Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Es-ca-pé! I wonder what that means. It’s funny . . . It’s spelled just like the word ‘escape’.

Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Continuing my recent trend of perfect little genre novellas*, Obstetrix was exactly what I was wanting it to be. We follow Liz, a doctor who was recently prosecuted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota (the jury deemed her not guilty). Fresh off being traumatized, she is then kidnapped by a Christian fundamentalist cult to be their OBGYN. *A short novel? It’s just over 200 pages, my cutoff for […]

Her name! Was Victoria!! Sandwich!!!

The Jam Sandwich Detectives by Clare Thompson

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Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Okay, picture Big Little Lies, but less literary and more cozy mystery-esque. A group of moms attend a cake bake-off where everyone has baked a Victoria Sponge, but before many cakes can be tasted and judged, the host (whose name is also Victoria Sandwich!) drops dead. One of our main characters, Rachel, has the blame pinned on her by the other mothers because of some offhand comments she’d […]

“What else is life but a string of outcomes beyond our control?”

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vols. 1-3 by Beth Brower

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This is a wild thing to say, but I’m saying it, so stay with me. This series is Dungeon Crawler Carl for the Jane Austenites. I’m not even finished with it yet and I already know that. It’s the kind of story you read once, probably in a very short time, then immediately go back in for a re-read or five. This story is—aside from having lovable characters and a certain anti-authoritarian bent—nothing like Dungeon Crawler Carl. And yet. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. […]

“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 […]

“I have just drawn my weapon and killed a Coke machine, sir.” CBRBINGO – Green (BINGO!)

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

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According to many Constant Readers, this is Uncle Stevie’s worst book, but I don’t agree! It is extremely flawed, but I also found it very readable (it probably helped that Edward Herrmann narrates the audiobook, and he is a wonderful audiobook narrator). This is sci-fi horror. A woman named Bobbie, a writer of western novels, finds a buried object in the ground and becomes obsessed with unearthing it. Doing so changes her and the town she lives in forever, and in really really creepy ways. […]

A sinister Halloweentown, a missing dad, a murder. CBRBINGO – Free Space (in place of Border)

No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. So many thoughts, where to start. How about that cover? I love it, but questionable marketing. Not sure it conveys the tone of the story! Which is not horror, and is not cozy at all. There are definitely legions of cats in the story, but they are in the background. So, I am conflicted. (The town is overrun with stray cats, due to a local commercial series […]



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