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:

“If I were to live here in Cardiff, by the sea, I think that another self would emerge in me. My soul.”

Cardiff, By the Sea by Joyce Carol Oates

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Joyce Carol Oates presents four uneasy novellas of suspense, all of which are centered around a woman in peril, often from the male forces in her life. Cardiff, by the Sea – 3.5 stars Clare, an academic who was adopted as a toddler, returns to her unknown past when she unexpectedly inherits a house from her birth grandmother, but what she learns about her birth family leaves her unmoored. I loved the prose in this novella (as I did in all of them), as well […]

“Lying is like farming, or draining marshland, or terracing a hillside or planting a grove of peach trees. It’s an attempt to control your environment and make it better.”

Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K.J. Parker

Saevus Corax Captures the Castle by K.J. Parker

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Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead – 3.25 stars Saevus Corax just wants to be left in peace to operate his battlefield salvage company, but when his past comes calling, he must admit to possession of his former name, and deal with all the troubles that are still brewing in that prior life. Saevus Corax is an interesting character, a fast-talking rogue with a talent for survival and a desire to keep eking his living without getting embroiled in major geopolitical issues which is, unfortunately, […]

Blood and Sand and Diamonds

The Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith

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When Centaine de Thiry is left destitute and pregnant after the death of her fiancé Michael Courtney during an aerial battle in World War One, she decides to make her way to Africa, where they had planned to live together after the war. This is the first book in this subsection of Wilbur Smith’s most long-running series, which follows the exploits of the Courtney family in South Africa. Like all the other books, it includes lots of adventure, drama, and some spectacular descriptions of the […]

An Adults Only Lord of the Flies

Batavia by Peter FitzSimons

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The Batavia, the pride of the Dutch East India Company, is on its maiden voyage from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies when it wrecks off just off the coast of western Australia. But the tragedy of the Batavia stems not from the forces of nature, but from the evil in men’s hearts. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts about this story in the last couple years, and was so curious about this strange, dark story, part survival story and part true crime, that I decided […]

“And even sadness was also something for rich people, for people who could afford it, for people who didn’t have anything better to do. Sadness was a luxury.”

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

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An author tries to tell the story of a poor young woman called Macabeá, who despite her wretched circumstances does not seem to understand how unhappy she should be. I picked this book because I read a review by someone else on Goodreads that said this is a bit like if Sybil Trelawney from Harry Potter wrote a book, though I will argue after reading that Lispector, unlike Trelawney, knows exactly what she’s about. (The other thing I know about Lispector is that she wrote […]

Not That Kind of Oven

Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small

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Beautiful Skye O’Malley falls in love with Niall Burke on the eve of her marriage to another man, but even someone as adventurous as she cannot imagine the twists and turns her life will take on her way back to him. Sometimes you just want to lay back, turn off your brain, and enjoy a rollicking adventure full of romance, drama, and a surprising amount of politics. Bertrice Small’s work fits the bill perfectly, and in the life of Skye O’Malley, her best known heroine, […]



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