Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Class and Murder in England

The Good Liar by Denise Mina

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I’m not sure how I first heard of The Good Liar (2025) by Denise Mina, but I probably saw it on some end-of-the-year-best-novels list. Mina seems to be a pretty prolific writer, but she was new to me. The Good Liar is a thriller/murder mystery that takes place in London. On the whole, I found this book well written and interesting to read. However, I’ve found I’m not too into murder mysteries these days. I’m finding them a little too dark and sometimes unrealistic. Claudia Atkins O’Sheil is a […]

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

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Not too much to say on this outside of the fact that the it went on just way too long. And I thought the one daughter, Emily, was insufferable throughout. I think if Patchett had shortened things a bit that the book would have been perfect. Tom Lake follows Lara Nelson as she and her family hunkers down on their cherry farm during the COVID pandemic. The family has gotten sick of podcasts (as we all have in 2026) and Lara’s three daughters (Emily, Nell, […]

I couldn’t put it down

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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Many Cannonballers have already reviewed Homegoing, and I doubt I’m going to add any profound insights with my own review. Long story short, I thought this book was amazing. I wish I’d read it much sooner. Homegoing is a family saga, starting with two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, in 18th-century Ghana who don’t know the other exists. Each chapter alternates between their descendants. Effia is married off to a white man from England and lives a fairly luxurious life in a fort, while unbeknownst to her, her […]

Such a Lovely Series

Coot Club by Arthur Ransome

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It’s always such a pleasure to settle down with one of the books in this series.  There will be some adventurous and imaginative scheme afoot, but always within the time frame of school holidays.  The children will each use their particular skills, and always get along wonderfully.  And for the most part, the adults will stay out of the way.  And of course, it will all wrap up very nicely but never quite as it was planned at the beginning.  The settings are accurate to […]

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Abduct

Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers

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July 18, 2021 Ginny Brandon, a senator’s daughter, is sent to nominally ride a wagon train to California, but is actually smuggling gold to Mexico to support the Emperor’s cause. She is relentlessly drawn to the wagon train guide, Steve Morgan. But unbeknownst to her, Steve is actually a spy intent on thwarting her father’s plans. What can I say about this book? It’s a wild ride, but one I never wanted to get off of. Ginny and Steve are a quintessential, swashbuckling romance hero […]

Technically Not A Mystery, But I’ll Allow It

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

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Perspective is everything. To many readers, this may very well be a mystery. Reading as a disaster bisexual, however, my take was very different. The mystery is no mystery to me as a queer person, and I’m willing to bet a silk pajama that every single queer person who reads the book can determine who the killer is almost immediately. Why? How? If you know, you just know. (I could be wrong, obviously. Queer folks aren’t a monolith. But I’ll still take the bet every […]



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