Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About elderberrywine

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Elder LOTR/Holmes fan girl/writer since forever.

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And Wait. Weren’t We Just Here?

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

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cbr category time So this one was ordered from the library, from my decades long, very long list of Books To Order from the library, and hell if I know why.  Usually I can see fifteen-years-younger me might have wanted to read it, but not this one.  Because apocalyptic drama is not my thing, and that’s exactly what this was. The Stone Gods is written in sections that continue to circle back, or as the author puts it, “a repeating world”.  And the world is […]

Perry Mason without a courtroom in sight. This is a total trip.

The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito - Perry Mason #23 by Erle Stanley Gardener

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cbr square series Well, now, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it?  Man, I love this series, and this one, #23, was just plain fun.  Not a courtroom in sight, and instead of Paul Drake putting in a bit of sleuthing footwork for Perry, he gets to be bait.  A good time was had by all. Banning Clarke and Salty Bowers are a pair of prospectors, seeking lost gold mines in Southern California. (Ahahaha, sure, boys.)  But Banning got mixed up with a wealthy dame (now […]

Saucy and Creepy – Who Can Ask for More?

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

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cbr square – Scandal In 1785, Jonah Hancock, an unremarkable middle aged widower, receives strange news from his partner and captain of his trading vessel.  Instead of returning to London with a full ship of spices from the Far East, his partner has traded the whole shipment, ship and all, for a mermaid.  At least that is what he claims it to be.  It is nothing like those in the fables, however, being a fierce deformed little monster, and quite deceased.  But it ends up […]

Peace like a river flows

Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes

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Bingo category – Mind Farm is the accounting of a year on a family farm in central Missouri.  Tom, Sally, and their children raise corn, soybeans, and hogs on this farm, which is actually a patchwork of smaller farms.  The year is mid-1980s, so there are the Reagan/Clinton farm policies to be dealt with, as well as issues such as how the land can be plowed, what to do about storage if there isn’t enough, and the ever temperamental weather situation.  The fact is that […]

The wonkier version of “Hamilton”

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America by Jack Rakove

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A very different account of the putting together of the American system of government.  This is the sort of stuff your high school American History (if you had such a class) textbook glossed over, and it’s fascinating to see, in such detail, how it all came together.  Oh sure, there’s some mention of Washington the general, and the various battles, and the multitude of issues the British Empire was facing at the same time, but that’s not where the heart of this book lies. I […]

Witchy Woman

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

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This is a prequel to the better known Practical Magic, which I have not yet read.  I am knocking a star off the rating, because it has that slight awkwardness of having to back into a previous opening, by their very nature, an issue with prequels.  The prequel trilogy of Star Wars is a classic example.  But it did make me want to read the original, so mission accomplished, I guess. Magic Lessons covers three generations of a family of witches and their allies.  Their […]



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