Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a thousand apologies and what feels like a thousand reviews (through November 2023)

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Kindred by Octavia E Butler

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Hinumegin er mars by Sólrun Michelsen

Trust by Hernan Diaz

How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't by Ian Dunt

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

The Establishment: And How They Get Away with It by Owen Jones

In the Beginning was the Sea by Tomás González

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

The City & the City by China Miéville

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin

Passion Simple by Annie Ernaux

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller

The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain by Brett Christophers

The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray

Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within by Rory Stewart

Rivals by Katherine McGee

Reign by Katherine McGee

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

10 Things that Never Happened by Alexis Hall

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Starting Over Game by girl_with_kaleidoscope_eyes

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Edinburg by Alexander Chee CBR15: Sex True fact, when someone British asked me what I was reading I pronounced this “Edin-BERG” and to their credit they didn’t laugh but instead asked, with some horrified sincerity, if that’s how Americans say it. It’s not! At least, not on purpose. It’s just how can the English language claim to have been invented in a country that seems to not have grasped even a shred of understanding of how the various letters in it work? I digress. This is […]

“I didn’t smuggle the dog into the country; I merely caused him to be smuggled out of Baluchistan.”

Frederica by Georgette Heyer

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: Different (sub)genres #2 The Marquis of Alverstoke, wealthy, vain, and immensely bored, sees no reason why he must put himself to any trouble for anyone at all. But when he agrees to sponsor a beautiful young woman’s debut in society, he can’t help but become tangled up with her managing older sister. I read Georgette Heyer’s romances sparingly. Not because I dislike them, but indeed the opposite – I adore their sharp humor, hijinks, and immersive historical setting – and I don’t […]

Charming start to CBR15

Snowdrift and Other Stories by Georgette Heyer

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I found this collection thanks to one of the many articles that pop up in my social media recommending various types of book to me. I can’t remember what the list was (I think it was some sort of recommendations from the New York Public Library), but given last month’s arrival of snowstorm Elliot plus the overwhelming amount of holiday stuff I had to do, a collection of short stories set in the Regency period seemed like a fun diversion. And it absolutely was! If […]

it’s christmas…in july…

A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer

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Recommendation by auntadadoom! I have lots of conflicted feelings about Heyer, namely of the “she’s a trash human being” variety. Is it okay-er for an author who has long since passed, when there are plenty more trash human beings whose books we do read? Not entirely certain! Having read quite a few of Heyer’s Regency thoroughly researched frippery books, to the point where I was hitting a string of forgettable ones, I was pretty excited to pick up something completely different! This time, a Christmas-themed […]

I’d say they should marry other people but they are both annoying aholes so …

The Transformation of Philip Jettan by Georgette Heyer

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I think this is my last Heyer for a while. I feel like such a curmudgeon when I read what’s intended to be a light-hearted romp and find every character revolting. So Georgette Heyer is mainly known for her regency romances, but she also wrote many murder mysteries (one of which was the first and last Heyer I actually enjoyed this year) and some books set in the earlier powdered wig era … and The Transformation of Philip Jettan is one of those. In fact […]

Sophy is fine, Charles is a pill

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

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You realllly need to sell the plus side of a crabby-Darcy character type, or my reaction to any reasonably nice woman ending up with him is gonna be “Ehhhh … I don’t get it.” I enjoyed A Christmas Party earlier this year, the first time I’d read one of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries, and the jacket quotes on The Grand Sophy persuaded me that this would be a fun comical romance. And the setup is indeed fun — Sophy, raised from a young age by her diplomat […]



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