Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Rights of Women and Machines

The Haunting of Tramcar 015 by P. Djeli Clark

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Bingo 14: Machinery The Haunting of Tramcar 015 takes place in the same world as many of the author’s other works, a steampunk alternative history version of Cairo. The titular tramcar is a major part of the setting, the plot, and we even get some attention to the technical specs on how the tech is supposed to work; thus I would argue this novella/novelette qualifies for the technology focus square. The other reason for the label is that there’s a pretty detailed discussion of whether […]

“The wind blows itself out, and dawn comes to the window cold and still in a clear gold-green.”

The Searcher by Tana French

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I waited to pick up a Tana French novel even though she is highly regarded around these parts. Late last year I commented on narfna’s review that I was hesitant to pick up another author who writes an ongoing series (I’ve got the Inspector Gamache books to contend with) and that’s true enough. But I think another component was that I knew French wrote gritty, hard-boiled crime novels and I just wasn’t in the mood for those, no matter the quality of the writing (the […]

Library Bingo

The Dark Tunnel by Ross Macdonald

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Billy Summers by Stephen King

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly

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I haven’t been able to keep up with the Cannonball Read Bingo, but I have been reading stuff for my library’s bingo, which helps because it encourages me to try things I’d either put off or left on my shelf to rot…   The Dark Tunnel ** Went back to the beginning with Ross Macdonald for this one. I love Ross’ Archer series and his standalones aren’t bad but this one is. Unfocused plotting, expository dialogue, characters conveniently bouncing in and out. Macdonald was trying […]

A predictable twisty mystery where the twist is that I still enjoyed it

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

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Bingo Category: Flora Another in the long line of twisty mysteries that are all so similar nowadays, but set apart by some pretty good writing and genuine emotion. You will recognize the setup for Then She Was Gone because you’ve read a similar plot summary a million times: Laurel Mack’s daughter Ellie is abducted, and ten years later she meets and falls in love with Floyd–and upon meeting his daughter, Poppy, is shocked at the physical similarities the girl has to Ellie. Then She Was Gone didn’t […]

“There are no true stories; there are only facts, and the stories we tell ourselves about those facts.” #CBRBINGO – People

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

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I find most true crime stories helplessly fascinating. I know some people agonize over whether it is moral to be entertained by such stories, but I’ve never had that problem, and frankly think it’s a waste of time to think about the “morality” of what stories we consume. I think most people are drawn to true crime not because they get their jollies out by reveling in other people’s pain (though, there’s always a few . . . ) but because it speaks to our […]

In the cold clear light of day down here, everyone’s a monster

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

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Bingo square: Travel (from Jakarta to Amsterdam) A couple years ago I read Stuart Turton’s The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I didn’t like it, exactly, but I also couldn’t put it down and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. When I saw a review of The Devil and the Dark Water on CBR, I checked it out from the library almost immediately. I knew, even if I didn’t really like it, it was going to be an exciting, fascinating, un-put-down-able ride. As it […]



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