Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Apple headed dolls and missing girls

The Witch’s Orchard by Archer Sullivan

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In addition to author events, the local independent bookstore hosts a few book clubs. When I moved here, the sessions were closed but I signed up for two of them when they opened for the spring. This was the first selection for the Southern Lit book club, which is also the one I am doing with my mom. Overall, it was a good book. Even though I like mysteries, this isn’t one I would have likely picked up on my own since I tend to […]

Murder Misery

This is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter

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Newlyweds Sara (forensic pathologist) and Will (GBI agent) have decided to splurge on their honeymoon; they’ve rented a cabin at the exclusive McAlpine lodge, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, for a week of horseback riding, fishing, mountain biking and – as is made abundantly clear – loads of steamy sex. But because this a Karin Slaughter novel and somehow everything always has to tie into the character’s personal lives, during their first night, Mercy McAlpine, the resort’s manager, is found dead.  First of all: Mercy […]

Bunnatine, Immy, Demon Lover, and Ghost Boyfriend walk into a bar…

Get In Trouble by Kelly Link

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Well, sometimes it’s a bar filled with men raised by wolves. Sometimes it’s a space ship. A warehouse full of mysterious sleeping people. A magical house full of “summer people”. A haunted house on a space ship. A lake where a few dozen nudists disappeared in the seventies. The penthouse party at a hotel full of dentists and super heroes. The crumbling remains of a Wizard of Oz theme park. A pocket universe that opened above Florida. Kelly Link writes things that are fantastic and […]

The Mozart Effect Effect!

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

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Not a typo! You are probably familiar with the Mozart Effect, but have you heard about the Mozart Effect Effect?! We’ve all heard the story: listening to Mozart makes you smarter! You will test better! Your babies will be brilliant! You will smash the SATS! Listening to Mozart every day will give you a leg up above all of the others! My mother was definitely a proponent of this adventure; “if you can play classical music, then how come you can’t do well in math! Mozart […]

“Stop the logging, stop the lies. Save the monarch butterflies.”

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For years (and years) my favorite Barbara Kingsolver book was The Poisonwood Bible, followed by Prodigal Summer.  And then I read Flight Behavior and I believe that I have a new favorite.  I have enjoyed everything I’ve ever read by Kingsolver, but there is a timeliness to Flight Behavior that makes it extra special. The story features Dellarobia Turnbow, a slight-statured, red-haired farmwife in rural, western Tennessee. Dellarobia has no family outside the family she’s made with her gentle giant of a husband, Cub, and […]

Yes, we know strip mining is bad. Where did John Grisham go?

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I keep waiting for the real Grisham—the author of “The Firm” and “A Time to Kill”—to return, but alas, it looks like I’ll have to keep waiting. Grey Mountain has a somewhat promising beginning, and although main protagonist Samantha is a bore from beginning to end, the plot has potential even if the most interesting character in the book gets killed off much too soon. And while I have total sympathy with Grisham’s theme in this book, the constant preaching and repetition put my teeth […]



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