Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Not Enough Egypt for Me in This Preposterous Thriller

The Pharaoh Key by Preston & Child

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Whenever I feel the need for some literary comfort food my first instinct is to grab a mystery or crime thriller. I think it’s the combination of thrills with puzzle-solving that appeals to me. The title of this paperback. The Pharaoh Key, jumped out at me because it not only promised a mystery, but it combined another one of my interests, ancient Egypt. I have read some other books by this author team, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, featuring their investigator Agent Prendergast, so I […]

Pauline Gedge it is not

Valley of the Kings by Cecelia Holland

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This is basically two novellas. The first, about Carter finding Tut’s tomb, is pretty good. It also includes the conflict between Egyptians and those who would steal their heritage.  Holland seems to do a good characterization of Carter and his determination and single-mindless.  There is an interesting debate between Carter and Lady Evelyn that touches on the point of history and how those in the present view those of the past. Carter himself is drawn as a flawed man – not only in his relationship […]

Nine lost civilizations and one completely mythical city

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At barely a hundred pages, Lost Civilizations isn’t a hefty tome, by any definition. It’s the kind of book you find in the discount bin at Barnes & Noble. It’s the kind of book my uncle would get me when I was twelve, because he knew I liked history but had no idea which books I had, or which subjects, specifically, I was interested in. Which is fine. There’s a place for those books. But I’m usually looking for more than that. These books were […]

A historical romance with hieroglyphs, adventure and a mongoose named Marigold

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Rupert Carsington is the fourth son of the Earl of Hargate and has been sent to Egypt to get out of the way of all the calamities he’s been able to get tangled in at home in England and on the continent. He finds himself locked up in a dungeon jail after seeing a bunch of soldiers beat up a beggar in the street and deciding to defend the man, beating up a horde of soldiers as a result. His bail is paid by Mrs […]

God Save the King

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I think all of us went through an Egypt phase in school. It was right after our paleontologist phase and right before we became too cool for phases. We devoured any National Geographic with the pyramids on the cover, became a little too knowledgeable about the macabre process of mummification, and spouted off as many facts about the “cool” pharaohs that our patient parents would listen to. There was the trifecta of the most badass pharaohs to ever pharaoh-Nefertiti, King Tut and Cleopatra. Well, with […]

One of these things is not like the other

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Well, this is awkward. I bought this book after a couple rave reviews here on CBR.  As with many of my CBR reads, it’s a bit outside my usual repetoire.  This is my first CBR DNF.  I’m not even sure if that’s CBR legal.  Can I review if I didn’t finish?  I’m going with the “ask for forgiveness, not permission” route. For a while I was attending an ARC book club at the local bookstore.  Each member registers and gets to borrow an Advanced Reader […]



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