Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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For the Birds

The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

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The Impossible Thing is a curious little book. It’s part cozy-mystery, part coming of age novel, and part historical romance. It tells parallel stories about one hundred years apart, deftly using stylized prose to distinguish them for the reader. The story is unconventional without falling into the trap of being irritatingly quirky. While it’s by no means a classic, its charms will be readily apparent to most readers. In 1920s Yorkshire, Celie Sheppard’s birth brings hardship on her farming family, as her mother’s husband immediately […]

Jack was in charge

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CBR10Bingo: So Shiny! I don’t read eBooks and very rarely buy hardcovers, so I’m always a bit behind when it comes to new releases. I’ve been traveling quite a bit the last few years, though, which means I’ve had better opportunities to find new books since paperbacks tend to be released much sooner overseas. I snagged a few in Brussels last month, including one from this year’s Man Booker Prize longlist: Snap by Belinda Bauer.  Jack was 11 years old when his mother left him […]

‘Well, daughter, you can’t disappoint me anymore than you’ve already disappointed me, so tell me –what did you procure and which of them drab aunts did you procure it of?

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CBR10Bingo – Snubbed Maybe this is a cheat, but I didn’t feel like waiting until September for the shortlist or October for the final prize awarding. Both of these book were longlisted for the Booker Prize this year, and since I had already read a few from the list (Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, The Overstory by Richard Powers, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, and The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner) none of which I think will win (though Richard Power’s novel is very good, but it’s […]

If it bleeds, it leads…

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Eve is a crime reporter for iWitness News, and in her zeal for getting scoops has found herself getting the attention of a serial killer with a penchant for staging very public and gruesome ‘exhibitions’. Juggling caring for her father, who has dementia, with her job, Eve is soon drawn into the killer’s game, putting her ethics on the back burner and giving him the airtime he craves, while  putting herself into more and more danger as the ‘game’ progresses. Death wants to claim his […]

I randomly got this book from my neighbor

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I got this book from my neighbor, who is an old lady.  So I didn’t have much hope for it being a great book.  However… I really liked it!  Newsflash – old ladies like good books too!  I guess I’m an ageist. The book takes place somewhere in the UK.  It starts out as a really sad story of a kid (Stevie) whose uncle was kidnapped and murdered.  His mom and grandmom basically ignore him most of the time.  The rest of the time, they’re […]

The Curious Incident of the Brilliant Book

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So it turns out that I have a soft spot for the unconventional amateur sleuth. Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Flavia de Luce, Agatha Raisin, the list goes on. It’s a miracle I haven’t read the Shardlake series, really. One amateur sleuth to which Bauer and her excellent novel owe something of a debt is Christopher Boone. The narrator of Mark Haddon’s groundbreaking Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was never noted as specifically having Asperger’s and was investigating who killed his neighbour’s dog, which […]



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