Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“There are so many stories, big and small. We need to tell them all.”

The Hidden Book by Kirsty Manning

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The Hidden Book is told in alternating timelines. In one, a young man named Nico is incarcerated at Mauthausen*, a German concentration camp in northern Austria, near Linz. He manages to befriend a young village girl named Lena who lives with her parents and her developmentally disabled sister just outside the gates of the camp. Nico’s friend Matteo is the camp photographer, and is tasked with documenting the activities of the camp for some of the SS officers. Nico and Matteo conspire to smuggle a […]

“What else is life but a string of outcomes beyond our control?”

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vols. 1-3 by Beth Brower

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This is a wild thing to say, but I’m saying it, so stay with me. This series is Dungeon Crawler Carl for the Jane Austenites. I’m not even finished with it yet and I already know that. It’s the kind of story you read once, probably in a very short time, then immediately go back in for a re-read or five. This story is—aside from having lovable characters and a certain anti-authoritarian bent—nothing like Dungeon Crawler Carl. And yet. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. […]

“I don’t know if any of the people we know are suspicious or whether they’re just trying to live their lives.”

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

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Thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Media | Tantor Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. I’m a little annoyed that this was marketed as a mystery when it is very much not, but it was a very good book, so I can’t in the end remain annoyed. I just wish I’d been able to set my expectations accordingly. This is, in fact, historical fiction that errs into literary territory on occasion, with a smidgeon of crime for light flavor. This takes place […]

The Downfall of Anne Boleyn

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

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Bring Up the Bodies starts shortly after the end of Wolf Hall. Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII are guests of the Seymours at their estate, Wolf Hall. In the previous book, Thomas had developed feelings for Jane Seymour and had considered asking the king for permission to wed. But now Henry has begun to spend time with Jane, at the not-so-subtle encouragement of her family, and to tire of his marriage to Anne Boleyn, which has not yielded the son he so desperately wants. […]

“If a book is well-written, I always find it too short”

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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4.5 stars CBR17 Bingo: Black (a book with a black cover) I had completely forgotten that I read and reviewed this book back in 2016. My original review can be found here. My plot summary of the more than 200-year-old novel can be found in my previous review. Nevertheless, my reading experience this time around was different enough from earlier times that I wanted to write about some of my thoughts and observations, not to mention some of the points of discussion that came up during my […]

“It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”

All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles

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I am ever so pleased with my first Aardvark book! Only my third 5-star rating of the year (although a couple have been close).  I chose this one on vibes – I was partway through Band Sinister and enjoying myself, loved the cover, and was in the mood to say yes to some gothic mystery goodness. All of Us Murderers is KJ Charles playing with all the gothic novel tropes and putting her own spin on making the queer textual in a genre where it was subtext for most of its history.  The book starts with […]



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