Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Beware: At war Or at peace, More people die Of unenlightened self-interest Than of any other disease.

Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler

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  Octavia Butler’s sequel to Parable of the Sower is no less prophetic than its predecessor. The language is raw and unsparing but never revels in the pain the characters go through. It is also not without its small moments of joy. The found family of Earthseed is put to the test in this book and though they do not come away unscathed they manage to survive because of their strong bonds of community and love for one another. The story picks up five years […]

Our Town, Crosby, Maine

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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Cbr13bingo Shelfie BINGO BLACKOUT Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge reads more like a short story collection than a novel. Set in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine, this book takes the reader into the lives and histories of its inhabitants with Olive at the center of many stories and on the periphery of others. Olive is a complicated woman, prone to moodiness and judgment but also capable of deep and unexpected compassion for her neighbors. Through the relationships of Crosby’s residents, Elizabeth Strout examines […]

I think the author could have written two separate books because the multiple storylines only tenuously connect

High Water by Patty Flores Reinhart

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Bingo Number 4!!!!  One more than last year and a whole month left to go!  CBR 13 Bingo: Travel – Frankie leaves her Southern California home to find herself in Venice, Italy This book was a gift from a friend, as it was written by her friend and she wanted to be supportive, and I like books.  While there are elements that I genuinely like, biggest being the main character, there are other parts that drove me crazy.  A small detail was not knowing the […]

When You’re Too Hard Core for Raymond Chandler

Fast One by Paul Cain

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Bingo square – People This noir classic was created when Paul Cain patched together five stories that he had written for the detective magazine Black Mask.  Published in 1933, it soon became famous as the book that was just too hardboiled to be fashioned into a movie.  And seriously, it is, even by today’s standards.  Daaaaamn son. Paul Cain was by then a slippery character in Hollywood.  That was not his real name, nobody was quite sure where he was from (spoiler, Iowa, actually), and […]

“I brought you a cow once, remember? And I killed that chimera for you in fifth year.”

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

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CBR Bingo: People Spoiler warning! This is book 3 in a trilogy, which wraps up a number of very important threads left dangling after the previous book. So after the brief plot summary, there WILL be spoilers in the review. If you are new to the wonderful world of Simon Snow (and Baz, and Penny and Agatha), the place to start is Carry On. This book starts pretty much immediately after our fearsome foursome (and Shepard)’s return from America to England. Simon, still in emotional […]

Shooters Gotta Shoot

Billy Summers by Stephen King

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There sure are a lot of stories about “the best assassin in the world.” One wonders if there might be more stories than there are assassins, but since audiences seems to love paying for them and male action stars love the ego-boost of playing them, I doubt it will stop anytime soon. Since I personally find these stories irritating and a little distasteful I was a little disappointed to hear that Stephen King had dipped his toe in this well. Still, as a Constant Reader, […]



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