Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Can you DNF a Five Star Read? I did.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

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Picture it. Sicily, 1922. Wait, no. That’s not right. Picture it. April 2, 2024. I’m preparing for international travel, and I have this vague desire to read On Theme. But I have no idea what to read, and have way too many books to slog through. I know I want to read digitally, because taking print books on a two-week trip to another country is a terrible idea when you own a kindle. But what do I want to read? I ask around online, because […]

The Title is Slightly Too Accurate

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk

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I’m in two minds about this one; on the one hand the characters and the mystery are good, but on the other the ending feels rushed and certain important parts of the world feel a little underdeveloped. That said, in general Even Though I Knew the End was a fun, fast read. In a world that resembles  Dashiell Hamnet if he wrote vaguely Christian supernatural detectives, Helen is a former rising start in the magic world, cast out when she tried to summon a demon […]

When life starts because of death

Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story by Lauren Myracle

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I debated on reading Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story for one (and yes, frankly shallow) reason: I did not like the cover. However, when I saw that my local library had a copy of Lauren Myracle’s graphic novel I decided to read it as I assumed that if I did not like it, I did not have to finish it. It never occurred to me that this was going to be a “Mr. Fries” story. Or more accurately, the teen who would become […]

“burn before reading”

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El -Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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If this is what the Time War feels like, then I volunteer as tribute. This two-hander from Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone burns bright right in the center of your chest and dares you to put it out. Red and Blue are operatives on either side of a war that has been going on since before time existed and well past the end of the universe. They are fierce and wild warriors; brilliant minds matched with brilliant and sharp teeth. They claw their way through […]

I Will Never Stop Loving Love

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

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Wow. Wow. Wow. This book is. Just. Wow. The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Holocaust survivors Lale and Gita Sokolov who met and fell in love in the infamous concentration camp. “I tattooed her number on her left hand, and she tattooed her number in my heart,” Lale reminisced in an interview with author Heather Morris. While I write this review in the middle of a global pandemic, I am reminded that I am beyond lucky to be safely quarantined […]

“This is a war story. It was not meant to be. It started as a love story, the story of a marriage.”

The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer

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CBR11bingo: Rainbow Flag Bingo! Diagonally: Remix, The Collection, Own Voices, Rainbow Flag, Summer Read I decided to read something by Andrew Sean Greer for the Rainbow Flag square on the strength of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less, which I read and loved last year. The Story of a Marriage is a very different novel, at least in tone. Where Less is sly and sharp and very funny, The Story of a Marriage is just a bit too earnest for its own good. The Story of […]



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