Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


About faintingviolet

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A reader and caffeine addict who consumes all sorts of books, some just more frequently than others. Your CBR Book Club Maven with over a decade of Cannonballing experience I believe in the beauty that comes from a common goal of reading, reviewing, and discussing. Also, Fuck Cancer. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: faintingviolet's Quick Questions interview.)

faintingviolet's Reviews:

“Feral, for all the wildness it implies, just means that an animal was abandoned by the system that created it.”

Poets Square: a Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson

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I am very far behind my book goal for the year so far, so I did some TBR triage by moving shorter books up to the front of the request queue with my library. Poets Square is one of the first of that reshuffle to make its way to me and was a welcome bit of solace this past weekend. Poets Square is Courtney Gustafson’s story of how she accidentally inherited a feral colony of 30 cats which in turn led her to work in […]

The wildlife is something else in this one.

Shrunkation by Janine Amesta

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This is a great example of trusting an author you know you enjoy even when the concept doesn’t initially grab your attention. I’m on Janine Amesta’s advanced reader list having loved Love at First Flight and The Wedding Con (The Love Feud is currently sitting on my end table waiting for me). Initially the description of Shrunkation didn’t grab me, but I know I like Amesta’s way of building characters and I’m always a least a little intrigued by a marriage in trouble romance, so I went in hoping for the best.   What I think Amesta nailed here is that a […]

Sex Cult and Wellness Startup

Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult by Ellen Huet

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I have a history being interested in cults and cult-like behaviors, so when Read Harder included a task to read a book about cults, I was excited. I’ve already read The Quiet Damage this year and have a couple others lined up, including Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult by Ellen Huet.  Let’s start with the headline – I did not enjoy this book. I am an outlier in that regard.   This is not about the content; this is an incredibly well researched work from someone who has been reporting on the One Taste cult […]

“Now, in a growing number of cities across the country, when a victim testified, she no longer did so alone.”

The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy

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Following news at the beginning of May that the End the Backlog campaign had finally achieved rape kit reform legislation in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Now, in the year of aggravation that is 2026. But, with a goal of being thankful for the wins and not angered by their delay I decided it was time to move The Secret History of the Rape Kit up to the top of my reading list.   Pagan Kennedy’s book traces the story of the creation of the modern rape kit and the woman, Marty Goddard, […]

“For a being as sophisticated as you are, it is baffling how little understanding you have of the composition of your own mind.”

Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

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Reviewing a re-read is always a bit of a stumper for me, and even though I’ve been systematically making my way through re-reading the Murderbot books over the past couple of years the idea of trying to have something new to say about Network Effect is a bit daunting. Even though it has been over four and a half years (ouch) since I last read this book it was still fresh in my mind’s eye, there was very little that I didn’t remember from last time. But there were things that flowed much easier for […]

“…the glorious Republic cannot rise unless the monarchy falls and the monarchy cannot fall unless two women bring it down.”

A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon

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When I read Emma Southon’s A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum I was pleased by the way Southon’s immense understanding of the available primary and secondary sources historians have available to work from regarding Roman history impact the ways in which we can know anything at all about things that happened so long ago. That same nuance in explaining the sources – and how much they can or cannot be trusted – is utilized to great degree in A Rome of One’s Own as Southon begins […]



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