Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em!

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan

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CBR15passport – a book you own I am making my way through the Brothers Sinister series and I have really enjoyed them all so far but this one might end up being my favorite because of its heroine. Jane Fairfield is a boss. She is life goals. The theme running throughout this novel is outsiders and how they function within power structures. The historical setting for this novel (1867) revolves around the mid-19th century franchise movement in England, that is, the efforts to expand voting […]

A warning on what we could become – Told as a futuristic thriller

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

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GENE EDITING IS A FEDERAL CRIME #GPA ONE MISTAKE CAUSED THE GREAT STARVATION #GPA #NEVERFORGET These are billboards you would pass if you lived in Denver Colorado in the far enough future that gene editing technology is much further advanced, but not so far that hashtags aren’t still a thing. The benefits to this technology include clothes made with spider silk and improvements in medicine and agriculture. But there is also a darker side, where dolls can be wrapped in human muscle and skin and […]

A Funny, Sweet, Escapist Delight

Hand Picked by May Archer

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Hand Picked is a breezy, sweet Hallmark movie of a romance novel. You know the kind I’m talking about: an idyllic small town, adorably over-invested and wacky townsfolks, from first kiss to marriage in a matter of weeks. It’s all formulaic and absurdist, but somehow manages to work.  Luke, a first grade teacher with nipple rings under his sweatervest and an inability to swear like an adult (Oh, sugar!) has moved to Little Pippen Hollow, Vermont after winning his dream house in a fiber magazine […]

You put a spell on me

Back in a Spell by Lana Harper

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I’m officially obsessed with this series. I loved the first book so much; a queer revenge story where contemporary witches plot to get the best of their sketchy ex and overthrow a family with too much power? Yes please. The second book was solid and enjoyable, but not queer, so it didn’t stand out as much in my mind. This book though? Super queer with a main character who isn’t always the most likable, but is trying to be better for the people she loves […]

The Serial Killer Book I’ve Been Waiting For

Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka

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I went in to this book so wary! I’m not a huge fan of serial killers or the true crime mania that glorifies men who murder (mostly) women. So even though I’d seen glowing review after breathless recommendation of Notes On an Execution, I doubted I’d get past 20%. I am never so pleased to be wrong than when it comes to loving an unexpected book. The premise of this one is simple, it is the day of Ansel Power’s execution. There are brief chapters […]

“Robert Isaksson from the next village over was a reindeer killer.”

Stolen: A Novel by Ann-Helen Laestadius, trans. Rachel Willson-Broyles

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CBR15passport books from different countries (Sweden/Sapmi) Stolen, by Ann-Helen Laestadius, is a novel that is dark, disturbing and based in reality. It is the fictional story of Elsa, a 9-year-old Sami girl, who witnesses the brutal killing of her reindeer calf and is then threatened with death by the man who did it. But Stolen is also the real story of the Sami, an indigenous minority whose lives, culture and history are tied to herding reindeer and who have been persecuted by their neighbors for […]



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