wool coat, it was too warm to wear it. Ninth House is gripping murder mystery, set in a version of our world where magic exists and is hoarded by the secret societies of Yale.  Perhaps you’ve heard of […]

More story than fits the format but exciting nonetheless

Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince vol. 2 - Night of Knives by V.E. Schwab (author), Budi Setiawan (artist)

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This book was literally on its way to me when I read CoffeeShopReader’s review of Night of Knives.   I debated reading the review but ultimately decided to find out their take.  CoffeeShopReader’s review title is, ” Not enough panels to cover the possibilities”, and now having read the book, I agree with the sentiment.  There is a lot of story that gets stuffed into Night of Knives. There is an interview with Schwab in the back and in it she talks about turning a few sentences about […]

What if the Chosen One is flawed? What do you do after you’ve defeated the Big Bad?

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

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Reading Fangirl brought me such joy that I immediately ordered Carry On and Wayward Son to be able to continue Simon and Baz’s adventures. In the review I wrote, “Waiting for Carry On has me checking the front porch every time the dog barks at the front door.”  Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait much longer and they showed up in the next day or so.  Since then I’ve blitzed through both books, reading them back to back and and finishing them in a matter of days, […]

Novik spun gold with her creative re-working

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

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Couldn’t help myself with the title for the review 🙂  Mysterious Galaxy recommened Naomi Novik’s  His Majesty’s Dragon, first in the Temeraire series, way back when it came out in 2006.  I instantly fell in love with concept, the dragons during the Napoleonic wars.  However, somewhere around book 5 I lost interest and never finished the series.  Then I sort of forgot about her as an author.  In the past few years Novik’s name kept popping up for Uprooted and Spinning Silver and I was intrigued.  […]



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