Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Messy, grief-filled story

The Minus-One Club by Kekla Magoon

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Oof, this book is messy and emotional. At it’s center The Minus-One Club is a story of grief and finding your way forward after the death of a loved one, but it is also a story of friendship and identity. Kermit just lost his sister after a drunk driver hit her car head-on, and now he has to go back to school and try getting back to “normal.” But he finds an anonymous note in his locker inviting him to a secret meeting, where other […]

What happens in Vegas might not stay in Vegas

Partners in Crime by Alisha Rai

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When I picked up “Partners in Crime” by Alisha Rai, I had big expectations. I loved Rai’s Modern Love series so much and this book had big shoes to fill. Luckily, this book ended up being such a fun and wild romp. The story follows Mira Chaudhary, a mid-30s accountant who is looking for a stable man to settle down with. She turns to a matchmaker for Indian American singles and meets Naveen Desai, a lawyer at one of the best law firms in the […]

“Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.”

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by ANTHONY DOERR

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The book begins: “Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.” Consider me amazed. The review excerpts in the front of the book gush with praise: “sings with beauty,” “sweeping and atmospheric,” “beautiful and enthralling. . . “ Yep. Anthony Doerr has said Cloud Cuckoo Land is a paean to books, but it is also a paean to great stories passed on through generations. Parts of the narrative may get lost, or changed by the teller, but a good story remains. […]

Daphne du Maurier (1)

Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

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“‘Don’t look now,’ John said to his wife, ‘but there are a couple of old girls two tables who are trying to hypnotize me.’” This collection of stories from Daphne du Maurier was originally called “Not After Midnight and Other Stories” but changed after the 1973 film version of the title story came out. The title story “Don’t Look Now” start with that absolutely tremendous opening line. John and his wife are vacationing in Venice some time after one of children has died. They have […]

Georges Simenon (5-8)

Maigret's Anger by Georges Simenon

Maigret's Patience by Georges Simenon

Maigret's Revolver by Georges Simenon

Maigret in Vichy by Georges Simenon

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Maigret’s Anger “It was 12.15 when Maigret went through the permanently cool archyway and out of the gate flanked by two policemen who were hugging the walls to get a little shade.” Sometimes it doesn’t feel like Maigret is a cop. He always seems fairly human, and one of the strengths of this series of detective novels is that Maigret feels real and the cases never feel too terribly wild. So the end result is that Maigret solves a mystery using mostly good police work, […]

John Scalzi (1)

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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“From the top of the large boulder he sat on, Ensign Tom Davis looked across the expanse of the cave toward Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Office Q’eeng and Chief Engineer Paul West perched on a second, larger boulder and thought, Well, this sucks” Well this sucks. I reread this book. I first read it in 2013 or so, close to when it came out. I can’t pinpoint it, but I know it was close because and when and where I was in my life. I […]



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