Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Crime, suspense and romance in Regency England

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (The Ill-Mannered Ladies Book 1) by Alison Goodman

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Shoutout to Narfna for bringing this book to my attention! This was a very entertaining novel that contains three exciting adventures featuring a highly unusual woman in Regency England. Lady Augusta Colebrook is forty-something, single, and a member of the noble class. She and her fraternal twin sister Lady Julia are well connected and well liked in London society, but then again very few people know about their private activities. When we meet Augusta (Gus) and Julia, they are attempting to help a married friend […]

The big reread that I should have done before my last review

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Network Effect by Martha Wells

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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After reading the latest novel in Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, I decided I wanted to reread the whole series, which I originally reviewed for CBR14. I had thought of doing this before reviewing System Collapse, but I told myself it wasn’t necessary and I should focus on all the books on my TBR list. But I love this series so much and going back through the whole run was fun. I expect this is the kind of thing I will do with every new Murderbot release. […]

Free Will

System Collapse: The Murderbot Diaries Book 7 by Martha Wells

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I read all the previous Murderbot stories at the beginning of CBR14 (reviews here, here and here), and while the details of those novels were perhaps a little fuzzy for me when I started this latest Murderbot, I was quickly up to speed and enjoying the continuing saga of everyone’s favorite misanthropic human-robot hybrid. As usual I zipped through this and loved it for its snarky humor and for its development of Murderbot’s relationships with the humans it works for and the artificial intelligence it […]

My first DNF

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

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I wanted to love this book. On the face of it, it ticks off a lot of boxes that appeal to me. It could be that my mind is unfocused right now because a lot is going on at home, but I really think there is a problem with this book. I’d never heard of it before the movie came out and maybe I know why. It’s tedious and pedantic. Poor Things is a kind of Mary Shelley Frankenstein story where the “monster” is a […]

A fairy tale turned horror story

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran

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Snow, Glass, Apples was a gift from cannonballer Ardaigle for the CBR15 Holiday Book Exchange. I’d put it on my wish list because I’ve enjoyed the Gaiman novels that I’ve read so far and the art for this short story looked (and truly is) gorgeous. As you might guess from the title, this is a version of Snow White, but it is not like any Snow White I’ve ever read. Like the works of Angela Carter and Helen Oyeyemi, this is an adult fairy tale, […]

The Mona-Lisa (Saperstein) of Old New York

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

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Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel The Custom of the Country is a commentary on manners and society in the vein of a Jane Austen novel, and it is a dark, brooding tale of dysfunctional families reminiscent of the Brontes. The main character, Undine Spragg, is a strikingly beautiful young woman from one of the upstart “new” families, desperately trying to break into New York society and make a good marriage to old money. I’ve seen the name Undine Spragg come up quite a lot recently in […]



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