Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Pooja

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Ardent reader of pretty much anything, including the backs of shampoo bottles. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Pooja's Quick Questions interview.)

Pooja's Reviews:

The Intersection of Love and the Law

You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love by Marcia A. Zug

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In this short history of the legalities of marriage in the United States, Zug takes us through how marriage as an institution has shifted over the centuries and how the many reasons for marrying for something other than love, such money, status, or legal benefits, played its part in that. Coming from a culture where marriage is considered an essential step of adulthood and is still sometimes arranged by one’s parents, I never really thought much about it, or why the legal institution of marriage […]

Dynasty Building in Tudor and Stuart England

A Woman of Influence: The Spectacular Rise of Alice Spencer in Tudor England by Vanessa Wilkie

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Alice Spencer, the youngest daughter of a wealthy farmer, was just another building block in the Spencer dynasty, but the marriage that made her the Countess of Derby was just the start of her spectacular rise through the ranks of Tudor England. This book answered a very important question that’s been bothering me for a very long time: Why did medieval aristocrats splash around so much money on frivolous luxuries? I knew the answer had something to do with amassing power and influence, but it’s […]

Matters of Inheritance and Love on the Brink of Waterloo

Deserted by Mary Lancaster

Beloved by Mary Lancaster

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Deserted – 4 stars Sophia thinks she’s escaped the clutches of her tyrannical cousins when she comes to be companion to the Duchess of Cuttyngham, even if it’s under strange circumstances. But when her employer makes her escape to Brussels and her family pursues her to her new home, Sophia is forced to turn to the icy but beguiling Earl of Frostbrook for help. This is the third book in The Duel series, which follows the fallout of the Duke of Cuttyngham’s death in a […]

“Maybe the question shouldn’t be why am I doing this, but why isn’t everyone looking?”

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner

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Frankie Elkin is a roving seeker of missing people, and in her latest case she’s come to Boston to discover what happened to Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished almost a year ago. Like she does to the cops and the community, Frankie first struck me as strange and perhaps untrustworthy but like she did with them she grew on me too. She’s a flawed person with no illusions about it, and her steadfast pursuit of the missing won me over during the course […]

Matchmaking for the Romance Averse

Calm the Storm by Penny Fairbanks

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Felicity doesn’t want to get married after a lifetime of being neglected by her parents, but when a mysterious matchmaker throws her together with the visiting Atticus, they end up changing each other’s lives. This is the second book in the Society of Swans series, which revolves around a group of friends who receive letters from an anonymous matchmaker called Lady Swan. I haven’t read the first book, but this works well as a standalone. I wanted to read this book because I was intrigued […]

Magic and Anxiety

Secret Passages 1985-1986 by Axelle Lenoir

The Ghostkeeper by Johanna Taylor

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Secret Passages 1985-1986 by Axelle Lenoir – 3 stars In an effort to untangle her complicated feelings about the loss of her cosmic twin, author Axelle decides to unspool her life in an off-kilter autobiographical comic. This is a surreal and funny graphic novel which depicts a year in young Axelle’s life as she starts going to school, forms a strange connection with the forest by her home, and begins to suffer in the grip of acute anxiety. The art is both atmospheric and humorous, […]



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