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The Best and Worst Books of Cannonball Read 15

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | December 29, 2023 |

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | December 29, 2023 |


dolly-parton-reading.jpg

Did you wind up with gift cards or money to spend on books this holiday season? Or are you still looking for that one perfect bookish gift?

This year’s participants in Cannonball Read 16 have got you covered with some recommendations and warnings on their best and worst reads of this year. Check out the links to their reviews as well for more in-depth takes on their choices and tons of GIFs.

If you make it through this list with tons of opinions or questions, consider signing up for next year’s challenge. Cannonball Read an annual, memorial book challenge that asks participants to read and review 52 (or 26 or 13) books in the memory of the late, great Pajiban AlabamaPink. Bonus, CBR does all of this while fundraising for the American Cancer Society. Sign up for next year’s Cannonball Read, and you too can stick it to cancer, one book at a time.

BlackRaven’s Three Best:

Plague-Busters by Lindsey Fitzharris - This book was one of my favorites because it made history interesting and understandable. Without “making fun or light” of the subject, it had a humorous overtone. And I think it helped me, as an (physically only) adult to make some sense out of current events. The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir by Lynn Curlee - It was a non-fiction year for me for favorites. It was hard to narrow things down to three, but I knew this (and Plague-Busters) needed to be here! I grew up seeing stories about "bad AIDS" but not the human aspect behind those stories. This was a Love Note to his friends, lovers, himself, and the gay community. A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner - This book is based on a true story, but done in a way that was fiction. I also liked that it was a boy dealing with weight issues, something we don’t usually see in kids-middle reader lit. Or at least not as positively.

Worst:

Yahgz: The Craynobi Tales by Art Baltazar - I had an odd year of reading. I had a lot of "in the middle reads" and gave them a 3. But then there were the handfuls of "I really wish I could give a negative number review." And sadly, Yahgz was one of those. I will say, however, it probably is not the book and was me. (And I did have to "eeny meeny miny moe" this title with a couple others).

Other Comments if any:

I had six favorites this year. So honorable mentions are Werewolf at Dusk by David Small (fiction), Look Again by Trembley (non-fiction) and So Much for Love by Lambda (which almost made it on the top three; mostly non-fiction).


Blauracke’s Three Best:


How Carrots Won the Trojan War: Curious (but True) Stories of Common Vegetables by Rebecca Rupp - This one is just a blast.
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki - I will write a review of this one soon, but for now I can say that this is a truly fantastic book that delivers great insight into modern Japanese society and the way people, especially women that don’t fit expectations, sometimes manage to carve out their own space in it nonetheless.
Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum - A detailed history of the Holodomor, the man-made famine which killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932 to 1933. A great and important book about a ruthless mass murder.

Worst:

The Creak on the Stairs (Forbidden Iceland Book 1) by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir - Almost offensively mediocre. Alright if you have time to kill and nothing else at hand.


booktrovert’s Three Best:


Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter - I always want to call this book Terrace House rather than Terrace Story, an inexplicable (Freudian?) error that makes finding reviews on the internet tricky. Title aside, this trio of stories was short and weird, and I loved it.
Trust by Hernan Diaz - Another book told in stories, the parts interconnected. I had no idea I’d enjoy a novel about finance this much.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - A book about murder that was the most moral book I’ve read all year.

Worst:

Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger - I had heard many great things about this series - yet I was very turned off by the treatment of women in this novel. I’m not very interested in seeing whatever may happen to Cork O’Connor and the various female tropes in his life.


carmelpie’s Three Best:


The Last Sun: The Tarot Sequence Book One by K.D. Edwards - This book (and this author’s style) hits all of my sweet spots: humor, found family, urban fantasy, trauma and healing, and incredible, beautiful, struggling, and flawed characters. It is also rib-cracking funny. I am too excited for the fourth book in the series, which is due out sometime in 2024.
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold - This novella was one of the most moving stories I have ever read. Period. Although it helps to know the bare minimum about this universe and some recurring characters, it can be read as a standalone.
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh - This is gorgeous, heartbreaking, hopeful, and full of love for the generations of women who raised the children, who went to work, who endured, and who eventually broke the cycle of violence and poverty.

