Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A literary mystery where the stuff on the side is more interesting than the main course.

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

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I feel like this book proves how diverse the crime/mystery genre can be in terms of style and theme, and it proves that by not really being something I loved. I love mysteries, unsolved crimes being solved, themes of racial and gender equality, historical fiction mysteries, books about writers and journalists, and stories about women breaking free of their expected gender roles. And yet, I didn’t love this, even though it features all of those things. I like my crime and mystery books either to […]

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

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This one was fine! I liked the ending much better than I liked the first third or so. It was just, it was a lot of dramadrama, lots of characters, court politics, feelings, like a fairyland prime-time soap opera, and there’s a reason I don’t watch those anymore. But I did get pulled in as soon as Jude and Cardan started to interact more in a real way, because I am nothing if not a sucker for well-done enemies to lovers, and that part of […]

“One human female, slightly rumpled and creased from a long time in storage. Expert pilot, trash at basically everything else.”

Cytonic (Skyward, #3) by Brandon Sanderson

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How many left turns can one book series take? Not that I’m complaining. I wish book four was right now. And will I finally give five stars to a book in this series? I guess I will find out by the time I finish writing this review. (You are already aware if you are reading this right now. Writing is like time travel!) This is book three in Sanderson’s YA sci-fi/space opera series, Skyward. I liked the first book just fine, but book two, and […]

“At the end of our conversation she (Martha Stout) turned to address you, the reader. She said if you’re beginning to feel worried that you may be a psychopath, if you recognize some of those traits in yourself, if you’re feeling a creeping anxiety about it, that means you are not one.”

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

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To be honest with you, this review will most likely not be worth a hill of beans. This is a saying my mother uses and I’m just thinking right now that I have no idea what it actually means, or why she says it. Beans have a lot of nutritional value and can be quite tasty. Or does it mean that the beans are worth a lot and whatever you’re comparing this fictional hill to is worth less? This also makes no sense because why […]

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, whoops, I mean Muntjac.

The Magician King (The Magicians, #2) by Lev Grossman

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Now I’m remembering why this was only four stars. What was otherwise a clever play on Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader had the oomph taken out of its sails (heh) by a completely unnecessary SPOILERS rape scene at the end END SPOILERS. More on this in a bit. Quentin is still having his identity crisis all over the place in this one, but he’s much less obnoxious about it here than in the first book. The real centerpiece of this book is Julia, as we […]

A final book that does this wonderful series justice.

Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9) by James S.A. Corey

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I cried, because I am nothing if not predictable. This was a good ending, but I’m not sure five stars worth? Also, I’m not sure what exactly happened there at the end. Mostly, I’m even more excited to do my full-series re-read in 2022. I did all of these except #4 on audio the first time through (because Jefferson Mays didn’t originally record that one) so I spent 2021 slowly collecting the paperbacks in preparation for my re-read (I also will be purchasing the 10th […]



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