Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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CBRBingo11: Remix

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

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This was a GOOD BOOK, y’all. It definitely broke my streak of meh thrillers. It’s also a retelling of Beowulf (a book I remember WAY more of than I expected to, considering I read it almost 20 years ago) which makes it my Remix! bingo square. “Listen,’ someone whispers into my ear. ‘Listen to me.’ Am I dead? ‘Listen,’ the voice whispers. ‘In some countries, you kill a monster when it’s born. Other places, you kill it only when it kills someone else. Other places, you let […]

“Watching is like nature photography: You don’t interfere with the wildlife.”

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

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This is a decent thriller that relies heavily on references to 1940s and 50s noir like Rear Window — the main character spends her time watching old movies and spying on her neighbors. Due to a combination of psych drugs, alcohol, and people lying to her, to call her an unreliable narrator would be an understatement. Gaslight definitely comes to mind, as does the much more recent The Girl on the Train. “I think of Dr. Brulov in Spellbound: “My dear girl, you cannot keep bumping your […]

“When you can eat, eat. When you can sleep, sleep. When you can fuck, fuck. But do not fuck with the pancreas.”

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician's First Year by Matt McCarthy

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No joke, I just heard that line on Grey’s Anatomy (Bailey skipped the f-bomb though). Apparently we REALLY need to respect the pancreas. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly is Dr. Matt McCarthy’s mostly funny but occasionally heart-breaking memoir of his first year as an intern. He takes us through rounds, nights on call, patients he couldn’t help and the patients he could. We meet the doctors who train him (or berate him), his fellow interns, and the nurses who keep it all running. […]

Back to back 2-star YA novels have held my reviews up!

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

The Forgotten HLittle Monstersours by Katrin Schumann

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One of the reasons I let myself get behind in book reviews (which apparently runs in the family) is that some books are so very meh — not terrible but also really not worth talking about — that I avoid reviewing them. And then weeks and months go by, and I have even less to say but now I have tons of good books I wanna talk about (read The Collector series by Dot Hutchison!) so I’m buckling down folks. I read these two books […]

Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

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One of the questions asked about this book on Goodreads is “Is this like a Pretty Little Liars fanfiction? It kinda sounds like it…” and honestly, that’s probably all you need to know (the answer is no, but probably could be without too much effort). But I have to give you more than that! “All of Fright Farm’s success is based on how much people love to be scared in a controlled environment. There’s something deeply satisfying about confronting a monster and escaping unscathed. Real monsters […]

CBR11Bingo: Rainbow Flag

The Light Years: A Memoir by Chris Rush

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Chris Rush (who identifies as gay, so this is my Rainbow Flag square) grew up in a family was outwardly prosperous and moral — staunch Roman Catholics with a thriving business and perfect parties on the weekends. Beneath the surface, his father was a raging alcoholic driving the business to the ground, and his “hostess” mother spent most of her time drugged or drunk or both. Rush’s siblings ran wild, experimented with and sold drugs, had sex, disappeared for months at a time. At 12 […]



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