Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Or just another lost angel, city of night”

L. A. Women (2025) by Ella Berman

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I picked this book up because I liked the font, and the colours, and I’m fascinated by Los Angeles (where, of course, I’ve never been), and its foggy shadows and neon gleam: the films, the music, the messy myths and sprawling stories. The story here is a little Natalie Beach/Caroline Calloway if they lived in the 1960s-1970s, haunting Laurel Canyon instead of Cambridge and New York. Berman’s story centres on Gala and Lane, the friend with the glitter, the friend in the shadows, and the […]

A perfectly fine book, just not for me.

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

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Honestly, this is a good book, and I knew when I bought it that things might turn out this way, but I wanted to give it a shot. This is a vampire story, and above all, a story of revenge. I enjoy a good revenge story now and then, but this is the type I do not care for: one that takes its characters to places they cannot come back from. Also, depressing. Specifically: SPOILERS their journey of vengeances leads our two main characters, an […]

“I don’t know if any of the people we know are suspicious or whether they’re just trying to live their lives.”

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

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Thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Media | Tantor Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. I’m a little annoyed that this was marketed as a mystery when it is very much not, but it was a very good book, so I can’t in the end remain annoyed. I just wish I’d been able to set my expectations accordingly. This is, in fact, historical fiction that errs into literary territory on occasion, with a smidgeon of crime for light flavor. This takes place […]

“Now all I can see is the longing. Not only for companionship, but for community. He’s looking for people like him. It’s very touching, and very familiar, isn’t it?”

After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian

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Nothing like starting off the new year with a five star read. I will admit I was hoping for this outcome when I picked it for my first book of the year. Cat Sebastian is increasingly becoming known for atmospheric, historically rich, community-focused, and quietly revolutionary little books. I wanted a lovely time full of lovely people that would take me away to a time in history that reflects pieces of our own Current Times while still being an escape hatch from reality. You don’t […]

Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair

Sun City by Tove Jansson

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Veering far afield from her native Finland, Jansson (of Moomin fame) writes of the denizens of St. Petersburg, Florida, and its retirement community.  They live in retirement hotels, within walking distance of the piers and parks, not to mention the Bounty.  Built as a full-scale replica for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty, it served as a tourist attraction connected with the St. Petersburg Museum of History from the mid-60s through the mid-80s, and its masts are easily viewed from the porches and verandas […]

One of those books I hated everything about it, but DANG! is it a fun trip!

The Girl Who Flew Away by Lee Dean

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The Girl Who Flew Away by Lee Dean was sent to me as an online reader copy. And I am glad of that as this is the kind of book I hate everything about… yet it is one of the most amazing books I have read.  We are getting a slice of life from some really not nice people (including our girl who flew/the point of view the story is told from) who are just trying to get out alive. The feeling of the time […]



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