Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Blessed are the cheesemakers. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: alwaysanswerb's Quick Questions interview.)

alwaysanswerb's Reviews:

Books about murders that aren’t about murders at all

In the Woods by Tana French

The Likeness by Tana French

Faithful Place by Tana French

Broken Harbor by Tana French

The Secret Place by Tana French

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I feel a little bad this review, because these are excellent novels that deserve more than the fly-by treatment I’m about to give them. But I read these months ago, and I’m barely managing to accomplish a half Cannonball this year because writing reviews just isn’t happening for me lately. I have had the Dublin Murder Squad books on my TBR for some time, prompted by the positive reviews of many Cannonballers. Amusingly (to myself), putting the series out of mind for several years led […]

It’s kind of a lot (but that’s ok)

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

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I liked this, but at the same time, I’m experiencing a potentially problematic personal issue where I’m getting pretty fatigued by multi-POV “but like, how are they all connected, man?” stories. Which is (reductively) David Mitchell’s main wheelhouse. Sorry Dave! The problem is that, inevitably, there are some stories/sections I care about a lot, and others where I don’t quite connect to the character and with their relation to the greater plot. This was definitely the case with Cloud Atlas, the only other Mitchell book […]

(bad “Electric Feel” joke)

The Power by Naomi Alderman

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The Power is horrifying in a lot of ways, one of which is how parts of it are also rather cathartic, which it shouldn’t be on the whole. If that opening sentence sounded a little confused and contradictory, that’s because it reflects my feelings about the thing. On the one hand, it’s about women getting to win, but on the other hand, the violence and abuses of power by men and women make it hard to feel good about anything, because it comes off as […]

This was very smouldery but I am being picky

When He Was Wicked (Bridgertons #6) by Julia Quinn

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So, this one was kind of weird! 3.5 stars, I’ll say, from the exact average of the first (great) half and the second (weird) half. Spoilers. But first, Goodreads summary: “In every life there is a turning point. A moment so tremendous, so sharp and breathtaking, that one knows one’s life will never be the same. For Michael Stirling, London’s most infamous rake, that moment came the first time he laid eyes on Francesca Bridgerton. After a lifetime of chasing women, of smiling slyly as […]

A Court of Fun and Nonsense

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

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I waited way, way too long to review these properly (my MO for this entire Cannonball), so my scattered impressions are these: º Sarah J Maas has a real talent for world-building and concepts. Her depictions of the fae in this book and in her other series are rooted in just enough common fae lore that she doesn’t have to get bogged down filling in lots of backward detail, but she of course contributes enough of her own unique features that they aren’t interchangeable across […]

Even worse now than it was when it was first published

Iced (Fever #6) by Karen Marie Moning

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Re-Read – August 2019: I first read and reviewed this 6 years ago and didn’t really enjoy it. But this summer, I wanted to revisit all of the Fever books, having been a big fan of the initial run of 5 in the series. And although my general feeling going into Iced was that this and the follow-up Burned were the weakest among them, I was actually a little cautiously optimistic that I might enjoy them more this time. A big part of that comes […]



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