Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About MrsLangdonAlger

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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

by 4 Comments

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 […]

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

You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno

by 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 […]

I Need To Stop Reading “Thrillers”

Saving Meghan: A Novel by D.J. Palmer

by 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 […]

This Book Made Me Cry on the Bus

Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller

by 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 […]

I Want This Book, But Good

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

by 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 […]

Reading outside my habits: a breezy YA romance

Just For Clicks by Kara McDowell

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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. […]



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