Worst:

Taking Admiral and the Merchant by Macy Macdonald by Macy MacDonald - I think this is the most ridiculous book I have ever read. I think that it was generated by AI and whatever was spit out was further embellished by the author. The dialogue is nonsensical. The punctuation is overabundant. The logic is non-existent.

This is not a book you want to hate read. It is not entertaining enough to endure. However, I’m gifting you with a few snippets that do make a tiny (so tiny) bit of sense. Enjoy!

"I patiently awaited my beloved fiancé, Captain Montgomery Montgomery, in his stateroom. Seductively lying on his bed. Naked. I should mention that."

"I was shredded, if I do say so myself."

"I had about a thousand questions. Had this handsome gentleman plowed my fiancé ?"

"My fiancé isn’t a sport. He’s a well-crafted piece of artillery, and it takes a master engineer to make him fire."

Honorable mentions

- The Song of Achilles by Madelaine Miller (queer romance & tragedy)
- Lie With Me by Phillipe Besson (queer romance & tragedy)
- Petty (Cape & Cowl 1) by S.A. Sommers (queer romance, superheroes (and their tropes) and happy endings/fluff)


donttrustthe_bea’s Three Best:


Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Burn It Down by Maureen Ryan
The Babysitter: My Summer with a Serial Killer by Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan

Worst:

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney - It wasn’t necessarily terrible, I just read much much better books this year in comparison to this title.


drmllz’s Three Best:


I had a number of 5 star reviews this year—partly because I have gravitated towards writing about books I loved—so this was a hard choice, but also considered Zaina Arafat’s You Exist Too Much and Claire LeGrand’s Sawkill Girls here.

Ride the Pink Horse (1946) by Dorothy B. Hughes - "I think that Dorothy B. Hughes’s writing, at its best, possesses a terrible beauty, to borrow a phrase from W.B. Yeats’s ‘Easter, 1916.’ Elsewhere, of course, Yeats wrote that "things fall apart; the centre cannot hold", a fragment of a phrase that beats at the dark heart of noir fiction, where comforting myths of love, or integrity, or fairness implode like dying stars, fade like the spark of a bullet tracing across the night sky."
The Body in the Blitz (2023) by Robin Stevens - This is the second in Stevens’s Ministry of Un-Ladylike Activity series, in which three plucky youngsters help out British Intelligence efforts during the Second World War, and also solve mysteries—and deal with very complicated moral questions. This is children’s fiction at its best—thorny, adventurous, sometimes funny, emphatic about the bonds and complications of friendship.
Every Gift a Curse (2023) by Caroline O’Donoghue - This is YA at its best—magic, danger, coming-of-age, strong sense of place and atmosphere, and relationship and friendship drama.

Worst:

Inspecting Psychology: How the Rise of Psychological Ideas Influenced the Development of Detective Fiction by David Cohen - I have to read this book because its topic relates to my own research, but it’s distressingly and enragingly bad. It’s written in disjointed fragments with little cohesion; it blurs authorial biography and literary criticism, seemingly unintentionally; it does not cite relevant and actually engaging academic work on detective fiction, and detective fiction and psychology, from the last 15+ years. In addition, it gets SO MUCH WRONG. a) spells Dorothy L. Sayers’s Harriet Vane as Harriett b) seems to mix up Dr W.H.R Rivers (psychologist treating shellshock) and Pitt Rivers (archaeologist) (the author’s background *is* psychology) c) suggests that the notion that Agatha Christie is interested in form is “penetrating” d) suggests that Miss Marple’s wartime fiancé is in the book rather than an invention of the adaptation e) invents three husbands for Dorothy L. Sayers, who in fact only married one I could go on but I can’t type as my head sinks lower and lower towards my desk.


ElCicco’s Three Best:


A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - Brilliant combination of Russian history, an homage to Casablanca, and a delightful story of a man whose circumstances move him from simply observing life to taking action.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell - This is a work of historical fiction that had me on the edge of my seat. It is a fact that teenaged Lucrezia de Medici died very young and under suspicious circumstances, and that a portrait of her exists. O’Farrell uses her dark, rich imagination to spin a fascinating tale fraught with danger.
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot - Harriot gives a history of white supremacy, which is the story of the US, and he fills in the formidable gaps in our traditional history texts with the amazing, heroic stories of Black Americans. Read it!

Worst:

Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me by Bernie Taupin - It’s not so much that this is a “bad” book, but it was disappointing and not because I was expecting a lot of information about Elton John (I wasn’t). The problem for me was that Taupin seems unable to remember much about his actual songwriting, which is what I was most interested in.


Elderberrywine’s Three Best:


Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Woman Running in the Mountains by Tsushima Yuko

Worst:

The Flanders Road by Simon Claude


Emmalita’s Three Best:


Translation State by Ann Leckie - In the Imperial Radch series, there are no ethical empires. Empires are a pyramid scheme and require a constant source of populations to other and oppress. The previously conquered become the instruments of oppression as they assimilate and feel like they are moving up the pyramid (they are never moving up the pyramid).
Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez - I loved this book, and it frustrates the hell out of me that more people aren’t reading Angelina M. Lopez’ books. Full Moon Over Freedom is a spicy small town romance with magic and second chances.
Wild Life by Opal Wei - What happens when a burnt out, high strung cancer researcher runs into an anxious, handsome, recovering boy bander with a private island and a elderly cougar? Shenanigans, wild animal attacks, a massive storm, run-ins with the law, and the complete abandonment of The Plan.

Worst:

Pucking Around by Emily Rath - I haaaaated this book, and the only reason I reviewed it was because it felt like badly done fanfic of a book I do like, Beyond Jealousy by Kit Rocha. Why did I hate Pucking Around? Rachel is less "mess" and more "toxic swamp." Her behavior gallivants past ethical boundaries and there is more than one scene where her demand for "honesty" feels manipulative and abusive. If you liked it, that’s fine.

Other Comments if any:

I read so many good books this year. Authors I loved this year: Ruby Lang, Jodie Slaughter, Katrina Jackson, Diana Biller, Anita Kelly, Helena Greer, Emma Barry, Cathy Yardley, Therese Beharrie, Chace Verity, Candace Harper, Ann Aguirre, Kj Charles, Cat Sebastian, Charish Reid, Kit Rocha, and so many more


faintingviolet’s Three Best:


Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones - I didn’t have a lot of five star reviews this year - in fact I only had 2 and neither is making my favorites list, so make of that what you will. But this book has lived in my brain for the past 11 months, and I think back on it and its love story fondly all the time. I’m currently packing up my life to move in the new year and never once considered giving this one away. A winner for sure.
Strong Female Character by Fern Brady - Brady uses radical honesty in this memoir chronicling her late autism diagnosis. While our neuro-spiciness aren’t exactly the same, this was an important read for me this year in particular.
Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun - This is definitely a not for everybody book but I appreciated the heck out of Calhoun’s interviewing 200 women and doing the secondary research about Gen X’s midlife crises to be able to turn to the reader and say, ‘yep this is a thing that is happening to lots of women actually’ lowered my anxiety.

Worst:

Stealing the Show: a History of Art and Crime in Six Thefts by John Barelli - This is a case (mostly) of unmet expectations. This isn’t a bad book, per se, but it was the worst thing I read this year for me. I wanted the book that this one’s subtitle describes and this isn’t it. Barelli shares his experiences of the crimes that occurred on his watch at the Met. While it is a comprehensive forty-year look, it is also uneven. It is more a recounting and less a history and I couldn’t tell you which six thefts Barelli intended to be the focus. Just a bit of a bummer all the way around.

Jake’s Three Best:

Tokyo Redux by David Peace - Thinking of books that knocked the wind out of me: Tom Sweterlitsch’s The Gone World, Chelsea Summers’ A Certain Hunger, and this one. Never thought I’d try this series after I was mildly disappointed by the Red Riding Quartet. So glad I did. 1 and 3 are nothing short of great. 2 was frustrating but had some amazing moments. Just an excellent coda to this thrilling trilogy. All The Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby - Electrifying from start to finish. We’re all so blessed to see a great writer blossom in front of us in real time. One of the great voices of contemporary crime fiction. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin - Read it in advance of the movie. All the things people claimed the movie did (moral ambiguity, grappling with legacy, mental exhaustion, resulting guilt) were felt so much more in the book. He was living his suppressed desire and Christopher Nolan, technically gifted though he is, is not the man to capture that.

