Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Magical Girls Grown Up

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

by Leave a Comment

Bingo 24: Swap Free Space for Diaspora Free Space invoked because I don’t have anything specific in mind for the Diaspora square and time is not on my side. I picked up The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry for the title. No other reason. Turns out this is actually book 2 in a series, but that doesn’t actually matter, as this story is pretty stand alone as far as I could tell. A lot is classic fantasy and romance tropes getting mixed up. Sometimes there’s […]

I probably rewrote this review a billion times before I thought I was done, then realized I needed more, so just read this book okay? 

You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir by Harry Bliss

by 2 Comments

I learned early on in my journey of reading Harry Bliss that there are two styles when it comes to his artwork. One is kid friendly and the other adult friendly. However, via an online reader copy of You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir, I learned there is a third type to Bliss: the really adult Bliss. This memoir takes slices of life and puts them on the page of a journal. These journal entries, illustrations and more come out in the book. He […]

The Opposite of Euphoria

Negative Space by B.R. Yeager

by Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR 16 Bingo: dreams. One of the main characters consistently has dreams that impact the plot of the story. CN: This book has many references to suicide, sometimes graphically. I won’t go into detail here but it’s impossible to review without mentioning it. If that’s something that makes you uncomfortable, sit this one out. Like many a child of the 80s and 90s, I’m a product of DARE’s Just Say No Culture. I never did drugs, was terrified of them as […]

Horror Month 2023: #12

Ghosts of East Baltimore by David Simmons

by Leave a Comment

While Horror Month 2023 has been a minor disappointment, it did encourage me to finish books I would have otherwise put off reading. That includes this little ditty, which I greatly enjoyed. I’ve worked and lived in Baltimore. I love the city so much. But it is a city of heartbreak. Violent crime, racial disparity, income inequality, a paucity of resources for young people, drug overdoses everywhere. It’s not the citizen’s fault, it’s the city’s for being so inept, the state of Maryland for being […]

CBR15 Bingo: Edibles

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 Bingo: Edibles (this book features both a lot of food and quite a few drugs) Lila Macapagal used to live in Chicago and dreamed of opening her own restaurant, but both her business and relationship failed miserably. She’s back in her hometown, helping to run her tita (aunt) Rosie run the family restaurant, where they serve Philipino food. Unfortunately, Lila’s ex-boyfriend is a food critic and seems determined to come back, again and again, to sample the food and write scathing things about the […]

Of butterflies and spirits

A Blanket of Butterflies (The Spirit of Denendeh Volume One) by Richard Van Camp

As I Enfold You in Petals (The Spirit of Denendeh, Volume 2). by Richard Van Camp

by Leave a Comment

A while back I found a reader copy request form. After asking and receiving it, I realized it was book two. I did find book one, but never got around to reading it. After receiving the second book, there was still no reading of it. I only realized why I had the delay the night I read them. They are books that must be read “at the right time,” otherwise you will not be ready for them. The books were A Blanket of Butterflies (The […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo