Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“Should I be taking you dancing?” “Not in those clothes. I’ve standards.”

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

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And here he was now in his own bookshop, well fed, usefully busy, and enjoyably partnered. It made the violent assault and threat of torture seem quite worthwhile.” ― K.J. Charles, Slippery Creatures Will Darling has returned from serving in World War 1 and is starting to get back on his feet. After being unable to find employment upon returning to London, he is taken in by his estranged uncle, who runs a massive bookshop. When his uncle passes away from a stroke, Will takes […]

The Faces That Launched a Thousand Political Conflicts

Medieval Royal Mistresses: Mischievous Women who Slept with Kings and Princes by Julia A. Hickey

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In an era where women were constrained by their sex and status, royal mistresses managed to have outsized influence of English history through their connections with kings and the children that they bore them. As I got into this book, it occurred to me that when you learn about history, the various favorites of kings and queens are left out except in very few instances where the story would make no sense without their inclusion (Anne Boleyn of course comes to mind). Instead their illegitimate […]

Life and Death in the Asylum

Broadmoor Inmates by Nicola Sly

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CBR 15 Bingo – Violence: On their path to the asylum, nearly all of the people profiled in this book committed violence to others, and many to themselves as well. Broadmoor is a well-known psychiatric hospital that originally opened in 1863, but until the 1950s or so, the “criminally insane” people sent there were mostly there for confinement rather than effective treatment. I’ve always enjoyed true crime, but having also recently become intrigued by attitudes toward mental illness throughout history, I was excited to have this […]

This Family Tree is a Wreath!

Katie Mulholland by Catherine Cookson

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Katie Mulholland, the young scullery maid at a grand house, finds her life thrown into a tailspin when she is assaulted by her employer on the night of his engagement ball. I have an inexplicable love of old mass market paperbacks – especially pulpy books that originally sold for about a dollar that I never heard of before. So when my friend informed me that my local bookstore had an entire subterranean secondhand section, I obviously set off in search of most obscure, yellowing books […]

“It is a nice thought, is it not?” Beatrice asked. “That we can go forward as romantic lunatics forevermore?”

Romance Me, Viscount by Kate Archer

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Fanciful Beatrice Bennington insists she will accept only a lovesick man as her husband, but her neighbor Matthew, a viscount, is convinced that all she will end up with is a bruised heart – unless he can prevent it. Kate Archer has kicked off a new series of Regency romcoms about the Benningtons, a close knit family with an hopelessly romantic bend, due to the parenting of an eccentric aunt. I’ve always enjoyed Kate Archer’s romances, which generally lean very heavily into comedy, so I […]

Born under gray skies, painting the sun

To See Clearly: A Portrait of David Hockney by Evan Turk

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Who is David Hockney? I had no idea before reading To See Clearly: A Portrait of David Hockney. Or at least, I might have known the paintings (this picture book shows Hockney’s style interpreted by the author/illustrator Evan Turk), but not the name. The story is straight forward. Turk says, “David did this, that and the other thing.” He we “here, there, and someplace else.” However, there are a few facts that are tossed out, sit down, and say, “Whatcha gunna do about it?” Such […]



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