MrsLangdonAlger

I am a devourer of almost all things pop culture, but especially books. I already make it a goal to read around 150 books yearly, so I figured why not do some good for the world while I do it? I mostly read fiction, with some graphic novels and nonfiction mixed in there for good measure.

MrsLangdonAlger's Reviews:

The Start of King’s Best Books

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

July 18, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger Leave a Comment

Apparently lots of people who like The Dark Tower series don’t like this book, and I really don’t understand that. I love the whole series enough to have a tattoo from it, Song of Susannah is clearly the weakest of the books, and The Gunslinger is some of King’s best writing, ever. The exact criticism I hear of it, that it’s a western and not a horror, is what I think allows it to be so great, because it allows King to break from his own conventions and focus on prose instead of story. Thing about it: King writes great […]

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The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

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7/18/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:14 |

Shirley Jackson-esque is One of the Highest Compliments I Can Give

You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno

June 21, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger 1 Comment

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into You Must Not Miss. I knew I loved the title. I knew it was about a disturbed teenager retreating into fantasy, struggling with bullying, and being tempted by revenge. But I had no idea what the tone would be or what would happen next. Which is another high compliment, because I often find teenage protagonists in fiction far too predictable. What I got was a very Shirley Jackson-esque tone. I described this to my fiance as “if Shirley Jackson wrote a book inspired by Heavenly Creatures“, and I stand by that description, […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno

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6/21/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:13 |

I Need To Stop Reading “Thrillers”

Saving Meghan: A Novel by D.J. Palmer

June 4, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger 5 Comments

I really need to stop reading “thriller” novels, especially ones written by people with initials in their names, because I always end up disappointed. Also, a note to mystery/thriller/suspense writers: an ending so stupid no one could have possibly guessed it is not the same as a good twist ending. Basically if a novel is described as “twisty”, I can conclude by now that I’ll find the “twist” insultingly stupid. This was no exception. That being said, the book is certainly propulsive. I think that’s the problem with this genre: you of course want to know what happens next and […]

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Saving Meghan: A Novel by D.J. Palmer

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6/4/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:12 |

This Book Made Me Cry on the Bus

Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller

May 21, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger 3 Comments

I am really bad at crying, and books almost NEVER make me cry. Off the top of my head, the only books I can remember ever making me cry are Little Women, His Dark Materials (specifically the underworld scenes), The Return of the King, and A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I’ll cry at movies and TV, but it’s hard for a book to make me cry. And to be fair, when I read this book, I was at the tail end of the first actual period I’ve had in two years (thanks, changing birth control methods!) so […]

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Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller

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5/21/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:11 |

I Want This Book, But Good

The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food is Wrong by Barry Glassner

May 8, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger 2 Comments

I rant often about how our entire society seems to have orthorexia (an unhealthy obsession with “healthy” eating that becomes an eating disorder) sometimes: Pajiba people might remember me ranting about it before. We have both strict and ever-changing ideas about which foods are “healthy” and “unhealthy” and love to police ourselves and others for every single aspect of their diets. It’s incredibly frustrating as someone who has made “food does not have a moral value” her motto and who rankles every time someone describes themselves as “being bad” for enjoying a food. So you’d think this book would be […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food is Wrong by Barry Glassner

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

5/8/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:10 |

Reading outside my habits: a breezy YA romance

Just For Clicks by Kara McDowell

May 8, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger Leave a Comment

I’ve been trying to read at least a little bit outside of my usual habits recently: there are genres I mostly avoided or just never bothered to read. Romance is definitely one of them, especially young adult romance: basically, unless the protagonists were LGBT, I was not interested in reading mainly about people falling in love. This book showed up on my BookBub daily book bargain email, though, and I was intrigued by it’s other main plot about “influencer” culture, because I HATE that culture. Unlike my experience with “The Book of Essie” (another book that addressed unhealthy societal trends, […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

Just For Clicks by Kara McDowell

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5/8/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:9 |

I Might Have Liked This If I Didn’t Hate Every Character

The Awkward Age: A Novel by Francesca Segal

April 5, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger Leave a Comment

Maybe I just have bad luck with “family drama” novels, because every one I seem to discover seems to center around the idea that every member of every family is insufferable. Are these novels only written by people who hate their families? Are all upper class people just awful? What is happening here that every time I read a “family drama” novel I hate every single character in it? Okay, that’s an exaggeration, I liked one character: the grandfather-in-law is very nice, and is therefore shunted off into Mandyland in the last third of the novel, never to be heard […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

The Awkward Age: A Novel by Francesca Segal

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

4/5/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:8 |

Sadie by Courtney Summers

April 5, 2019 by MrsLangdonAlger 3 Comments

Apparently I’ve discovered my favorite young adult subgenre, and it’s “angry books about what our crappy society does to girls”. In the last year all my favorite YA books books have fit into this wheelhouse. I don’t read a lot of young adult novels at all anymore, but when I find books that look like they might be similar to I Stop Somewhere, The Nowhere Girls, or Sawkill Girls, I always pick them up. This one didn’t disappoint. The book follows Sadie, who is out to get revenge against the man she believes killed her little sister. Also following Sadie […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

Sadie by Courtney Summers

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

4/5/2019 | MrsLangdonAlger's CBR11 Review No:7 |

Scootsa1000 on Cannonballer SaysI am honored!
KimMiE" on I judged this book by its cover, and that was my mistakeThank you both! It really takes a lot to get me this irritated, but talking down about the nature videos really got my goat!
BlackRaven on No Human Being is IllegalColfer rocks! I, too, was not a graphic novel fan until I found the "right" one and then I understood the draw of them. Another...
vel veeter on “What’s to become of us? We can’t go on like this.”Thanks!
emmalita on “What’s to become of us? We can’t go on like this.”Congratulations on your bingo!

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