Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Three Books I Read in March

To Name the Bigger Lie by Sarah Viren

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

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Oh, is it already May? I have … too many books that I didn’t review in March and April, but I’m going to try sharing a few at a time. The school year is almost done, and among book people I think it’s fairly common that many of us still live our lives by both the calendar AND the school year. Here we have: a fascinating literary memoir, a decent family saga, and one of those strange gems that make reading widely so enjoyable. To […]

“Maybe the question shouldn’t be why am I doing this, but why isn’t everyone looking?”

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner

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Frankie Elkin is a roving seeker of missing people, and in her latest case she’s come to Boston to discover what happened to Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished almost a year ago. Like she does to the cops and the community, Frankie first struck me as strange and perhaps untrustworthy but like she did with them she grew on me too. She’s a flawed person with no illusions about it, and her steadfast pursuit of the missing won me over during the course […]

It Is a Puzzlement

Our Philosopher by Gert Hofmann

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This was a slim and melancholy read, and I feel as if I am missing quite a bit of context.  The author is German, and although it was written in 1993, is set in the mid-1930s, and so mid-wars Germany.  There is nothing overtly political about the plot, but it is impossible to ignore what is looming ahead for Germany as well as the rest of the world. The setting is a quiet country town in the eastern German countryside, and the titular character is […]

Stormin’ the Normans

Essex Dogs: A Novel by Dan Jones

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Whenever I’m at a bookstore, I seem to be drawn toward historical fiction more than any other genre. A month or so ago, I was browsing a table full of books when this one caught my eye. I’d never seen historical fiction set in The Hundred Years War, and the blurb made this sound like a “band of brothers” type of story — a company of men called the Essex Dogs who fight like hell, not for fame or riches or country, but for each […]

“Oh, you were a vampire and, baby, I’m the walking dead”

Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin

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When Mia was ten years old, her mother died and then came back to life.  Mia’s mother Izzy has been infected by a disease known as Saratov’s syndrome, and she’s now something a little different than your baseline human.  Those infected with Saratov’s syndrome (known as Sara’s) need to drink blood to live, don’t age, are super fast, can’t be easily killed, but sunlight will do the job when it comes to killing them.  Since the word vampire is not used in the book, I’m […]

Let’s get Stabby!

The Traitors by C.A Lynch

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Many years ago the town of Rock Hill was shocked when three teenagers were killed by a stranger wielding an ax in an abandoned mansion, only one girl survived.  Now six people receive mysterious letters inviting them back to the mansion and a chance to split a million dollars if they can survive the night. Some of the invitees have ties to the murder, such as Lolly, the sole survivor of the massacre.  Also invited was the disgraced police officer who accidently killed an innocent […]



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