Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Revisiting the Shades of Magic world with a captivating new story that also brought back fan favorites

The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

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CBR15 Bingo: Sex – V.E. Schwab does not include sex scenes in any of her books.  They tend to be more ‘fade to black’ moments.  However, I wish this book had more than just suggested sexy times! Several years ago when Schwab finished the original “Shades of Magic” trilogy, she left a door open to potentially revisit the series in the future.  Apparently inspiration struck and we now have The Fragile Threads of Power to build upon the first trilogy.  First off let me say that […]

The Winter of Our Discontent

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

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In Bliss Montage, a woman and her family live in the same house as her one hundred ex-boyfriends, women trapped in a toxic friendship take a drug that makes themselves invisible, and a pregnant woman must caretake the protruding arm of her fetus as she awaits giving birth to the rest of it. The distance from everyday life that fantasy brings us can be used to magnify reality, and Ling Ma takes takes ample advantage of this in Bliss Montage, a short story collection that examines […]

CBR15 Bingo: Politics

Jingo by Terry Pratchett

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4.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: Politics (the word is used 18 times over the course of the novel) Official book description: It isn’t much of an island that rises up one moonless night from the depths of the Circle Sea — just a few square miles of silt and some old ruins. Unfortunately, the historically disputed lump of land called Leshp is once again floating directly between Ankh-Morpork and the city of Al-Khali on the coast of Klatch — which is spark enough to ignite that […]

Horror Month 2023: #1

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

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For October 2023, I’m going to read as many horror- and/or Halloween-themed books as I can. It’s my own personal reading challenge to clear some stuff off my shelf and engage with other stuff on my TBR list. A few years ago, there was the framework of a tweet that made the rounds saying Men will literally do X instead of go to therapy. “X” could be watching football or training for UFC or any other such thing. The roots of it were legit: men are conditioned […]

For the birds

Angel Catbird Vol. 1 by Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas, Tamra Bonvillain

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Cbr15bingo strange worlds Yes, in this final month of CBR bingo I am in a rush to get as many squares checked off as possible. As a result, I am scouring our home bookshelves for anything that can help me fill in my remaining squares. Angel Catbird Volume 1 is a graphic novel that has been sitting on the shelf for years. I remember when it came out, I was kind of excited to see that Margaret Atwood had written it. I am a fan […]

CBR15 Bingo: Nostalgia

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

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In Men at Arms, there’s a series of mysterious deaths in Ankh-Morpork, and the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, strictly forbids Sam Vimes, the head of the City Watch to investigate, thus ensuring that he will do the exact opposite. Vimes, Carrot, Nobbs and Colon, who used to be the whole of the Watch have been joined by new recruits to diversify the Watch, Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll) and Angua (a werewolf, although Carrot believes it to be because she’s a woman). As the ragtag […]



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