Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A reminder of the importance of a good editor

Greatest Short Stories by Women - Grapevine Collectible by Virginia Woolf et. al

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Cbr17bingo purple Virginia Woolf, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen — these are just a few of the 17 women writers whose works are featured in this collection. While I enjoyed most of the stories, the publisher/editors made some very strange and aggravating choices that left me bewildered.  No editors are listed, and no forward or afterward is offered to explain what criteria were used to determine which writers and stories were included. The 17 stories range in original publication dates from 1832 to 1926, […]

“We overlooked each other’s flaws and treated each other well, even when we didn’t deserve it.”

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat: A Novel by Edward Kelsey Moore

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Cbr17bingo Family (bingo); the story revolves around three friends who are like sisters to each other and their families I heard about this 2013 novel accidentally. The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat was turned into a movie last year and someone posted a clip on social media that got my attention. I haven’t watched the movie yet, but the novel was a wonderful read. It is the story of three women — Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean — who have been friends since their teenaged years […]

Skeletons in the closet

The Ghostwriter: A Novel by Julie Clark

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Cbr17bingo G (bingo) The Ghostwriter is a crime/unsolved murder novel that revolves around a father and daughter who are estranged from one another. Their relationship has been damaged by substance abuse, lies and secrets but an unusual set of circumstances reunites them. Will this be an opportunity to mend fences and resolve a sensational double murder? Or will it lead to charges against dear old dad? In June 1975, the bodies of teenaged siblings Poppy and Danny Taylor were discovered stabbed to death in their […]

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Re-Writes Your Story?

Long Live Evil: Time of Iron Book One by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Cbr17bingo Border — the main character literally crosses a border between reality and fiction, and straddles the border between good and evil; the kingdom in the story is bordered by the Dread Ravine, which is full of the undead. This book is one of the most bonkers, crazy, fun stories I’ve read in a long time, and I thank Dome’loki for the review that turned me on to it. I think we’re all familiar with time travel stories, where a character is sent back in […]

Nothing like the TV series, and that’s a good thing

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton

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Cbr17bingo “B” I loves me some Edith Wharton. Wharton wrote what she knew: late 19th/early 20th century old New York society (think “The Gilded Age”) and its dark underbelly. Wharton grew up amongst the New York elite, and in novels like The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and House of Mirth, she devastates readers with stories of stifling social mores, the struggle of “new money” families to break into elite “old money” circles, and the terrible repercussions for women dependent on men […]

“Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

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Cbr17bingo School This short novel is considered Muriel Spark’s best work. Set in a girls’ school in Edinburgh in the 1930s, it tells the story of a group of school girls and their influential, charismatic teacher Miss Jean Brodie. “The Brodie Set,” as the girls and their teacher are known, attract envy and suspicion from both students and staff at Marcia Blaine school as Miss Brodie flouts convention and invites her young students into confidences that are deeply inappropriate. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie […]



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