Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Unforgiving Desert

Journal of the Dead by Jason Kersten

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CBR16 Bingo – Fiasco: David and Raffi’s trip into Rattlesnake Canyon is an utter fiasco from start to finish. When authorities find Raffi Kodikian barely alive four days after he and his best friend David Coughlin got lost in an desert canyon, they make a grim discovery. Raffi claims to have stabbed David to death in a mercy killing, but the police suspect the truth may be darker. It was awkward on my way out of the library with this book, because another patron, intrigued […]

A quest for fulfilment

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

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Piglet is the nickname of the lead of this tale of wedding woe. She’s a cookbook editor with a loving fiance, a supportive social network, and family who loves and understands her. Or, is she? In the fortnight leading up to her elaborate and long-awaited wedding, her fiance confesses infidelity. We, the reader, never learn the sordid details of his unfaithfulness, because it doesn’t really matter what he did, right? It matters that he did it. It’s the betrayal that eats away at Piglet. But […]

“If we have money, we shall have friends.” – Menander

The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore

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When I think of thrill-a-minute page turners, I do NOT think of historical fiction about obscure 1930s tax attorneys. And yet, here we are! Graham Moore’s The Wealth of Shadows is easily my favorite read of 2024. Are you as skeptical as I was? It shouldn’t be a surprise that Moore is adept at either the historical setting or dialogue – he won an Academy Award as the screenwriter of The Imitation Game. The Wealth of Shadows explores the economic arena of World War II, […]

“If eyes were the windows into the soul, Delilah’s had long been shuttered.”

Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

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4.5 stars CBR16 Sweet Books: New (author and series) CBR16 Book Bingo: Pride Delilah Green grew up in Bright Falls, in the care of her wealthy, but emotionally cold stepmother (after her father died), and never managed to forge a connection to her always perfect stepsister Astrid either. Astrid had her two best friends, Claire and Iris, and more than once Delilah overheard them saying mean things about her. When she got the chance, she left Bright Falls for New York and has rarely been back […]

MysterFantsyMance

The Fox Wife: A Novel by Yangsze Choo

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Cbr16bingo Smash mystery/fantasy/romance = MysterFantsyMance The Fox Wife is a beautiful novel that combines mystery, fantasy and romance, and even some history. Set in China and Japan in the early 20th century, its main characters deal with the pangs of first love, lost love, obsessive love, and the loss of children against a backdrop of revolution and a world in the grip of major change. Author Yangsze Choo writes at the end of this story about her personal interest in the fox legends of China […]

Alice? Alice? Who the F*** is Alice?

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

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The Alice Network follows parallel narratives surrounding women and war. In 1947, Charlie St. Clair is a promising young woman: bright, well-educated, and the daughter of wealthy parents. But the toll of the recently-ended war has thrown Charlie off-kilter, leaving her in danger of becoming a disgrace to her family. Nineteen and pregnant, she’s on a trip with her mother to “take care of her little problem” and return to the life her parents have planned for her. But Charlie has another idea: tracking down […]



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