Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Let it be my ambition and not my fear that seals my fate”

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

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I’ve had a bit of mixed experience with Leigh Bardugo’s books. I thought the Shadow & Bone trilogy was generic and bland but loved the follow up duology set in the same universe, consisting of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. I loved Ninth House, but felt somewhat let down by the sequel, Hell Bent. I’m currently in the middle of reading several long series and wanted a bit of a palette cleanser (without starting another series), so I started reading Bardugo’s latest release, The […]

Historical Fiction With Fantastical Flair

Babel by R. F. Kuang

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This is definitely more historical fiction than it is historical fantasy, though the fantasy elements are integral to the story. In this way, Babel is similar to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, to which it’s hard not to make comparisons as both are set in England in the 1800s and involve magic. It was a good book but not the 5-star read I was expecting after having heard so much about it. Babel tells the story of Robin Swift, who was born in China and […]

Flavia de Luce, a menace to murderers

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Brandley

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Poor Flavia. As if being banished to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada at the end of The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches and then being banished back home again at the end of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust weren’t bad enough, her return to Buckshaw is hardly the homecoming she imagined. She’s picked up at the dock with zero fanfare, her father is in the hospital with pneumonia, and her pet chicken, Esmerelda, is deceased. Things are hardly tickety-boo in Flavia’s world. Fortunately, […]

A Most Agreeable Murder: pride and prejudice meets Miss Marple

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

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mood music: Cheap Thrills – sia (bridgerton version) This was such a pleasant little book, I’m so happy to have come across it in my reading journey this year. It also helped me discover a new story genre to add to my repertoire – the cozy mystery. Influenced by Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and set during the era of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this was a lighthearted introduction to what I imagine will be a series of books that I cannot wait to pick up […]

Never Trust Oil Guys. Just Sayin’

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife by Erle Stanley Gardner

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I love it when Gardner kicks off his latest case by getting deep down into the legal weeds of whether deferred drilling payments can be cured at the very last minute before the property is sold by the widow title holder or not.  I know what he is referring to is very much a California property issue, and a fidgety bit of law, but dang, Erle, this is only eight pages into the book, and none of the characters have been properly introduced to us […]

“Imagination is hungry, and needs to be fed.”

You Like It Darker by Stephen King

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I have long maintained that, for me, Stephen King’s short stories and novellas hit harder than most of his books. I just like them more; they are snappier. While I do enjoy taking my 1,000-plus-page journey to Derry in IT, sometimes it’s nicer to have a story come in, do its thing, and then leave. You Like It Darker is Stephen King’s latest short story collection and is a mix of previously published stories (something I did not realize until I was like, “Wait… have […]



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