Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two Manga Focusing on Fan Culture

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die (Vol 1-2) by Auri Hirao

My Coworker Has a Secret! (Vol 1-2) by Mushiro

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The contrast between these series was interesting, because both deal with idol fandom culture and the impact it has on the fan. Both are also light romantic comedies, but I enjoyed My Coworker Has a Secret! much more. If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die follows Eripiyo, who is a huge fan of Maina. Maina is an idol in an underground idol group and is the least popular, with Eripiyo being her only real fan. The main reason is […]

Lady Green Snake and the Golden One

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

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Vanna and Channi are sisters, but they couldn’t be more different – while Vanna is blessed with a strange glowing beauty, Channi has been cursed with the face of a snake and poisonous blood. As Vanna’s seventeenth birthday approaches, Channi grows desperate to prevent her promised death at the hands of the demon witch Angma. I did not realize until about halfway through this book that it is a prequel to Lim’s Six Crimson Cranes duology, an East Asian-influenced retelling of the Six Swans that’s […]

The Truth Doesn’t Matter

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

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Five years ago, Lucy was found wandering the streets, dazed and covered in the blood of her best friend. No one knows what happened, but everyone believes that it was Lucy who killed Savvy – until a podcaster comes to town to dig up the whole case again. I generally avoid the recent spate of mystery books that use podcasts as plot devices. For one, I’m not even a fan of investigative podcasts, and it’s always seemed more like a framing gimmick than anything else. […]

The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small

Zanzara by Gloria Vitanza Basile

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Born in poverty and raised in a squalid orphanage, Phaedra’s life transforms completely when her identity as a prince’s illegitimate daughter is revealed, vaunting her into the lap of luxury. But she has a long, tough path to tread still before she will reach her happy ending. I really, really love the crazy bloody bodice rippers of the 1970s and 80s. They are always wild and adventurous, often with a strong historical grounding, and take you careening through the kind of heroine’s journey that leave […]

A lovely, sex-positive, sex-heavy but asexual friendly start to the year.

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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A quite pleasing book to open the year on, although I am a bit sad it wasn’t five stars, since this was one of my five-star predictions from a several months ago. OH WELL. The sex lessons trope can be so good when done well, and it was done very very well here. Our main character is Chandler—a ghostwriter and former journalist who is still trying to find herself in her early thirties. She takes a ghostwriting job for an actor who is famous for […]

More Nick and Charlie, just in time for Christmas

Heartstopper volume 5 by Alice Oseman

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Nick and Charlie are closer than ever, but despite what their friends think, they still haven’t done THAT. Lately, it’s probably all either can think about, but it’s a big step and neither wants to pressure the other. Nick is also a year older than Charlie, and is having to consider which Universities he’s going to apply to next year. His first inclination is living at home and going to his local Uni, so he’ll be close to Charlie, but he goes on a road […]



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