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:

I Really Need to Find a Trivia Team

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

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This is the kind of book I wanted and expected when I picked up Matchmaking for Beginners. This was sweet and charming, and absolutely perfect for the moment. Nina never knew her dad and her mother is a world traveling photographer. Nina, on the other hand, is perfectly happy with a relatively contained life and uses books as her escape from reality. She rents a guest house which is perfectly arranged for her needs, has a cat, trivia team and book clubs, and works at […]

Stories Bring Communities Together

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

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I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this novel but entered into it with cautious optimism. I love The Thirteenth Tale but was disappointed with her follow up Bellman and Black.  While it was gorgeously written with lots of interesting historical detail, it lacked the same emotional intimacy as the previous one. While Once Upon a River has a wide cast of characters, they are all easy to get invested in. It’s a slow build, and starts one evening in an old inn on […]

Tea, Politics and Space Ships

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

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I loved Ancillary Justice, and was curious to see where Leckie would take the series.  While there was some exploration and hinting at larger issues that would be relevant to broader plot, for the most part, this novel felt very much like a smaller story and a large shift in perspective.  After the first one set up a huge struggle that could define the future of the Empire, this felt more like an intimate murder mystery type of story, very focused on this one small […]

Theater During the Red Scare

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis

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I think it was either jomidi’s review of this novel specifically or Caitlin D’s more general review of Fiona Davis’s novels but I ended up downloading The Chelsea Girls a while back.  By the time I started reading it, I didn’t quite remember what the overall story line was beyond being set in New York during the mid-20th century and involving female friendships.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I realized this wasn’t simply a story about young women navigating life in a big city […]

Turns Out, We Weren’t a Match

Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson

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Ugh. Just ugh. So when I started, I realized the novel was a bit new age-y for my tastes but I figured I could deal with a slightly new age character as long it was a fun, light read. The thing, though, is that it’s a really weird read because while Blix, the old woman that sets everything up, is a charming if slightly kooky old lady, I am not sure what she saw in Marnie, the “main” character, who is boring and thoughtless.  Blix […]

Corporate Team Building Plus Hiking? The Wooorst!

A Force of Nature by Jane Harper

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Let’s be honest – corporate team building combined with hiking and camping? It’s enough to drive anyone to murder.  Add the personality mixes of the group of women on the retreat and the domineering attitude of the missing woman, Alice, and it’s a recipe for disaster.  Falk from Harper’s previous novel is back because Alice has been involved in a financial case he has been working, and it’s hard to tell if her disappearance is related to his case, due to other conflicts in her […]



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