Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


(Mostly) Horror Roundup

London Rules (Slough House #5) by Mick Herron

The Drift by CJ Tudor

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

November (Darker Days) by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

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London Rules (Slough House #5, Mick Herron) *** I enjoy the Slough House books, but I never do know what to write about them. They’re well written and the plot is usually creative and unpredictable, but in spite of that (or perhaps because of that) it’s always the same: River fucks something up, Louisa is prickly, Shirley is aggressive, Diana Taverner is sneaky and antagonistic and Jackson Lamb is smarter than everyone else. There is enough intrigue to keep things interesting (and the Apple TV […]

Oxford Bomber

Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron

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The first novel from Mick Herron, better known as the author of the Slow Horses series, has recently been adapted for television by Apple. The series stars one of my favorites, Emma Thompson, as private detective Zoe Bloom. This book is marketed as the first entry in “the Zoe Bloom series.” But for all that, there’s precious little Zoe Bloom in it. Our focus is primarily on Sarah Tucker, an Oxford housewife (of the reluctant variety.) Sarah is begrudgingly hosting a dinner party for one […]

Reviews Part 6 45 Minutes Left

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Body by Bill Bryson

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

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Book 26: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry Rough Review: 4 stars. Let’s see, where does this go on my Emily Henry ranking list? I think 3rd, after Book Lovers (one of my favourite reads this year and maybe in many years; it’s been a remarkable first third of the year for reading and The Wedding People, The Nix, and Unruly are all also some of my absolute favourites, and that’s not even mentioning the eight or so really awesome and ten or so quite enjoyable […]

Tigers, Spooks and Podcasters

Real Tigers (Slough House #3) by Mick Herron

Spook Street (Slough House #4) by Mick Herron

A Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall

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A.k.a. The reviews I didn’t feel like writing, but hey, I read the books.  Real Tigers & Spook Street I read the first two books in the Slow Horses series. I got them from my library, which unfortunately only carried translations.  Pro tip: translations suck and avoid them where you can.  They’re not bad translations, but all the whimsy and finesse are lost. I got the rest of the series in its original English, and whether that’s the sole reason I enjoyed the next parts […]

Losers, Misfits, and Boozers

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

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Since I’m being cruelly tortured by being forced to wait a whole long week between episodes for the new season I’ve decided to go back and read the first book in the Slough House series. I’m sure waiting patiently is part of MI5 spy training, probably real advanced stuff. It is here we first meet Jackson Lamb and his motley collection of ‘slow horses’. Each one has disgraced themselves in some spectacular way and needs to be relegated somewhere they can’t do any more damage […]

A Vajazzle on a Nun

London Rules by Mick Herron

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“We’re talking about a bunch of mindless bottom-feeders whose general ignorance of our way of life is tempered only by their indifference to human suffering, we’re all agreed on that?” “Is this the politicians or the killers?” “Good point, but I meant the killers.” This series follows a bunch of Mi5 (British secret service) agents who’ve messed up so badly that they end up at a building called Slough House and have been nicknamed the Slow Horses. They’re given mundane tasks, under a deliberately offensive […]



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