Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The evil father and the CIA agent

Mr. Nice Spy by Tiana Smith

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I downloaded the audiobook of Mr. Nice Spy (2024) by Tiana Smith because it looked like a fun book to listen to on my commute. I’m a big fan of adventurous romances with hunky, protective men, and I figured a book with a CIA agent as its hero would be right up my alley. Mr. Nice Spy started out well. Adam Chan, before we even know he’s a CIA agent, saves our heroine (Andee Paxton) from a hulking man who is after her. He’s immediately interested in Andee, and […]

Not what Schrödinger had in mind, but I’ll take it

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

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Jason Dessen is a physics professor at a local college. He lives in Chicago with his wife Daniela and his son Charlie. Once upon a time, Jason was a promising young scientist, destined for greatness, who gave it all up when his girlfriend turned out to be pregnant. Jason’s life is not unpleasant, but it is dull and sedate and the what-ifs occasionally nag at the back of his head. But then, suddenly, Jason is abducted at gunpoint. His assailant stabs him with a syringe. […]

Beautiful, Emotional, and Sadly Still Relevant

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

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This book is beautiful and sad and infuriating, especially in that it is still so relevant 50 years after it was written. It was a hard book to read at times but so well-done and worth it. I was hooked on the story of 19-year-old Tish, who is pregnant and engaged to Fonny—who is in jail awaiting trial for a violent crime he didn’t commit. As one might expect from Baldwin, there is a lot of focus on racism, sexism, and racial injustice, especially within […]

Space ship psychologist becomes a not-great detective on a mysterious mission

We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen

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I don’t remember what prompted me to download “We Have Always Been Here” on my Kindle — it must have happened during a moment of rare reading motivation before that was extinguished by *gestures* life — but I thought a space thriller could be a promising page-turner for my second read of the year. And while it’s definitely happening in space and I definitely wanted the pages to keep turning (to reach the end), this novel by Lena Nguyen was ultimately disappointing. The brief glimmers […]

All our yesterdays

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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So, I’ve been travelling recently, and on Monday was stuck waiting for a flight in Miami airport for about 9 hours. I’d ran out of physical books to read, my devices were low on power, and I couldn’t find an outlet anywhere, so naturally, I headed to the books section of the nearest airport convenience store in search of entertainment (or at the very least, a mildly interesting distraction). Predictably, the selection was small (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a James Patterson novel outside […]

There will be blood

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

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I was really looking forward to this one but then it came out, and I realized I wasn’t sure I remembered the previous book enough. So naturally, I waited a few more months, didn’t reread the other books in the series and then decided to read it. The funny thing is, I feel like I did a decent enough job of remembering where book 1 had ended but was at a loss for what happened in book 2. I jogged my memory with some spoiler […]



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