Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

How to Sell a Haunted House

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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If I’ve read a better book than How to Sell a Haunted House this year, I don’t remember which one it is. Louise is a single mother who receives a terrible phone call from her estranged, alcoholic, college dropout brother, Mark: their parents both died in a car accident. Louise hops on a plane and arrives in South Carolina where she immediately stops Mark from gutting the house of its occupants: an unbelievable number of custom-made puppets, representing their mother’s career as a shockingly profitable […]

“If a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.”

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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I started A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) by Amor Towles with high expectations. When my book club chose this book, one of my friends (who often aligns with me as far as liking similar novels) said it was one of her favorite books. And then the New York Times had it high on its list of best books of the 21st Century. Even when I started the first chapter, I really liked the tone of the novel. Unfortunately, my expectations were a little too high. […]

Murder Makes for Strange Bedfellows

A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke

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When Ruby impulsively moves to Boston, she’s glad to get a fully furnished apartment for a decent rate. She does not even mind that the previous inhabitant committed suicide – though those views may change when she realizes that Cordelia is still hanging around, and keenly interested in the murder of a neighbor. Say ‘an unlikely crime-solving duo’ in application to a cozy mystery, and I will be there in a flash. Also, roommates of all stripes can be tricky, so I was curious how […]

The Hellbound Heart

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

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Even if you haven’t heard of Hellraiser, you’ve probably seen images of Pinhead, the main antagonist of the series. He looks like BDSM taken to its perverted extreme, with a grid of cuts carved into his head and nails driven in at each intersection. It’s distressing imagery, and the series details incredibly distressing concepts. Within the universe, there exists a method of breaking into other dimensions where beings dedicated to extremes of experience exist. Pinhead leads the Cenobites, who spend eternity exploring the furthest reaches of […]

Better than Book 1

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

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(Since this is a sequel, there will be spoilers for the end of Book 1 in here) My review of the first book was titled “Better Than Fourth Wing,” and this one was miles better than Book 1, so I guess maybe I actually liked this one? So Feyre has conquered Amarantha, rescued Tamlin and the rest of the Fae, and is now back in the Spring Court trying to reconcile all of this good news with the very, very bad things she had to […]

Historical Fiction meets True Crime

The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods

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The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods is captivating historical fiction based on a real place in Minneapolis, The Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers, as well as on a true crime story that transpired in the area in 1894. The story revolves around three women. The mysterious Faith, a traumatized young woman who, judging by her dress, worked as a “sporting woman” in a brothel. She does not seem to speak, but she does come with a suspiciously large amount of money on her person. Abby Mendenhall, […]



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