Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   
Cover of Small Things Like These green with snow covered building roofs

And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

January 15, 2026 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

As they carried along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror? ― Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These “What it is to be a man,” she said, […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: 1980's, Catholic church, Claire Keegan, convent, economic anxiety, fathers and daughters, Ireland, Irish Catholic, Magdalene Laundries, novella, Religion

carmelpie's CBR18 Review No:2 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: 1980's, Catholic church, Claire Keegan, convent, economic anxiety, fathers and daughters, Ireland, Irish Catholic, Magdalene Laundries, novella, Religion ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Unfinished Business

How the Dead Speak (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan #11) by Val McDermid

April 10, 2025 by Zirza Leave a Comment

An old convent is bought by a property development company. Soon, work begins on the grounds, but it’s not long before the skeletal remains of forty young women are discovered. The bones are old – years, sometimes decades – but it begs the question: what, exactly, happened at the convent, where girls with nowhere to go were taken in? Why were the secretly buried, and why did their families receive no word of their passing? The ReMIT team, specialising in serious crime, investigates, though why […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: Carol Jordan, Catholic church, crime, How the Dead Speak, Tony Hill, Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series, UK, Val McDermid

Zirza's CBR17 Review No:19 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense · Tags: Carol Jordan, Catholic church, crime, How the Dead Speak, Tony Hill, Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series, UK, Val McDermid ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Three For When It Happens Here

Spook Street by Mick Herron

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

The Order by Daniel Silva

November 16, 2024 by Jake Leave a Comment

Like a lot of folks in the ten days since the election, I’ve perhaps been slow to process the news. This has impacted my reading. Whereas I’m usually a speed reader, I have found myself often putting off my reading to do some mindless activities. Dealing with reality can be tough, the uncertainty of what comes after the next two months are over is difficult to grapple with. Inadvertently, the three books I’ve read from immediately before the election into the ten days since have […]

Filed Under: Featured, Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: attica locke, Catholic church, Daniel Silva, Darren Mathews, espionage, family secrets, Gabriel Allon, Guide Me Home, highway 59 series, Israel, London, mick herron, mystery, Religion, Slough House series, Slow Horses, Spook Street, Texas, The Order

Jake's CBR16 Review No:174 · Genres: Featured, Mystery, Suspense · Tags: attica locke, Catholic church, Daniel Silva, Darren Mathews, espionage, family secrets, Gabriel Allon, Guide Me Home, highway 59 series, Israel, London, mick herron, mystery, Religion, Slough House series, Slow Horses, Spook Street, Texas, The Order ·
· 0 Comments

Chilling.

Snow by John Banville

May 13, 2024 by Zirza 2 Comments

It’s impossible for me to review this novel without providing SPOILERS, so read at your own peril.  Rural Ireland, 1957. Detective St. John Strafford (with an R) has been summoned to a country estate in the south-east of Ireland, where a Catholic priest has been found dead in the house of a Protestant land owner. The real kicker: the priest has been castrated. It’s December and the countryside is cloaked in a thick blanket of snow that chokes out sound and hides evidence. Under the […]

Filed Under: History, Mystery Tagged With: Catholic church, Ireland, john banville, snow, Spoilers, Trigger Warning

Zirza's CBR16 Review No:26 · Genres: History, Mystery · Tags: Catholic church, Ireland, john banville, snow, Spoilers, Trigger Warning ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

The defining feeling of my childhood was that of being told there wasn’t a problem when I knew damn well there was.

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh

October 17, 2023 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

It wasn’t all bad, that poor rural place. Though money was scarce, you would have had your basic needs met because we knew how to grow and build things. ― Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth I am grateful for my early life, and I wouldn’t wish it on any child. ― Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth The women I knew were […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: #memoir, Catholic church, Country Life, Domestic Abuse, farm life, Farming in the 80s, feminist issues, generational trauma, Mothers and daughters, poverty, sarah smarsh, working poor

carmelpie's CBR15 Review No:57 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: #memoir, Catholic church, Country Life, Domestic Abuse, farm life, Farming in the 80s, feminist issues, generational trauma, Mothers and daughters, poverty, sarah smarsh, working poor ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Familiar faces and story with a twist

Manu by Kelly Fernandez

August 25, 2021 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Best friends, magic and religion mix for a fantastic fantasy graphic novel called Manu by Kelly Fernandez. The themes, landscape and feeling of the novel itself is based in the author/illustrators Dominican and American heritage. This is a modern fairy/folk tale that combines classic story and new imagery. Manu was a foundling. Manu is always getting into trouble. Manu is a bit “too much” for her classmates. But Manu is loved by the headmistress and her best friend, Josefina. This is a school for magical […]

Filed Under: Children's Books, Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Mystery, Religion, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Catholic church, friendship, glbtq, Kelly Fernandez, magic, school

BlackRaven's CBR13 Review No:262 · Genres: Children's Books, Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Mystery, Religion, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Catholic church, friendship, glbtq, Kelly Fernandez, magic, school ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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