Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Season of Love by Helena Greer

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I was sorry to miss the recent Zoom with Helena Greer. I was not quite finished with this, her first novel when it occurred but more importantly life was kind of imploding here. Season of Love was just the right book to be reading — a romance set during the holiday season in a cold snowy upstate New York. It’s sort of like one of those Hallmark movies but this time for lesbians. Unlike a Hallmark movie though it gets into some heavy areas regarding […]

“My truth is not the same as yours because we don’t experience life in the same way.”

The Maid by Nita Prose

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I’m taking a new writing prompt for a spin wherein at the start of my review, I will throw out five words to give a quick look into what the book is about. Helps my brain get a review going and maybe will tell you, dear reader, if this is a book for you. In five words: unexpected, mystery, nuerodivergent, grandmother, loneliness This book was lurking on one of the display shelves at my library, and I’m always down for a cozy mystery so nabbed […]

She had even vaguely felt that it reflected ill upon her to have attracted an assassin of such incompetence, however grateful for that lack of skill she might be.

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray

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Having been thrown together by happenstance to investigate murder in the first two books, Mr. Jonathan Darcy and Miss Juliet Tilney are instead commanded to attend to Lady Catherine de Bourgh and stop the murder attempts being made upon her life. Young Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney are pleased to be able to see each other again and determined to catch the culprit before they are successful in their attempts. Their fathers are far less enthusiastic, though the do agree to travel to Rosings Park […]

The Heroes’ Journey Comes to an End

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

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Everything feels different in this, the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series. That’s as expected in the aftermath of the sixth book’s devastating conclusion. Having lost his beloved mentor Dumbledore, Harry has made the decision to forgo his last year at Hogwarts and undertake the mission given to him by his departed headmaster: to destroy the Horcruxes containing the pieces of Lord Voldemort’s soul in order to destroy Voldemort himself. Accompanied on his quest by Hermione and Ron, Harry sets out without […]

Return of King: Or how Merry got his groove back

Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

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At last, we have reached the end of the trilogy. I won’t keep you on tenterhooks. My lukewarmest take is still that these books need brutal editing. These books are boring much more often than they are interesting. Still, you’re not here for warm takes. You’re here for hot takes, and I am here to deliver. I first owe Peter Jackson an apology, since Eowyn’s feminist cry was just in the last book rather than in Two Towers. But not a big apology. Tolkien seems […]

First Lie Wins: the spy thriller that wasn’t

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

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mood music: Secrets – the weeknd Yet again, I find myself in the minority opinion after my latest “read.” I chose to listen to the audiobook version of this title while nursing a cold, and while the first third of the story was intriguing and well-paced, the latter two-thirds fell apart for me in a way that I had to read a summary to understand what happened at the end. To me, it felt like there were a lot of plot points that were left […]



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