Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About Jen K

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I’ve been around off and on since the first year of CBR, and it and books have been a constant in my life through multiple moves and a major career change. I live with 3 cats, Dany, Jace and Jorah. Fantasy, specific types of sci-fi, historical fiction (especially mysteries) and romance tend to be my go to genres now a days. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jen K's Quick Questions interview.)

Jen K's Reviews:

When someone tries to put all their ideas and research into one novel

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

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Bingo Square: Justice (there’s systemic oppression, a character unjustly punished for crime, ideas about legality vs morality) Southern Lit Book club is starting back up for the fall session and this was the first book. While I enjoyed The Help when it came out, I also think the later critiques were valid, and wasn’t exactly in a huge hurry for this one but book club was a nice excuse to read this. And it’s a bit of mixed reaction – it’s fine but I was […]

Generational trauma, made worse through institutional systems

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

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Bingo Square: Map (the father is a map maker) This book made me cry twice, I loved the way it tied back to history, and also how it explored the Great Hunger, showing the impact on families and the land. It also showed hints of the many complex themes throughout Irish history, some in conflict and some in conversation with each other, from the role of the old ways and the Catholic Church, class issues, colonization and the relationship with the English. There’s this large focus […]

I can feel it coming in the air tonight

A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman

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Bingo Square: Joker (Carl is chaos personified) Quote: “That’s the problem with hitting the elites financially. Every time you hurt one, all it does is make another richer. That won’t stop until the baskets overflow with their godsdamned heads.” Throughout the series, the beginnings of the new novels and floors have tended to act as resets and completely shift the tone. Book 3 went from everyone working together at the end of the Iron Tangle to being separated for the Bubbles; Book 5 to Book […]

Event planning, succession and second chances at love

I Think They Love You by Julian Winters

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Bingo Square: Success (Denz has to figure out what success is for him) This was a cute second chance romance with fake dating that I mostly enjoyed. It’s third person limited, told entirely from Denz’s perspective, and as much as I liked Denz, I think being entirely in his head for the length of the entire novel made it feel a little longer than it was. I don’t necessarily have a preference between dual POV or single POV when it comes to romance but I […]

Well, it made me learn some history about alcohol

The Bitter End Birding Society by Amanda Cox

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Bingo Square: Bird (there’s a whole bird watching group – and it’s in the title) Another book I only read for a book club! This was the March choice for the Southern lit one, and I didn’t really do any research before starting it, just read the quick blurb on the back to know what the story was about. While there was a plot about a preacher’s son and the moonshiner’s daughter, it wasn’t until I was over halfway through that I started thinking there […]

When vibe reads aren’t vibing

Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It by Brooke Averick

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen

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Bingo squares: Left (Phoebe Berman feels Left behind with her 30th birthday and her sister’s wedding approaching) Friends (Disaster Gay Detective Agency follows a group of Friends). This might seem like an odd pairing to review together but it’s basically because I read these somewhat close together and both left me disappointed in a similar way: they were  books I expected to be fun, breezy reads that ended up not being as fun or funny as I wanted and ultimately were a bit tedious, even. […]



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