Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“Just thinking of all the ways this can go horribly wrong.”

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

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Sam Becker manages a bed and bath department store and has some wacky employees reporting to him.  While the employees keep making Sam’s retail life interesting in various ways, he likes his job.  He however does not like his boss, Jonathan (“His Royal Dickishness”).  The feeling is mutual, as Jonathan is out to make money and Sam’s store is not making their targets.  So Sam gets called down to headquarters (in London) to be given an ultimatum – fire some of the staff and get […]

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Husband Material by Alexis Hall

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CBR16 Bingo: Rings (a whole bunch of rings being exchanged in this book) In Boyfriend Material, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to date for a number of reasons, pretended to be in love, fell in love, broke up, and then decided to actually date for real. By the time this book starts, they have been together for a good while (I want to say at least a year?) and as is often the case at a certain age of your life, they keep being invited […]

A Head Wound Hail Mary

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

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We spend a good few minutes wrangling with nachos. To be honest, they’re a good fit for the very unusual occasion of two people who are blatantly into each other having a meal where they have to pretend they aren’t. They’re not so messy it’s embarrassing, they require just enough cooperation that you’ve got to interact, but not so much it gets sexy. ― Alexis Hall, 10 Things That Never Happened “Worst comes to absolute worst, I’ll just arrange to get whacked on the head […]

I’m glad you’re happy. But we are never going to be friends because you will always be the guy who sold me out for the price of a Toyota Supra.

Husband Material by Alexis Hall

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Oliver laughed. “Should I feel flattered by that or exploited?” “Oh, we’re too special for a bit of exploitation, are we?” “Depends on the situation.” ― Alexis Hall, Husband Material Oliver was icy calm now in a way I had learned to be either afraid of or turned on by depending on context. ― Alexis Hall, Husband Material The follow up to Boyfriend Material exceeded my expectations. While I think the first book is a better story, the extended scenes in Husband Material with Oliver, […]

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

It was difficult to cry and subject one’s sister-in-law to a withering look at the same time.

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

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And Viola, helpless in the face of a desolation that felt like rage, swept on, “Never taking no for an answer. Always thinking you can fix everything and everyone. So endlessly convinced you know best.” “But I usually do know best,” offered Lady Marleigh in a small voice. “You know nothing” – Viola’s voice rose in a wild shriek – “You know nothing of me.” “I know – that you are family. And I know that I want you to be happy.” Viola Carroll is […]



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