My first ever Cannonball! I’m super proud of this, as I’ve been doing CBR for a few years (off and on) and have never managed more than a half-Cannonball before. I’m going to try to achieve this goal again next year. Now on to my final proper review of the year. Natasha Pulley’s The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a lovely, lovely book. It sits at the crossover between historical fiction and fantasy, but just barely steps over the line into the fantastical. It is […]
Turning Silver Into Gold
I was so excited to get Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik as part of the book exchange because I loved Uprooted and had read and enjoyed the first book in Novik’s Temeraire series this summer. This is a loose (very loose) retelling of Rumpelstiltskin set in a past both realistic and imaginary and involving three young women. Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, and she takes over her father’s business when his inability to demand payment leaves her family almost destitute and her […]
A love letter to video games
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was a more recent CBR9 book exchange gift. The backlash for the book was pretty intense, but with the recent film adaptation, I was curious to read it for myself. Thus, I was glad my Mocha Girls Read book club picked it for our white male author theme. I ended up finishing it over 4th of July and surprisingly enjoyed the pop culture filled story. The story follows Wade on an epic quest to essentially save the internet from a […]
A collection of minor disappointments.
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (3 stars) I read this close enough to 20 years ago for me not to want to think too long on it. I was a teenager, and deeply enraptured by fantasy – particularly the weighty tomes that couldn’t quite fit in my back pocket. The kind of books that resonated with a heavy thud when dropped onto a table. The kind of books that probably exacerbated my natural awkwardness around girls. I devoured this book, and its sequels. So, […]