Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“The healing is in the trying.”

I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequist

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I’m relatively new to Shauna Niequest – I found her by listening to the Modern Mrs. Darcy podcast, What Should I Read Next? (which is amazing, and has added some questions for me to think about as I consider what books make it to the TBR and which ones I might not need to make time for). I really enjoyed her episode of the podcast, so I went ahead and added her latest book to my library queue. So, I jumped into this book knowing […]

A prayer for anyone who has to read this book…

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

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Not long ago, my fiancee told me about this book she had to read back in high school that she hated for most of her time reading it, yet wound up liking in the end. Wouldn’t you know she found that exact book at a Goodwill for me shortly after mentioning it? Naturally, she made it her mission to make me read it, telling me I couldn’t read any other books until I finished it. I couldn’t help but break that rule, though, because my word this was […]

A spicy indictment of purity culture?

Purity by Skyler Mason

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… This I have to read.* Obviously. I came across Skyler Mason on TikTok. She was speaking about her experiences with purity culture, making a break from it, and then writing a spicy book about those experiences. Purity is that book. (Please note that I received this book as an ARC after signing up for it on the clock app.) Having grown up in a low-key version of the Purity culture, I was very curious about how this would work. I think this book is […]

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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In one of my earlier reviews, I was disappointed in a book that I expected to be scary but it was decidedly not. Turns out, Mexican Gothic was almost exactly what I was looking for back then: not scary, absolutely not gory (thank goodness), but a hovering sense of dread throughout the entire novel. Put it in my veins! Noemí Taboada is young, glamourous, and carefree. She is a wealthy debutante who is exploring what she wants to do with her future. Her family receives […]

The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith

The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith

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A review in which my book-does-not-meet-expectations streak unfortunately continues… While wasting time online at work one day, I found a list of recommended funny novels and then a list of funny novels written by women. I can’t remember which list this novel was on, but let’s just say the list maker and I apparently do not have the same sense of humor. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed The Sky Is Yours, I just did not find it funny, like, at all. Duncan Ripple is […]

A Strong Victorian Murder Mystery by One Who Knows

The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry

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When Anne Perry, the author of The Face of a Stranger—the first book in her Detective William Monk series—was fifteen years old, she and her friend murdered the friend’s mother by bludgeoning her to death. She spent five years in prison and was released. As an adult, under the pseudonym Anne Perry, she began writing historical murder mysteries set in the Victorian era. Her true identity was eventually discovered after a movie, Heavenly Creatures, came out about the murder. This did not affect her success, […]



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