Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

One and done?

All-American Persian V01 Game On by Sina Grace

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I’m not sure I’m going to read book two of the All-American Persian series, but the representation elements are interesting and the reason I picked up the first book. Though I assumed it was a one shot and not a series at first, it has potential to grow in that area of representation of a culture we might not be familiar with. All-American Persian V01 Game On by Sina Grace explores a pre-teen and his coming of age with the usual elements: parents, siblings, friendships, […]

Why True Crime Now?

Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer by Harold Schechter

Murderabilia: A History of Crime in 100 Objects by Harold Schechter

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Maniac – 3.5 stars Decades before the modern school shooter burst onto the national stage, a man in Bath, Michigan blew up his local elementary school because he resented that his taxes had been increased to help build and maintain it. This is such a strange and shocking crime that it’s hard to understand why it’s also rather little known, but Schechter makes a compelling case for why it has mostly faded into the shadowy corners of history. He does a good job of recreating […]

Surfing siblings

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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I’ve read a number of books by Taylor Jenkins Reid and enjoyed all of them to varying degrees. I picked up Malibu Rising (2021) because I was going on a road trip and needed some audiobooks for the ride. I barely looked at the description. It was enough for me that I knew the author and it was available. Fortunately, I really enjoyed this book. It kept my attention through hours of tired driving and helped to keep me awake. ***SPOILERS FOLLOW*** Malibu Rising follows the four […]

CBR BINGO: Or—😡😭😤

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

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A book about a female serial killer? Um, not really. This is the story of a lonely little girl who bad things happen to and she turns into a lonely old woman. But heartwarming? I’m giving this a grudging 3.75 stars, bumped up 0.25 from 3.5 because it wrung salty tears out of me. They were dripping down my face, but I was upset about it. This book was so great until the ending, when it did three things I didn’t like (and almost never […]

Looking forward to getting to know Emma

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Volume 1 by Beth Brower

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Volume 1 of this multi-volume series is set in March and April of 1883. Emma M. Lion is 20 years old, nearly 21, and has recently returned to her family home, Lapis Lazuli House in the St Crispian’s neighborhood of London, a quirky place with fine homes, a Roman ghost, a handsome young pastor with rowdy friends, and some charming neighbors. The novel is set up as a series of diary entries that introduce us to Emma and the various dilemmas she will face over […]

“She dabbed at her nose with a handkerchief, looking about as demure as an axe murderess.”

The Dorothy Parker Murder Case (Jacob Singer #1) by George Baxt

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On the day after Rudolph Valentino’s death, a showgirl’s body is found in George S. Kaufman’s hideaway, and Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott enter an unfamiliar world of murder and mayhem. Helped by semi-corrupt cop Jacob Singer, the two try to get to the bottom of it all, in an affair that starts with someone modeling themselves after Jay Gatsby, and ending with a little known Chicagoan named Al Capone. I’m not 100% sure what I thought of this book. Don’t know if anyone was […]



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