Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Black Cover and Maybe Some Black Hearts or not so Black

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

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Bingo 19: Black Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar has a cover almost entirely in the proper color. Mostly, this is a story about people who want things they think they either cannot or should not have. Luiza is part Jewish (dangerous during the Inquisition) and has some minor household magic; her milagritos are things like she can make the bread unburnt. She wants to be something more than the scullery maid; she wants better, more money, more comfort, just more. There’s also her boss Valentina who […]

A swing and a miss from Scalzi

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

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Bingo: Black I’ve been a longtime Scalzi fan since a friend insisted I read Old Man’s War.  However, his last trilogy, The Collapsing Empire, didn’t do it for me.  Then along came The Kaiju Preservation Society, 5 star read, followed by Starter Villain, 5 star read.  Scalzi was on a roll!  After seeing him at an event for Starter Villain, I was so geeked for the final book in this triptych, When the Moon Hits Your Eye.  Scalzi explained this at the event and here is a concise description […]

Enjoyable, but Not a Standout

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

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This is an odd one to write about because while I enjoyed the process of reading it and found the story kept me engaged, enough to rate it 4 stars, I don’t think it’s going to be very memorable for me, and it was hard at first for me to even articulate why I liked it so much. So, what I liked: The short chapters keep the story moving, even though we’re jumping back and forward in time as the novel follows Tom, who has […]

Nightmares of the Fourth Reich

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

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Without a doubt, the best thing I’ve read so far this year. Quarter of the way through and not much comes close. As I’ve said many times, I don’t like dystopias that lean too hard into the dystopic-aspect. I like them with the axis of earth just tilted slightly; looking at reality through a cracked mirror. In other words, take scary parts of society and bend them a little to suit your story. Laila Lalami more than delivers that here. What’s frightening about The Dream Hotel is […]

Frequent Tension Made It Hard to Put Down

Kindred by Octavia Butler

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This was such an intense book. I have never been this on edge for this many pages at a time when reading, which speaks to Butler’s ability to build tension and dread in this novel about slavery. We follow the first person perspective of 26-year-old Dana who one day is suddenly yanked from 1976 to the early 1800s, where she helps a drowning boy. Soon after she time travels back to her home and her husband Kevin to find that only seconds had passed. This […]

“To peel back the carpeting of the world and tumble into the stars.”

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

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I read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries in two days.  Since I didn’t want to start a new book until I caught up on reviews, I decided to read it again. It took only two days to read it a second time.  What I’m saying is that I enjoyed this book so much I read it twice in four days.  Written in the style of a personal journal, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries is an engaging fantasy set in an alternative 1909 where fae, fairies, Fair […]



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