Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Come for Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace, stay for PAN (Practical Automaton Number One).

My Imaginary Mary (Mary, #2) by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows

by Leave a Comment

Still not as good as the first Lady Janie book. A lot of this made no sense, and anachronisms were flying around willy-nilly, but I had a good time. My Imaginary Mary is what you get when you mix light fantasy (there are fairies! and Mary Godwin (Shelley) is one! (different kind of fairy than you’d expect)), alternate history (what if Mary met Ada Lovelace?), and a truly ridiculous sensibility (they invent the name Peter Pan for some reason?) with egregious unconcern for historical accuracy. […]

“It’s a role I play.” Max shrugged. “Just as you do.”

The Agency for Scandal (2023) by Laura Wood

by Leave a Comment

The Agency for Scandal (2023) is a children’s/YA late-Victorian set romantic romp with a dash of adventure and a feminist core. Isobel Stanhope has inherited her father’s talent for lock-picking but also his debts–which she must keep a secret from her delicate mamma and her younger brother, conveniently away at school. She is recruited to a mysterious agency called The Aviary, led by Miss Finch, a group of women dedicated to righting the wrongs that patriarchy inflicts on their sisters, and often using rather sneaky […]

“But magic came, ever his friend…”

Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho

by 3 Comments

Woot! First review of the year! I must have read a review of Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown on here (perhaps yesnopemaybe‘s), and so thanks for that. Zacharias Wythe, a formerly enslaved Black sorcerer has been named the Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, a group that regulates magic in England. His ascendancy is the source of gossip due to his race and the manner in which he claimed the title and machinations by the other sorcerers. To make his job worse, magic is […]

Wow, what a bummer.

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

by Leave a Comment

It’s actually pretty impressive how this book could take super interesting subject matter and make it this dull. This book did absolutely nothing for me, except make me wish it was over. I can’t entirely pinpoint why, so I’m chalking it up to disliking the style it was written in, but there were also some baked-in flaws that could have made it better for me. This is a dual-timeline story, one in 1628 following a young Dutch girl whose mother has just died, who is […]

“With this book, I wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom. As you’ll see, it’s not a fair fight.”

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

by Leave a Comment

Despite very recently giving five stars to the latest Grady Hendrix weirdo horror book (review HERE), I was surprised by how much I liked this. As I’ve been exploring the horror genre over the past year, I’ve learned that my tastes usually run towards the lighter end of the horror spectrum, and that I don’t do well with gore and violence just for gore and violence’s sake*. I need that sort of thing to have a purpose, and I need it to not make me […]

“…a racehorse is a mirror, and a man sees his own reflection there. He wants to think he’s from the best breeding. He wants to think himself brave. Can he win against all comers? And if not, does he have self-mastery to take a loss, stay cool in defeat, and try again undaunted? Those are the qualities of a great racehorse and a great gentleman.”

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

by Leave a Comment

I didn’t realize I could or would enjoy a book about horse racing, but here we are! I’m a bit bummed I missed my library book club meeting about this book because it would be fascinating for a discussion. In 2019, a master’s student of art finds a painting of a horse in his neighbor’s trash pile by the side of the road. He is intrigued and takes it to see what he can learn about it. Maybe it can be part of his thesis? […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo