Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Elder LOTR/Holmes fan girl/writer since forever. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: elderberrywine's Quick Questions interview.)

elderberrywine's Reviews:

Good Thing Climate Change is a Hoax, Right? Right?

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

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cbr18bingo Refuge I kept seeing this title and I was intrigued.  Is this some sort of seacoast bodice ripper?  Well, no, actually.  But why yes it was great, and all bodices remained intact. The setting is based off of an actual place, Macquarie Island, located about half way between Tasmania and Antarctica.  It is the location of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, with a treasure chest of seeds collected world-wide for . . . just in case.  It’s only inhabited by a scientific team, and […]

Early Jazz 101

Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker

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A short sharp and brilliant novella written by Dorothy Baker in 1938.  Often called the first jazz novel, it is loosely based off the life of Bix Beiderbecke, a white trumpeter who generally played with black bands, in this era of Jim Crow, and who died young of alcoholism.  Baker nailed the 1920s era, where swing was still just starting to take root, and dance bands were emerging, but then there was jazz, for those who preferred to actually listen to the music. Lady knows […]

If the Snow and Icy Waters Don’t Get Ya, These Backwoods Folk Surely Will

Dead by Dawn by Paul Doiron

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On his way back from a routine vet trip for his wolf (not many vets are skilled in dealing with a “pet” like his), Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden/Investigator, is sent skittering off a booby-trapped icy mountain road into the frozen waters of a river far below.  Neither he nor the wolf (Shadow) are amused by this, and he breaks whatever he needs to for them to escape the submerging vehicle.  But that means he doesn’t have much in the way of equipment or tools, […]

Could Have Done Better Girl

Private Life by Jane Smiley

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Woman repressed, I’d call this.  By her own self. Margaret Mayfield, oldest daughter of three, begins life in Missouri in the mid1880s, and is considered by herself and her family to not be a good wife prospect.  Too bookish and awkward.  And she is not at all put out by this judgement.  But then Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early shows up (we later learn how manipulated this set-up was by both moms), and she figures, well, I guess so.  He is quite tall and commanding, […]

Such a Lovely Series

Coot Club by Arthur Ransome

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It’s always such a pleasure to settle down with one of the books in this series.  There will be some adventurous and imaginative scheme afoot, but always within the time frame of school holidays.  The children will each use their particular skills, and always get along wonderfully.  And for the most part, the adults will stay out of the way.  And of course, it will all wrap up very nicely but never quite as it was planned at the beginning.  The settings are accurate to […]

Antelope Like Phantoms in the Snow

The Crossing by Corman McCarthy

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Fair warning here – about half the dialogue is in Spanish.  But with just my many decades old Spanish classes from the dim past, it really wasn’t that hard to follow.  It’s pretty simple, and most of it you can get from context.  But.  So you know.  This is the second book from McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, after All the Pretty Horses.  There is no connection between any of the characters, but the milieu is definitely the same. Billy and Boyd Parham are two brothers, sons […]



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