Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Has anyone noticed this whole city is looking for us, mad at us, or wants to kill us?” “So?” said Kaz. “Well, usually it’s just half the city.”

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

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Y’all. I’m here to say, loudly and proudly, I like fantasy. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before, maybe because I get confused by book genres, but I’m a real fan and delighted to keep finding new fun books to dive into thanks to the CBR community (hip hooray!) I don’t read a lot of YA so definitely have zero ideas of what’s new and hot in that sphere, so heard about this possibly at one of the Zoom book clubs (I think?) […]

“These scratches are a history. They tell a story.”

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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Linus Baker is a cog in a bureaucratic machine. He is a case worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, or DICOMY. He is average in nearly every way: average build, average house, average desk job. Everything in his life is routine from his bus ride to work, to grinning and bearing it when he has to put up with his boss on a power-trip or his neighbor butting her way into his life, to the detailed reports he completes for all of […]

Which matters more, her past or her present?

The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

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Bess is a witch living in modern times. She also happens to be over 300 years old. She’s just moved into a new house and has caught the attention of a local girl named Tegan. As Bess and Tegan spend time together, Bess recounts tales of her life as a way of instructing Tegan in magic and witchcraft. The tales of Bess’ life are simultaneously cautionary ones about the dangers of powerful men and their relentless pursuit of what they perceive as theirs and about […]

“We’re not in Ghost Busters! This is real life!”

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

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I did not read Ghost Squad when I was young, as it did not yet exist! This is a 2020 release, and I feel that I would have liked it very much when I in third/fourth grade. There’s magic, monsters, hijinks, and plenty of cat-content that would have kept me giddy throughout. I worried at first that this tale might be “heavy” for a middle-grade reader; it starts with some genuine adult anxieties and perils. We open with the financial woes of Lucely’s father- the bank is […]

Not a bad introduction to what magic could be in your life

Kitchen Table Magic by Melissa Cynova

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Written as an introduction to witchcraft and magic, Cynova breaks her book Kitchen Table Magic into two parts: the first is an overview of what magic is and the various parts of what witchcraft are. She gives an overview of intention, grounding, spells, divination, etc. The second half is a collection of spells and rituals for various situations. Cynova presents herself as a hard polytheist with a belief in the supernatural. PROS: While Cynova herself is a supernatural-believer she has moments where she recognizes that a lot […]

Beauty & Cruelty

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

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After the herculean doorstop that was Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings, I needed a fast, fun, and gripping read. So I turned to Holly Black, whose Folk of the Air trilogy I gobbled up in about 72 hours over Thanksgiving break. The Darkest Part of the Forest did not disappoint, and I blew through it in a day. Written a few years before Folk of the Air, it was fun to see how Black was playing around with the themes and premises that she later expanded […]



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