Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Arthurian Legend, Feminist Perspective

Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian

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It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of re-imagined classics: Achilles, Circe, the Trojan women — I love a take on a well known tale from a marginalized perspective. Of course, all of those that I mentioned are Greek myths, with which I have quite a bit of familiarity. On a recent trip to the bookstore I found Half Sick of Shadows, which really piqued my interest — the story of King Arthur and Camelot from the perspective of Elaine Astolat, Lady of […]

That’s not sparkle. It’s rage-glitter.

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss

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CBR14 BINGO: Holiday square (BINGO! Cold to Holiday BINGO! Gaslight to Elephant. BLACKOUT!!!) (Christmas romance is about as holiday as you can get, I think, and a great way to hit the bingo blackout.) I love holiday romance movies. All of them. I can snort-laugh while I wrap presents when half watching the really terrible ones. I can snuggle up on the couch under my twinkle lights and fall right into the good ones. I can hunt down and bookmark the 10 or so that I have to watch every […]

A little town in a big forest.

The Winners by Fredrik Backman

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CBR14BINGO: Cold square (BINGO! Snake to Bodies) (Takes place in Sweden. Lots of ice talk.) When a book moves you like this one, the review is so hard to write. I’m afraid that I’m gonna end up with at least 250 words that amount to “GAH! This book!” I know this because that’s what I kept saying out loud as I read it. I had to put the book down and wipe my eyes when my tears made it too blurry to read. Many, many times. I […]

We were kindred in this respect, closer than sisters, and irrevocably estranged at the same time.

Circling the Sun by Paula McClain

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CBR14BINGO: Hot square (BINGO! Cozy to Question) (Takes place in Africa, so a hot place. Sun in the title. Sun is hot, no?) Consulted my ridiculously hefty “to read” list in Goodreads until I found a title with something hot about it. Landed on his dazzling little number and was not disappointed. I have never read or seen Out of Africa which is something that I will need to remedy since I have now been introduced to some of the players in that world. Karen Blixen, the author of that […]

Well, I am not proud of it, but a fellow has to make a living and I was blessed with two assets – a passably handsome face and an exquisitely persuasive tongue.

An Impossible Imposter by Deanna Raybourn

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CBR14BINGO: Font Square (BINGO! Shadow to Font) (I’m not sure what the fonts are, but they grace the cover of every Veronica Speedwell novel along with that unmistakable silhouette cover art situation. I can spot it on a crowded bookshelf a mile away and it always makes me happy.) Somehow I managed not to snatch this up as soon as it came out. Usually, I put myself on the library wait list before the next book in the Veronica Speedwell mystery series is published. Raybourn is a favorite of mine, and […]

Duck Heist!!!! #CBRBINGO – Bird

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes

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This is a silly, inconsequential—one might almost say *cozy*—book that is largely about the retrieval of a wooden duck, and I liked it very much. I really love Linda Holmes. I’m in for her whole thing, after this book. I was hoping Evvie Drake Starts Over wouldn’t be a fluke, and it wasn’t. While I didn’t like Flying Solo as much as I loved Evvie Drake, this was a really good time. You don’t often get stories from the POV of a woman who isn’t […]



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