Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

An unending tale of sorrow, blood, and love

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

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I’ve read a number of books by Isabel Allende, and I’m sure I’ll read more. However, I didn’t know about The House of the Spirits (1982) until I saw it on my 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 List. As Allende’s first novel, it seems quite personal in nature. Apparently, Allende began writing it as a letter to her 100-year-old grandfather when she heard he was dying. There are some parallels with her real life. The House of the Spirits is pretty dense and comes […]

London is drowning and I live by the river

Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Peter Aaronovitch

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When pressed, I’ll tell people I don’t like fantasy. This claim is usually followed by a list of exceptions. I like Neil Gaiman. I like Harry Potter. I also like the Rivers of London-series by Ben Aaronovitch. The rest of the genre is, as they say, not my cup of tea. No offense to you fantasy lovers, but it just doesn’t do much for me. The suspension of disbelief required is, apparently, too big a leap. One of the reasons I do like these books, […]

“All Bette’s stories have happy endings. That’s because she knows where to stop. She’s realized the real problem with stories—if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.”

Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1) by Neil Gaiman

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This is one of those books that come heavy with the weight of other people’s expectations. I genuinely had almost no idea what it was about, only that the people who love it LOVE IT, and I had a general idea that it was pretty weird. The only thing I knew for sure was that Death was a character, because Gaiman spun her off into her own comic at one point. I added it to my TBR when it became apparent that I would probably like it if […]

I waited to make this my first CBR11 review. It was worth the wait.

The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth

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This book was the one Christmas present I asked for. I’d been dying to read it for ages because (full disclosure) I ‘know’ the author from online from way back when we were both teenagers, and I wanted to buy it to support her (and also because I couldn’t get it through my local library). Well, through the vagaries of online shopping, it only just came into my hands. Even though I live in Europe, my husband had gone for the American edition and I’m […]

Jane sees dead people

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

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I completely ADORED My Lady Jane a few years ago. It was so refreshing and funny and unique, with such a great audio narrator. I had high hopes for this next book in the series and HALLELUJAH it delivered. It’s not quite as shockingly quirky as My Lady Jane (nobody’s fiance regularly turns into a horse for one), but what it lacked in quirk, it made up in literary references and jokes. Most of the Bronte family gets roped into the narrative here and it’s […]

Glass & Steele: A wasted idea

The Clockmaker's Daughter by C. J. Archer

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From the description on the back, this book has everything I want: plucky heroine trying to make it in Victorian London, mysterious magical artifacts, danger lurking on every corner. In short, the kind of book that I gobble up on a plane. And yet I had to force myself to continue to the end. You guys, this book is soooooo boring. I just wanted something light and fun to read on a plane, and this book couldn’t even meet that standard. The book begins with […]



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