Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A Supernatural, Romantic Thriller-Adventure with a Side of Misogyny

The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

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At the end of the 19th century, Englishman Archibald Hunter moves to Scotland and comes into possession of some documents dating back to the Spanish Armada. He then goes on a treasure hunt with young Marjory Drake, an American heiress, whom he just met. One of the main problems with the book is that it really doesn’t know what it wants to be. In the beginning, Archie has a vision and meets a seer who explains to him that he has the second sight. Shortly […]

Sorely Lacking Keanu Reeves. One Star.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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The year is 1897 and Bram Stoker is a bored businessmen who boosts his income by writing pulpy novels. The most famous of these, simply titled Dracula, was not an immediate hit, but would turn out to define Stoker’s legacy. This isn’t entirely undeserved, but outside of its snug historical pocket the novel doesn’t come across all that well. The story is well-known to nearly everyone, and I was quite surprised at how closely, at first, it follows the 1993 movie. And yet this film, […]

Oldies But Goodies

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The Fantastic and Forgotten, edited by Judika Illes (2016) – Usually when I review anthologies, I summarize individual stories and give an overall judgement, but this anthology is such a unique concept, I must discuss the entire anthology as a whole. First of all, I’d never heard of Weiser Books who published this anthology.  They publish occult, esoteric, speculative, and New Age works.  This collection, however, publishes stories of forgotten authors from the 1800s, mostly English, and includes such surprising (and not forgotten) authors such […]

Officially did not finish list of 2016

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So, I’m totally stealing this idea from NTE. These are the books I attempted, but wasn’t able to finish (for one reason or another). I really like the idea of including these books in my Cannonball, if for no other reasons than they still warrant some discussion. In no particular order: Dracula, by Bram Stoker (4 stars) I loved Stoker’s writing, and the book had a beautifully sinister atmosphere to it. It’s not hard to understand, reading this, why the book resonated so strongly with […]

A triple-dip in which I admit my lust for an Austen villain

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Even with audiobook during travels and a major cleaning expedition, this *STILL* took an entire summer to read. Whew. I didn’t realize that when I casually decided to read Dracula, that it was quite an undertaking. This book was a lot different than I expected it to be, but that didn’t turn out to be a bad thing. Until the second half disappointed me quite a bit. If you have ever heard anything about vampires, vampire lore, or the unfortunate Twilight saga, you’ll know that […]



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