Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Three by Jan Morris: Conundrum (1974

Conundrum by Jan Morris

In My Mind's Eye and Thinking Again by Jan Morris

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Cbr13Bingo – Rep Conundrum – 5/5 Stars Because I have read Jan Morris’s only novel (and only fiction)Last Letters from Hav, and its follow-up (often packaged together), Hav of the Myrmidons, I spent some time looking through her biography and bibliography. I knew of this book too, which dwells on her thinking, experiences, and ruminations about sex and gender, particularly her understanding as a child that she was trans (she uses the outmoded term “transsexual” in the book) and the journey that her to eventual […]

“Aren’t you that notorious bad girl April French?”

For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes

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We meet April and Dennis just before they meet each other. The first couple of chapters of For the Love of April French capture perfectly that feeling of endless possibility when you meet a potential new romantic partner – all the wonder of meeting someone you want to know better and all the fear that they will be awful, or reject you when they get to know you. It’s an expansive, joyful, terrifying feeling and Penny Aimes nails it. For the Love of April French […]

Queer (Theory) History

Queer: A Graphic HIstory by Meg-John Barker, Julia Scheele (Illustrator)

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I tried to sneak this one in before the end of June but the library just wasn’t with me. One of the tasks in Read Harder challenge this year is read a LGBTQ history and the hunt for that book stumbled me across Queer: A Graphic History, and while this isn’t a history of queer folk (more a study of the word, theory, and the worldview) I’m glad to have read it if only to help shore up some gaps in my own knowledge base (I am […]

Inclusive Romance FTW

The Companion by EE Ottoman

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I don’t read much in the realm of romance (no disrespect to the genre, just not for me) but I made an exception when looking for a book to read during an indulgent post-pandemic vacation. (I know, the pandemic is not over, but so far this summer feels like a reprieve and a step toward how things used to be.) And The Companion (2021) by EE Ottoman fit the bill for a breezy, escapist vacation read. The plot is straightforward–Madeleine Slaughter, physically and spiritually depleted by […]

There was a game he could see and another he couldn’t, and he would play them both.

Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington

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My formative King Arthur works were the 1963 Disney movie The Sword in the Stone, and 1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When I discovered Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave, as a preteen, my life as a reader of fantasy and romance was set. I’m a King Arthur enthusiast, but not a purist (except for Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 King Arthur – great cast, beautiful visuals, terrible movie that should never have been marketed as “historically accurate”). Hearing that a work is a retelling of […]

“How does she explain that she used to be afraid to love anyone because there’s a well at the center of her chest and she doesn’t know where the bottom is?”

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

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I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Early last year I read and loved Casey McQuiston’s debut Red, White, & Royal Blue like many a Cannonballer before me. Upon its completion I knew McQuiston was an author to add to my must reads list – they were writing the kind of queer romance I was looking for in the world. Once announced I put One Last Stop on my to read list having faith in the author, […]



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