Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m just here for Lisbeth

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

by 1 Comment

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was my Mocha Girls Read book club pick for May with the theme of Scandanavian Mystery. When the original book came out, I was aware of the hype but opted for the film adaptations. I enjoy all incarnations, so I figured the novel would grip me. Instead, I found myself getting a bit impatient with the plot when it didn’t focus on the titular “The Girl”. The story follows a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who has been hired by […]

The economics of fantasy tropes

Orconomics: A Satire by J. Zachary Pike

by 1 Comment

Gorm Ingerson is not the hero he used to be. Striped of all ranks and points and titles, Gorm will do anything to get back to the status he once held. That includes being willing (more or less) to go on a quest in service of a mad goddess with a band of other less than stellar heros. This questing group, made up a thief turned bard, a healing potion addicted ranger elf, a goblin squire, two warring mages, a silent weapons master, and a […]

Paging Mary Sue. Paging Mary Sue to the Tarot Academy

Tarot Academy 2: Spells of Breath and Blade by Sarah Piper

by Leave a Comment

We are still in the midst of a pandemic, so I think we all need some fun, light-hearted reads to keeps spirits high. I figured that the second installment in the Tarot Academy books would be that fun read. It became difficult to finish this book though on account that my eyes were constantly rolled to the back of my head. Where the first book in this series created an interesting and well-explained magical system that was balanced well with the romance parts of the story, […]

Stepping into one of the most detailed worlds imagined

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

by 1 Comment

Eskarina Smith is the 8th child of an 8th son born in the little town called Bad Ass. She should have been the 8th son of an 8th son, but life has a way of mucking things up. What makes Eskarina, Esk for short, even more special is that she may just be the first female wizard in the history of Discworld. Esk grows up to nearly nine without incident until the local witch, Granny Weatherwax, tries to lead her away from wizardry to much […]

I was prepared to eye-roll through this entire thing– I couldn’t put it down though

Tarot Academy 1: Spells of Iron and Bone by Sarah Piper

by Leave a Comment

Magic is real, and the world knows it. Unfortunately for the witches and mages, magick is also illegal, and Stevie just performed powerful magick on a non-magical person. Powerful enough that he died. Stevie must now go into hiding at the magical academy that previously threw out her parents for their heretical views. When she arrives at the academy she starts her journey to master her magick (which is largely based on the Tarot) in order to complete the work that her mother started and […]

These books are my Fillory and Further

The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

by Leave a Comment

Quentin is ousted from Fillory and finds himself working for money in magic’s seedy underbelly. Thus begins the conclusion of The Magicians trilogy at the start of The Magician’s Land. What starts out as a job involving some not-so-petty theft quickly turns in to another quest to save Fillory. The book itself feels very much like a quest as the trilogy so far as described quests: kind of meandering at the beginning without a lot of direction until every snaps plainly into focus and all of […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo