Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


I wish this version of Cairo really existed. #CBRBINGO – Cityscape

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Dead Djinn, #0.7) by P. Djèlí Clark

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**30 Books in 30 Days** Book 10/30 Like quite a few people at this point (enough that Tor published a full-length novel), I’m enchanted by the world Clark has created in this series, which so far consists of this novella and a short story, as well as the novel (that I’ll be getting to next month). There’s something special about the atmosphere Clark creates when he’s writing about 1912 alt-history Cairo, not to mention he’s pretty great with characters (I liked both Hamed and Fatma […]

“Edward Fosca was a murderer.”

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

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**30 Books in 30 Days** Book 9/30 I received a free ARC of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides from Macmillan in an exchange for an honest review. I tell you what, I am just really not sure what to say about this book! I kind of feel like I want to sit with it some more, but I need to get this review out. I’m reading so many books this month they would just pile up if I didn’t keep on top of them, so […]

Vacation Reading

Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America by Martin Doberman

The Pursuit of Pearls by Clara Vine

Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

The Rocksburg Railroad Murders by K.C. Constantine

March Violets by Philip Kerr

Can't Knock the Hustle: Inside Brooklyn's Season of Hope: How Basketball Helped Us Survive Power, Politics, and a Global Pandemic by Matt Sullivan

The Lime Pit by Jonathan Valin

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I was on vacation last week and, as you can tell from the stack in the header, I read a LOT… Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America **** I wish this had focused more on the Uprising itself, as opposed to being a semi auto-biography on those who were involved in it. But it’s still a fascinating story at the nascent days of the LGBTQIA+ Movement, the challenges and complexities, and what emerged from it. A good gateway into learning […]

This has been such a good year for mysteries and caper comedies. Add this one to your list. #CBRBINGO – Pandemic

Finlay Donovan is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) by Elle Cosimano

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This is another one of those books I knew only after reading the synopsis was going to be A Book For Me. I’ve gotten better and better as I’ve gotten older at picking books I know I will like*. There is a reason most of my reviews are four stars, and it’s not because I go easy on the books, it’s because I know what I will like. Occasionally a stinker slips in and if I give in to curiosity (which happens quite frequently) or […]

Come for the murder, stay for the food.

Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen, #1) by Mia P. Manansala

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I had a good time with this! For a first novel and for a cozy, it was very good. I really only have two complaints, and Manansala can definitely improve upon both in future books, and I hope she does, because I’d like to keep reading this series. It has some things I really like going for it. Like a lot of culinary cozies, this book follows a young woman (Lila Macapagal) fresh off a break-up, who has recently moved home to help in her […]

“That had been a little more than forty years past. Fatma was born into the world al-Jahiz left behind: a world transformed by magic and the supernatural.”

A Dead Djinn in Cairo (Dead Djinn Universe, #0.5) by P. Djèlí Clark

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The highlight of this short story is definitely the world-building. I was immediately intrigued by the way Clark wrote about his alternate-history Cairo in 1912, populated with djinn and angels and steampunk machinery, and refreshingly devoid of colonialism. This takes place in a Cairo about fifty years after a curious man opened up a gateway through which djinn and other supernatural creatures, along with magic, entered the world. Egypt has become a world superpower, as the djinn helped them to kick the British out of […]



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