Cannonball Read 16

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Unlikable Characters Doing Inexplicable Things

Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna

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The story: Dr. Caroline Strange is a psychiatrist in Brooklyn. She has a very inflated sense of self-worth, believing she knows what’s best for everyone, and gives all of her patients cutesy, cringy, cruel nicknames like Tawdry Twyla and Weepy Jasmine. One morning a new patient arrives, tells her, “I’m going to kill someone, and I know who you really are,” and walks out. This sets off twin storylines, narrated by three different characters–1) Caroline in the present, trying to figure out who this guy […]

Ok I Will

Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: free space. Ok I will get to my thoughts about this book in a second. But… It’s probably been talked about before by folks in other spaces but I find it notable that so many female-written thrillers are based around a woman running away from her past. Could be because of an abusive ex or parents but it is often — as it is here — about a traumatic event that occurred when they were younger. I’m not trying […]

Learn, Baby, Learn

Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco by Richie Narvaez

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Read as part of CBR16Bingo: Disco. The book is set in the 1970s, in New York City, has a prominent theme at a discotheque and has the word “disco” in the title. Imagine if Harriet the Spy was a high school girl of Hispanic descent in 70s Brooklyn and you’d have the vibe of this one. There are two stories here, one about Holly and the other about Xander. I don’t want to spoil them but the dueling narratives do not imply an unlikely friendship. […]

Trans and Transitions

Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: liberate. Carlotta is coming home from prison, which is some sort of liberation and she’s trying to find her way as a trans woman in the world, seeking her own path to liberation. I’ve written before about my beef with contemporary writing and how smarmy it’s become. Every villain has to twirl their mustache, every hero has to overcome a specific obstacle to warm the audience’s heart, everything is so boringly Manichaean. There’s little space for complexity, imperfection, growth, […]

Mixing it up with gentrification, magic, and Mothman

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

I'm in Love with Mothman by Paige Lavoie

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: Different genres – suspense thriller, urban fantasy, and monster romance When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole has been in my audible library for way too long. When it was picked for my Lawless book club, it was a sign. I do like to read mystery and thrillers to mix it up between the glut of romances I read. Dubbed by the author as a gentrification thriller, Sydney Green is having a bad time. After a disastrous divorce, she’s moved back in […]

December 2023 Leftovers

Mandarin Plaid by SJ Rozan

Lady Killer, Volume 1 by Joëlle Jones

Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden

Batman, Vol. 6: Graveyard Shift by Scott Snyder

The Confession by Domenic Stansberry

A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself by William Boyle

Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster by Joseph Iannuzzi

Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow

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Merry Christmas. We may need to dispense with the cold/snow songs. They’re about as realistic as Santa at this point. Mandarin Plaid **** SJ Rozan continues to improve with each book in this series. This one has layers and moves well to its conclusion. I’m not gonna be totally sold on a white person writing from the perspective of an AAPI one but I think Rozan does a better job with it than she did in the first one. May have to go long with […]



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