Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Gruesome and Grotesque but also Wow!

The Wolf and the Watchman: 1793: A Novel by Niklas Natt och Dag

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Cannonball! I think I was only able to finish this novel, which really is extraordinary, by cheating on it with The House in the Cerulean Sea. I tend to be “monolibrous” — I word I am coining to mean one who does not start a new novel until having finished the one they’re already reading. The Wolf and the Watchman was so intense, and so gritty and disturbing, that I had to take breaks from it. It is to the credit of Swedish author Niklas Natt […]

“What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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If this doesn’t make my top ten books of the year, I’ll eat something inedible. My cat does it all the time, how hard can it be? This book sucked my entire being into it while I was reading it, and I was a brainless husk just turning pages while my brain was flopping around in there having a grand old time. Sorry if that sounds gross but that’s what happened! I can’t change the facts! This is a book about friendship, love, and video […]

I like you just the way you are

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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This is one of the sweetest stories I’ve ever read. It’s about difference, exclusion, prejudice, unconventional families, the magic of love and inclusion, which all sounds lovely and perhaps a bit cliché. The thing is, author TJ Klune writes about these topics in a way that is sometimes surprising and always effective. Klune has created a world in which magic and “monsters” exist, and those children who show signs of having magic are separated from the rest of society and put in orphanages run by […]

Here, where the two worlds embraced, and magic rose to the Earth…

Snake Falls To Earth by Darcie Little Badger

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CBR14 BINGO: Snake Square (BINGO! Snake to Elephant) (Again, another literal one: Snake in the title. One of the main characters is a cottonmouth snake.) Aside from the joy it brings my non-athletic yet competitive spirit, I love CBR Bingo for all of the books it brings into my life. Keyword bingo square Google searches have introduced me to different authors and books that I may have never found otherwise. Like this one. The story takes place in two worlds: Earth and the Reflecting World. In the […]

…she now knew there was a darkness that succeeded her, which dismantled the pronoun without destroying its contents. She would end, but she would not be over.

Garden of Earthly Bodies by Sally Oliver

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CBR14 BINGO: Bodies square (Obviously, the title. But also, this author has a very interesting way of writing about bodies, bodily functions, and the senses. I hesitate to call it sensual because it was more than that. Oliver has a very acute awareness of how a body can react to grief, sickness, fear, and the whole panoply of emotions.) Marianne is struggling after the death of her younger sister. Never someone with a firm sense of self, Marianne flounders in apathy. Weighed down by grief and […]

…a store that carries a wondrous assortment of little treasures all needed by someone but not quite desired enough to be sold anywhere else.

Funky Dan and the Pixie Dream Girl by Courtney Lanning

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CBR14 BINGO: Funky square (Googled “funky” for kicks. Could not ignore this title. Could you? That title and cover are perfection. Felt like Cannonball Bingo kismet.) Okay. This book had all of the bones of an outrageous fantastical romp. Indebted to a witch, a cursed man (Dan) is tasked with running a store full of magical doo-dads (Funky Dan’s) in a small Arkansas town. He can’t leave the building until this debt is paid. If he does, worms eat him from the inside. He knows this […]



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