Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Leslie

CBR13 participant

I'm an English prof who loves reading--ready to read and review books for a good cause.

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A Classic and a (Maybe?) New Classic

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

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This English professor finally got around to reading Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott’s classic book of advice about writing. In all honesty, when I read for fun I gravitate toward genre fiction–mysteries, detective novels, romance, etc. I like a good story. I was surprised, then, by how much I enjoyed just luxuriating in Lamott’s prose. It is by turns hilarious, touching, and, most importantly, honest. For example, she includes an entire chapter about professional jealousy that I at first found odd until I found myself relating […]

Like Everyone Else, I Read Dune

Dune by Frank Herbert

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Dune is the type of book that I appreciate more than I enjoy. I am glad I read it, certainly, and in many ways it exceeded my expectations. It is wildly inventive, and I was immersed in the interplanetary worlds Herbert creates. For a reader in 2021, Dune covers somewhat familiar ground with its narrative of a “chosen one” who undergoes training in order to take up leadership in a fight larger than he (or she) imagined. With a book this influential, it was difficult for […]

Books for Spooky Season

The Last Book on the Left by Marcus Parks, et al

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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As a fan of Last Podcast on the Left, I both looked forward to reading the book by “The Boys” (Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel, and Henry Zebrowski) and also wondered how they would pull it off. The podcast is irreverent and explicit, with Parks (usually) providing the research and central narrative of a particular topic, while Ben and Henry offer asides and impressions. The good (?) news is that The Last Book on the Left essentially replicates that structure. Each chapter provides information on a serial killer (ten […]

Two Hits and a Miss

Designs on a Duke by Ellie St. Clair

A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean

Fatal Affair by Marie Force

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You have to hand it to Sarah MacLean. While she takes romance seriously, her books are fun. The banter is good, the scenarios are imaginative, and the characters are self-aware. I had this realization early in A Rogue By Any Other Name, when, as part of his attempt to kidnap and marry our heroine, the titular rogue spanks her, a move that is equal parts sexy and comical. MacLean is especially good at writing conventional aristocratic women who find themselves plunged into a London underworld, which is the case […]

More J.D. Robb

Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb

Glory in Death by J.D. Robb

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These two whodunnits follow the comforting pattern of police procedurals, with the added twist of futuristic elements and the engaging romance of protagonist Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her lover, the wealthy, connected Roarke. It’s easy to see why there are 55 books in the “In Death” series (although I personally am going to take a hiatus after overdosing on this series in the last month). In Glory in Death, Dallas investigates the murder of the prominent Prosecuting Attorney, Cicely Powers, whom she knows personally (and who, […]

Conventional and Less Conventional

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

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I’m terrible at titles, but I did want to highlight what I saw as the main difference between these two romance novels (both of which I enjoyed). Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore is a pretty standard historical romance, set in late Victorian England (rather than the usual Regency period). The time period is important, as politics are central to Dunmore’s plot. Her heroine, Annabelle Archer, has seized the opportunity to escape domestic drudgery and enroll in Oxford, were she involves herself in the suffrage movement. […]



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