Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Exciting historical fiction for the kids

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

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The Bletchley Riddle, a novel for readers age 10-14, was co-written by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. The two authors take turns writing chapters from the points of view of 14-year-old Lizzie (Sepetys) and her 19-year-old brother Jakob (Sheinkin). It’s a fast-paced, thrilling and educational mystery/spy novel set in the early days of WWII at Great Britain’s top secret location for code breaking — Bletchley Park. Sepetys and Sheinkin include tons of fascinating historical facts and real historical figures in their story. When the story […]

What will people think of us 100 years from now?

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

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I have read a number of books by Ian McEwan, including Atonement, Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach, Saturday, and The Children Act. Even though it’s been over ten years since I’ve read a McEwan book, I remember being impressed by his writing and enjoying his books. Thus, when I saw a number of lists touting What We Can Know (2025), I figured it was time to get back to him. What We Can Know takes place in post-apocalyptic Britain in 2119. Climate change and “The Derangement” have cut down the population by two […]

What if Cinderella was a handsome Jewish man and the prince was a determined and beautiful heiress?

Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman

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Isabelle Lira wants to take charge of her deceased father’s business, but is hindered from doing so both because she is a woman and because the Jewish community she lives in finds it unacceptable. So she must find a husband who will not object to her controlling her family’s interests, and who won’t be cruel, abusive or who will take advantage of her and her wealth. In order to find a suitable match, she is arranging three festival events, where all eligible Jewish men are […]

More Murder, Less Family Drama Please

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

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Decades after the heiress Ruby McTavish was kidnapped as a toddler and dubiously recovered a year later, her adopted son Camden and his wife Jules return to her ancestral home in a bid to claim her long-neglected inheritance. This book draws inspiration from several cases in the early 20th century in which a kidnapped or vanished child was thought to be returned, only for it to be later discovered that it was instead some unrelated child who for whatever reason was trying to be forced […]

A family can be two sisters, one of those sister’s descendants, two other sisters, a magic whale, a sentient island, an omnipotent museum, and academic papers

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta

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I almost reread Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta two or three times during my first and only read. Every 20ish pages, I thought what I just read revealed that I was reading something totally different from what I thought. So I started again. Eventually I gave that up. Mostly. It stars two sets of estranged sisters – Myung and Laleh (autonyms based on how fun they are to say), and Wisa and Magali. It is a dense, rich world. As far as I […]

Could Not Stop Reading It

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

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Rating: 4.5 In a nutshell: Natalie is a tradwife influencer with five kids and one on the way. She lives on a farm and posts on social media about her life (keeping the two nannies and many farmhands off screen, of course). One morning she wakes up and finds herself still on the farm, but her children are different and it appears to be some time in the 1800s. Is she dreaming? Is she part of some sort of reality show? What is happening? Best […]



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