Worst:

Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates - I’ve had this argument many times, including on this website: we need to do away with the Evil/Tragic Adoptee trope. It’s harmful from a societal perspective and lazy from a narrative one. What’s it like to not know your parents? I know from the experience of raising two: it sucks! Enough to make you become the kind of killer these kinds of books want them to be? Adoptees are far more likely to kill themselves than become Hannibal Lecter. Please. Stop. Please stop.


jeverett15’s Three Best:


I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Trust by Hernan Diaz

Worst:

Devil House by John Darnielle


Kit Moonstar’s Three Best:


Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose - This is probably the best historical mystery I’ve read in a long time. Everything about it is fantastic, and there’s so much potential for more good things to come with the series (there are another six books so far). My review of it should be up soon.

Worst:

The Bookshop and the Barbarian by Morgan Stang


Little Plat’s Three Best:


Blindsight by Peter Watts - Okay, no review for this one because it was a re-read. So how did I reread become the best book of the year? Because it got picked for one of my book clubs—after I suggested it. And God, I think Cafe Express was well and truly ready to kick us out afterwards because we made so much of a ruckus for way too long.
It is not a happy book—far from it—but it is an excellent one to discuss with other people.

(The next month the book club went with another one of my suggestions which turned out to be Gideon the Ninth… Which thankfully was also well received. I bowed out after that. Two in a row? It wasn’t fair to other people)
Translation State by Ann Leckie - This one was a surprise sequel that I was not expecting; a surprise sequel that involved my favourite aliens from the previous books!

As I said in my review "I love a really ‘alien’ kind of alien in my science fiction, I really do. I also have a love of Python-esque humour." And I don’t think any alien race has delivered quite as well as the titular Translators in Translation State.
A History of Heavy Metal by Andrew O’Neill I have neglected to write a review for this one yet. But this was an absolute blast. It’s even more so by the fact that Andrew O’Neil himself narrates the audiobook.

This is not a formal history, by the way. This is an enthusiast enthusing. And as anyone who is involved with the metal scene knows, even tangentally, things can get a little bit heated…

Worst:

Babel by R.F. Kuang - I will be upfront, I quite liked the Poppy War series by the same author. I have a real appreciation for what she tackles in her writing. I don’t want to say that this book is terrible, but Babel has been paining me. There are a number of reasons for this, but mainly, it doesn’t seem to know what it wants from its setting, and it has a cool concept that I don’t think is being explored fully. It’s rather frustrating. I have been trying to read this book on and off for the last six months, and I am still not there. It has been a struggle.

Other Comments if any:

I haven’t even touched on the fact that we got two October Day books this year instead of one… Or that I made a monumental personal reading achievement. I will try and tackle those before the end of the year.


Malin’s Three Best:


The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen - A really sweet and strange and unusual romance, set in an alternate world to our own. I know the author is writing more from this world, and I’m excited to read more.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - I loved this book, and it made me laugh and cry and it made me hungry. Was the child a bit unrealistically precocious? Probably, but I don’t care. Every part of this worked for me.
Folk med ångest/Anxious People by Fredrik Backman - This book is incredibly funny, whimsical, and uplifting. It also made me genuinely cry more than once because it’s also about depression and desperation and sometimes feeling so bad and/or helpless that you just want to jump off a bridge. It’s about loss, grief and loneliness. It’s a work of fiction about made-up people, but based on the acknowledgments at the back of the book, it’s absolutely grounded in personal experience, so the various characters feel real, with flaws and foibles. The book is about the importance of having someone in your life, be it friends, family members, or a good neighbour.

Worst:

De kaller meg ulven (They call me the wolf) by Zeshan Shakar - This book basically just has a protagonist who is always dissatisfied with his life, constantly wishing for a bigger and better house, all the while bemoaning any real closeness to either of his parents, despite the fact that they have had no meaningful contact since the protagonist grew up and left the home he seems mostly ashamed of.

Other Comments if any:

Honourable mentions to The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik, Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews, Gender Queer by Maia Kokabe, Network Effect by Martha Wells, For Never & Always by Helena Greer and Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha.


narfna’s Three Best:


Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong - Nobody is reading this book and it is a CRIME.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - One of the most beautiful and uniquely written books I have ever read. Absolute brainy brain candy and FEELINGS.
The Will of the Many by James Islington - I can’t stop thinking about this book. I’m gonna re-read it soon and then wait anxiously for the sequel. It’s been so long since we had a good high fantasy combined with a magic school.

