Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There aren’t any moors. There’s a sort of heath and a tarn and a mad Englishwoman painting mushrooms.”

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

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The last T. Kingfisher book I read (The Hollow Places) made me terrified of willow trees and school buses, and now this one made me terrified of rabbits (technically hares, but, ya know). Which is to say, this is another astoundingly imaginative work. While it’s certainly not necessary, I’d recommend reading Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” before this as it’s based on that short story. It gives you a great appreciation for how the author changed (I’d say improved) the story. As […]

The world is a constant compromise, a greeting of the other and of yourself.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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There is something about Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing that just speaks to me. I haven’t read enough of her books to make definitive statements about her writing, but in the works I have read, it feels like she writes with one middle finger raised. It speaks to me. I don’t delude myself, as a white American whose ancestors definitely fucked around in places they should not have been, I am part of the group she is raising that middle finger at, and I am fine with […]

“Children long to be eaten. Everyone knows that.”

XO Orpheus: 50 New Myths by Kate Bernheimer (editor)

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Am I typing this up while wearing a tee featuring the cover of the d’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths? YOU KNOW IT! That strange tome of simplified myth and ultra-bright illustration cracked open a need in me when I was very young. I re-read that book countless times, and used it as the entry point into the larger world of mythology. Combined with a Catholic upbringing that was far more focused on the deaths of the saints than on anything else, you could saw I […]

Henry James would not have understood what a smart house is.

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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I read the first third of this in my paperback copy, then switched over to the audio to see if I could jump start my interest in it again. It worked! For a while, at least. It helped me get through the book, anyway. I liked the audio version better. I was super into this book at first, but as soon as the main character reached the house in the country, something about it lost me. It probably also didn’t help that I was traveling […]

Colorful and Challenging Times in Olympus

Lore Olympus volume 1 by Rachel Smythe

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It seems like one of the favorite Greek myths to retell right now is the story of Hades and Persephone. I know of at least two currently underway on Webtoons: Punderworld and Lore Olympus. The latter recently came out in hard copy book form for the first 25 chapters and also won Goodreads’ Best Graphic Novel or Comic of 2021. I was a little surprised to see it on display at the library (I figured it would be checked out with a waiting list), so […]

a mermaid’s tail made of donkey skin (a dual cbr13bingo and #cannonbookclub adventure!)

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

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well, not exactly. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s  also unsettling The Little Mermaid. Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. […]



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