CoffeeShopReader

CoffeeShopReader's Reviews:

Ending with a Zombie Killing Porn Star and a Priest in a Bar

Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey

January 13, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I continue with my end of year promise to finish several started but unfinished books before beginning anything new. Next up: Devil Said Bang, Sandman Slim #4. Maybe it was the month or few between starting and picking it back up, but this one seemed to have a lot less action, and a lot more of Stark inside his own head or contemplating his situation or himself. I’m not complaining about this, it just seems a little different from the previous novels in the series. I had about two-thirds of the novel left, and I finished it in an evening. […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

1/13/2019 | CoffeeShopReader's CBR11 Review No:2 |

If Your Nerdiest English Professor Wrote A Cookbook

MLA Members Cook by Modern Language Association

January 5, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader 1 Comment

There are two ways to think about this: what’s the nerdiest thing you can think of OR what’s the most in-jokey vanity project you can think of? Either way, the answer is MLA Members Cook! This is a cookbook supposedly created by collecting recipes from members of the MLA; yes that MLA, as in the formatting and citation style your English teachers and professors made you use. I said ‘supposedly’ created because based on what this supposed book is presented as, a cookbook by members of one of the largest humanities academic organizations in the US, I would think that […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

MLA Members Cook by Modern Language Association

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

1/5/2019 | CoffeeShopReader's CBR11 Review No:1 |

Think if fantasy world Romeo and Juliet had better or absent parents

City of Lies by Sam Hawke

December 30, 2018 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I made myself a promise: no more starting a new read until I finish the four partially read books on my coffee table. Not counting the occasional graphic novel. At least one of those books has been on that coffee table unfinished for I think a year, maybe a little more. I here review not that book, but one that I knew I could finish and review before 2018 runs out. I started City of Lies over the summer (July, I think?), got 2/3 way through, got bored, then distracted. Basically, this is a pretty traditional fantasy adventure in a […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

City of Lies by Sam Hawke

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

12/30/2018 CoffeeShopReader's CBR10 Review No:56 |

The Radio Guy Runs a Few Marathons

The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal

November 25, 2018 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I became a consistent NPR listener when I moved to a region where the radio options were country music, Christian rock, or NPR. I wanted something to listen to in the car to and from work and while running errands, and I can only tolerate the first two options in small doses, then it all starts to sound the same to me and that gets annoying. So when I heard that Peter Sagal, longtime host of one of the more entertaining talk options “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” had a new book out and it was about running, I was […]

11/25/2018 CoffeeShopReader's CBR10 Review No:55 |

Hug Your Secret Service Agent

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

November 25, 2018 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

If Hope Never Dies does not win Best Humor in the Goodreads awards for 2018, I will never again be able to regard them as real awards. The plot and a lot of characters are pretty stereotypical for a mystery or buddy-cop adventure, but it’s a lot of fun, like one of those Obama-Biden memes novelized. Not much as a serious mystery, but really entertaining. Think of the plot and main duo of any buddy-cop adventure: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour), Danny Glover and Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon), Scott Caan and Alex O’Loughlin (Hawaii Five-O), etc. Joe Biden is […]

11/25/2018 CoffeeShopReader's CBR10 Review No:54 |

Coffee Shop’s Theory of the Trilogy

False Idols by Jon Hollis

November 25, 2018 by CoffeeShopReader 2 Comments

I’m back! After finishing my committed 52 reviews, I ended up not reviewing for a while, because life etc. NB: Much of what follows is from the slightly more technical and in depth blog post concerning my attempts to explain the theory behind why part 2 of any trilogy is often the least fun or entertaining. As of now, the Dragon Lords series is a trilogy; I have no idea if the author will keep it that way or continue with further installments. I read the first one (Fools Gold) a while ago, and found it entertaining, if at times […]

11/25/2018 CoffeeShopReader's CBR10 Review No:53 |

Even though someone else said it better

This Body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us by Edgar Cantero

September 19, 2018 by CoffeeShopReader 5 Comments

I saw a Goodreads description or review that called Cantero the heir to the Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams throne. Nope to that. The more I think on it, the more I like This Body’s Not Big Enough For Both Of Us, but it’s not the same level of clever, especially since it’s much more limited in the scope of the allusions. The wordplay of Pratchett is not there, nor is the narrative originality, or at least not original in the same way. Cantero’s pretty direct about the type of story he’s telling/riffing from the opening lines: “Elmore Leonard says it’s […]

9/19/2018 CoffeeShopReader's CBR10 Review No:52 |

Ghostbusting in Harry Potter-ville

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

September 9, 2018 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

Full disclosure: I had to read this quickly in one sitting in a coffee shop because I was going to see the author and have her sign it a few hours later. I’d pre-ordered City of Ghosts, but given when it was actually shipped (the day after it was released), I didn’t receive it until Saturday, and the talk/signing was Sunday. Mission was accomplished though, so I guess no harm done. I hadn’t realized this but City of Ghosts is actually V.E./Victoria Schwab’s first middle grade book. Somehow I’d had it in my head this was going to be another […]

9/9/2018 CoffeeShopReader's CBR10 Review No:51 |

badkittyuno on “[We’ll] never know how much of this book the squirrel wrote.”—Mindy KalingWanna borrow! Plano has it but the wait list is lonnnngggg
badkittyuno on “She did not like being a public person. She was happiest in her garden, at her country home.”" her grandfather invented Listerine and her father invented halitosis to market it" I don't need to read the book because it could not beat...
bronte1848 on Quick Charming Read to Start the YearIt is something some of the schools in the district I teach in are doing. You start with a survey that places you on a...
tillie on What a weird little bookOh I just did a book haul and considered this...it'll go to the top of the list for next haul!
Jen K on 12th Century Boss LadyI love Henry II. They are super long, but Sharon Kay Penman has a trilogy that starts When the Saints Slept that gets very detailed...