Worst:

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus - This book made me extremely angry so I gave it one star. And I only gave out TWO one-star ratings this year, out of like 375ish books. So you know I mean business.

Other Comments if any:

Runners up (omg I read so many good books this year this was so hard): The Adventures of Amina al-Sarafi by Shannon Chakraborty, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison, Nestlings by Nat Cassidy, TJ Powar Has Something to Prove by Jesmeen Kaur Deo, He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker Chan, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, The Good House by Tananarive Due, and Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang.

Pooja’s Three Best:

A Rome of One’s Own by Emma Southon - I love this author, and she once again succeeded in bringing ancient Rome to life for me with humor and verve and introduced me to a plethora of women who played roles big and small in the empire.
Marvelous by Molly Greeley - In this fairytale-like telling of the story of true historical figures, Greeley wrote Petrus Gonsalvus’s hypertrichosis as both a blessing and a curse.
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay - My Book Exchange gift from ElCiccio, and a perfectly balanced, stiflingly atmospheric exploration of the consequences of a mysterious disappearance in late Victorian Australia.

Worst:

The Kraken’s Sacrifice by Katee Robert - One of my two one star books this year, The Kraken’s Sacrifice is the better written one, but infuriating characters, a lacklustre plot, and an unearned happy ending from a usually reliable author left me very disappointed.

It was my first book of the year though, so I guess my year only went up from there!


RevGirlUtena’s Three Best:


The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - Not just one of the best books of the year, but a new favorite that I will want to re-read over and over. Harrow has quickly become one of my favorite authors of all time. Starling House published this year was also a favorite (review to come!).
Mistborn, Era 1 by Brandon Sanderson - The original Mistborn trilogy has become a must-read series in Fantasy, and for good reason. The characters are so intriguing, the plot is intense, and Sanderson is just a damn good writer.
Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan - A love letter to audiobooks and the people who record them. I read this 3 months ago and I can’t get it out of my head and my heart. Adorable love story with wonderful side characters.

Worst:

The Good Side of Wrong by Jenika Snow - Icky and boring. This was absolutely NOT a Hades and Persephone retelling of any sort!

Other Comments if any:

I could have easily picked ten best books from this year. I had a good reading year! Can’t wait for Cannonball 16!


Sophia’s Three Best:


Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Demon Copperhead by Barbra Kingsolver
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy


wicherwill’s Three Best:


The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel - Is it necessarily the best of the trilogy? I’m not sure, but by this far in the impending doom of Cromwell is just heartbreaking to behold.
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley - Such a beautiful, lyrical book that gets into your mind’s ear with its descriptions of sparse, unforgiving environments
Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux - this was the year I wanted to stop shouldawouldacoulda-ing about being monolingual, and buckled down a bit on learning French. was this a very short book that took me a while to read? yes. but I was also able to send snippets to my friend because they were funny and made me laugh, and that felt like such progress

Worst:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - I’m not saying this book is bad, like, badly written? but also after hearing about it for so long, I’m super unclear what I read and think I’ve come down on the side of, this is essentially whump fic/a soap opera that somehow everyone feels is high literature. separate but equal, except when you tell me it’s B and it’s actually A?

Everything in this book is dialed up to 11, if not 13 or 150 or 748654. Can success and friendship help you resolve trauma is the main question, but it turns into can unparalleled success and endless friendship help you resolve truly egregious, unmitigating, comical trauma? Why ask any subtle question when you can be beat over the head??

Dunno. I think this qualifies as the worst because it least matched up to my expectations, and prompted the longest ??? bookrant of the year. Such is the issue when I have moved away from reading things that I don’t like…fewer worsts, more "these were the not-as-goods".



Now that you’ve scanned through the list, how many recommendations did you take down? Have you read any of these titles? Did you agree or disagree with the reviewer? Did you get some new titles to add a Goodreads shelf, or do you have a Google doc for your To Be Read list? If any of these are on your mind, I’m betting you’d fit right in at Cannonball Read. So sign up today and join one of the kindest, most kick-ass philanthropic reading communities around.