Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Fascinating novel set amongst little known culture

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane follows Li-Yan, a young woman from the Akha ethnic minority in Yunnan China.  Born shortly after the cultural revolution, she comes of age as China is changing rapidly.  When she becomes pregnant at 16, like so many other women in China at this time she abandons her newborn daughter at an orphanage.  The story follows Li-Yan and her family in China as she gains an education and helps her community modernize while still retaining their values, and also follows […]

Meditative Evaluation of Eels

The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson

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In The Book of Eels, Patrik Svensson interweaves what is known of the strange biology of eels with the history of human interaction and investigation of them as well as how eels have shaped his own life.  The reader comes away with a much greater appreciation for these admittedly creepy creatures, details about historical figures you wouldn’t have expected, and respect for his family. Eels are an ancient creature that metamorphize dramatically, going from tiny leaf shapes floating in the Sargasso Sea, to translucent creatures […]

Speculative Fiction Western

Outlawed by Anna North

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Westerns are not a genre I usually enjoy due to the high incidence of hangings amidst the dust, however, this came highly recommended and I’m glad I read it.  In Outlawed, Anna North presents an alternate history wherein a massive flu pandemic in the 1800s wiped out the majority of humanity, leaving the survivors to try to repopulate and pick up the pieces.  As a result of the drastic fall in population, childbearing is considered every woman’s duty, and barren women are at best considered […]

Gentle escapist mystery

Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton

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The second book in the Aunt Dimity series, this book set out the backstory behind some secondary characters from the first book.  Computer whiz and amateur garden designer Emma has been dumped by her long time boyfriend who promptly marries another woman.  So Emma takes the trip to England they had planned, only by herself.  She is soon prevailed upon to visit a castle in Cornwall, where mystery and romance await. She designs gardens (yay!), falls in love (natch) and solves the mystery.  There’s some […]

British murder mystery with a literary twist

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

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Continuing my run of Elly Griffiths novels, this is the first in the Harbinder Kaur series.  Harbinder is a detective near Brighton, UK who is brought in to investigate when a schoolteacher is murdered at Harbinder’s former school.  The other main protagonist, Clare, is a fellow teacher and friend of the murdered woman.  More violence occurs, which seems to center around Clare and a Victorian short story known as The Stranger by the fictional R.M.Holland. What sets this book apart was the way it integrated […]

Atmospheric Scottish thriller

The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone

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It would be understandable if readers assumed I had miswritten the author’s name.  The book shares a title and a similar setting to the trilogy by author Peter May, but this review refers to The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone.   Set in a fictional island near the isle of Harris in Scotland, the author splits between a current day protagonist (Maggie) and a man who died 25 years in the past (Robert/Andrew).  Maggie comes to the island trying to determine if he was murdered and if […]



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