Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

That Rumpelstiltskin is my name

Rumpelstiltskin by Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis

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Do you like fairy or folk tales? Do you like pure telling of said fairy tales with a small change? And do you like Rumpelstiltskin? Or at least the story, it is a little hard to like Rumpelstitskin. And if you answered yes to any of the above, you should read Mac Barnett’s version of the story. It is the story we know: king meets a miller, who brags about how awesome his daughter is, the king is greedy and wants the spun gold, the […]

Not a buddy movie

Stray by Ryu Kamio

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Reading via an online reader copy is sometimes hard for me. But I persevere and just keep swimming, I mean reading. But with Stray there was the added issue of a big ol’ “watermark” in the middle of things. Nope, they did not want people copying the manga comic by Ryu Kamio and illustrator Nakamura Yuu. Plus, it is manga and therefore, the flow is off for my western eyes to start. With that said, a few days after starting, I finished this Yakuza meets […]

This is how I get in trouble when ppl ask me what books are about

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Wrong Alibi by Christina Dodd

Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

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Because none of these three books was technically focused on what these reviews are focused on, but still, I promise these reviews are about these books.  Somehow. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter – Gory & intense, but it probably should be, given the subject matter, which is kidnapping, rape, torture, missing women and children. It was a rough read, that’s for sure, but I also thought it was pretty good.  Thought the author did a great job of talking about the way tragedies impact families, how […]

Good Mix of Stories

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024 by S.A. Cosby, Ed.

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I read an S.A. Cosby book earlier this year and really liked it, so when I saw he edited The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024 I grabbed it up. Cosby did a good job of picking the stories. Some of them are straightforward mysteries, some have ambiguous endings, some are gut-wrenching, like the last story in the collection which has a mother facing up to something terrible her teenaged son has done. Some stories are very dark, like the story where a young woman […]

The unofficial Best and Worst List 2025 (so far!)

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I know I put in the official Best and Worst List but honestly out of almost 600 reviews (and several I haven’t posted yet) I’m going to have more than three best and one worst. Therefore, I am going to honor y’all with my list of only the ones I have posted a review for here that could have been used. The bold are the ones I used in the official count, italics almost used and the rest were on the list. WORST DAYGLOAYHOLE #1 […]

In the merry old land of Lud

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King

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For those keeping score: I’ve continued my return pilgrimage to The Dark Tower, recently completing the third novel in this epic tale. The Waste Lands brings Roland further along the path of the Beam toward his ultimate destination. This time, there are a few more members in the ka-tet, and the devastation of a world that has “moved on” becomes clearer. Throughout this third novel, Jake is welcomed back into Roland’s world and is officially part of the gang. Even more delightfully, Oy the billy-bumbler […]



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