Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Town of Big Shoulders Indeed

The Third Rail by Michael Harvey

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cbr17bingo Review The Third Rail is the last of a trilogy of gritty Chicago mysteries featuring ex-cop and current PI Michael Kelly.  The first, The Chicago Way, focused on the police department.  The second, The Fifth Floor, expanded to the mayor’s office, and this last installment reached the last of the triumvirate that governs Chicago politics. But let’s start with the plot.  Random women, riding the public transportation system, are being assassinated. Many of the large U.S. cities were, in the 1990s, often a dangerous […]

I Wanted to Like This

Olive by Emma Gannon

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Best for: People who are childfree by choice, people who have kids but are interested in knowing a bit more about what their childfree friends’ lives are like. In a nutshell: Olive is a successful writer in her early 30s (I think) who is going through some major life changes alongside her three friends, all of whom are in various stages of trying to or having children. Worth quoting: N/A Why I chose it: I’m in a childfree community and saw people talking about this […]

Challenging Things Happening to Horrible People

What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie

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Best for: People who don’t mind reading about horrible people, and who like a bit of schadenfreude. In a nutshell: Anthony – a very rich finance dude – dies at his 60th birthday gala. Was he murdered? Did he take his own life? Is something else going on? Worth quoting: “He’d always thought I was an idiot. It’s a mistake men often make, thinking their wives are stupid when they’re actually just full of rage.” “Who are these people who walk through the world with […]

Sometimes a “Hallmark Movie” type of book is just what you need

The Collected Regrets of Clover: A Novel by Mikki Brammer

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Cbr17bingo Rec’d (2 bingos) This book was a staff pick/rec at my local bookstore The Collected Regrets of Clover is a novel about death and grief and about friendship and love. Main character Clover is a 30-something living in New York. She has had a unique connection to death since she was a child, but as an adult she is now struggling with loneliness and grief. A new job and a series of events could potentially take Clover in a direction she has long desired, […]

A different kind of time travel?

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

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CBR17 Bingo: “White” – for the white writing on the cover When I finish an audiobook now, I usually go straight to my library catalog to find my next one. I’ve gotten into the habit of searching for audiobooks that are available now–sorting by popularity. I still have to sift through some series and genre books, but it usually points me in the right direction. And that is how I found Wrong Place Wrong Time (2022) by Gillian McAllister. I was hoping this novel would keep my […]

Question of Logistics

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Bingo: “N” **SPOILERS, Don’t proceed if you don’t want to learn the “twist.”         Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is an odd book. It tells the story of Kathy, the protagonist, and her two friends, Ruth and Tommy, whom she lives with in a residential school called Hailsham. Hailsham is a place for students like them to grow up, be educated, and put their hearts into artwork, poetry, and other activities. These students are not your typical learners, however. They are […]



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