Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Girls Get their Turn

Stormsong by C. L. Polk

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Bingo review 4: Violet Stormsong is the second of what is planned to be a trilogy, and the covers are apparently going to reflect the bisexual pride flag; book 1 was blue (Witchmark), book 2 is purple (aka violet), and the to-be-released-Feb ‘21 book 3 (Soulstar) will be pink. Stormsong is the second of what is planned to be a trilogy, and the covers are apparently going to reflect the bisexual flag; book 1 was blue (Witchmark), book 2 is purple (aka violet), and the […]

A Magical Island for Special Children

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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Bingo Square: I wish … (I wish I could be on a beautiful secluded island during social distancing and also have magical powers) I had been seeing a lot of positive buzz around this novel, and naturally, I was curious about a story with supernatural children.  When Gail Carriger used it as part of a Queer Reads Instagram challenge, I realized it would be a perfect addition to my June reading to at least acknowledge Pride month. In many ways, Linus Baker is a familiar […]

A Title Both Literal and Not

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

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I saw the author post something on social media before this was released about how some early readers didn’t think the novella had enough fighting to be wuxia. Zen Cho said that was because she meant for the novella to be a fan-fic of an imaginary 50 episode tv series of that genre. I don’t really know much about wuxia but I do think that The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water has the flavor of it at least. The general premise is […]

“She didn’t know how to get it—but she had a feeling that if she stuck with the Librarians for long enough, she might be able to figure it out. How to feast instead of starving. How to like the person who she was instead of fighting it.”

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

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Upright Women Wanted was one of the books I was most looking forward to in 2020. This is my first Sarah Gailey, I know them from Twitter and I’ve clocked the reviews here of their books. But the description of Upright Women Wanted caught my attention and plunked itself on my to read list. Alas, I wanted to love this book but instead I just really liked it. Its good, its comfortably three stars good but the idea and themes deserve four. Unfortunately the beginning […]

Trying too hard to be too much

Finna by Nino Cipri

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I don’t like it when recommendations and blurbs lie to me, or are misleading. I also don’t especially enjoy it when a story is trying so hard to make some kind of meaningful point that it repeatedly directly tells you it’s trying to make said point. Finna has so much going for it: basically a pair of queer employees, both of whom have emotional or neuro-divergent struggles, of a store that sounds suspiciously like IKEA, who very recently broke up, end up going on an […]

Incredibly timely, CBRbookclub is two for two this year in books that are unexpectedly relevant

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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The themes of gender identity and the LGBTQ+ spectrum were always going to be relevant for Pride month and An Unkindness of Ghosts was thoughtfully chosen for this book club.  However, current events have given an added layer of pertinence.  Earlier this year, the CBR Book Club had chosen Station Eleven and then we found ourselves in a pandemic.  This month we are seeing protesting to change a racist police system (and institutionalized racism) and An Unkindness of Ghosts has an outright rebellion against the […]



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