Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“We’re all alients to someone. Even among our own people, most of us still feel like complete foreigners from time to time.”

Saga (Volume 6) by Brian K Vaughan

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It’s been a while since I read Saga (June 2018 to be exact, thanks Goodreads!) so as I look for some quick reads to finish out my Cannonball (no shame in my strategy game!) I decided to get caught up on the series that really puts the GRAPHIC into graphic novels. I did a quick pass through Volume 5 as a refresher before moving ahead with volume 6 and volume 7. As I said, it’s been four years since I read this, and was briefly […]

I wasn’t ready for the Alex Craft series to end.

Grave War by Kalayna Price

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CBR14 Bingo Square: Shadow I’m a big fan of witches and magic mysteries, so I got immediately hooked on the Alex Craft novels. In book one, Alex uses her magic to raise shades, which aren’t quite ghosts. More like the memory imprint of a person after they pass. It’s a very handy skill to have a shade testify in their murder trial. Alex has been quite a few personal revelations, a love triangle, and an angry fae queen by the time we reach the final […]

A short but interesting story

Signal Moon by Kate Quinn

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I think this book was a short that fulfilled a Kindle reading challenge accomplishment, so it was kind of a random pick. I didn’t know anything about the interception and decryption of enemy naval communications. I’m not that into history, so that isn’t a surprise. This story centers around a woman named Lily who works in Bletchley Park in 1943 decrypting enemy communications. She scans through radio transmissions and passes on what she hears to her superiors. If there’s anything helpful or actionable, they can […]

History is Made by Persistence and Knowing the Right People

A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton & the Civil War by Stephen B. Oates

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Clara Barton is one of those historical figures that sits as a vaguely understood fact in my mind. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about her existence, but beyond being the founder of the American Red Cross, she never bore much significance to me. But then I wrote a little article about visiting small historical sites and the “Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office” came up in my search. A cursory perusal of the website had me fascinated, and I needed to know […]

Stunning debut novel inspired by Chinese mythology

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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BINGO – SNAKE Secrets and hidden identities abound in this debut novel from Sue Lynn Tan. Xingyin is the titular daughter of the moon goddess, Chang’e, but she shouldn’t be alive. Her mother has hidden her existence from the Emperor and Empress of the Immortal Realm in order to keep her safe from danger and harm. For many years, Chang’e and Xingyin lived peacefully with their attendant on the moon in exile. But when Xingyin accidentally alerts the rulers of the Immortal Realm to her […]

Soldier For Fortune

Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler and the Making and Breaking of the American Empire by Jonathan M. Katz

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An excellent read and an infuriating read. Worth all five stars. And like Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction and Ackerman’s Reign of Terror, you’re guaranteed to be peeved on every page. I knew the United States had a colonizing history dating back, well really to its foundation through the US-Mexican War of the 1840s, but more specifically from the end of the 19th century onwards. I knew that we captured many islands in the Caribbean and Pacific respectively, even if I didn’t know the hows-and-whys. Jonathan M. Katz does […]



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