Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“Stories change with the tellers.”

The Conductors by Nicole Glover

by Leave a Comment

I have wanted this book ever since I saw the cover on Twitter! And it matches the book so well – a strong heroine, lots of magic and an intriguing mystery plot. “Who are you?” she repeated. Curiosity bloomed in her eyes, overshadowing the fear. Hetty held out a hand to the girl, much as she’d done many times before, and said, “Someone here to help.” Hetty and her husband Benjy fell into investigating murders and similar cases because the police aren’t interested in what’s […]

Reading Days

In the Cut by Susanna Moore

The Papers of Tony Veitch by William McIlvanney

Angel's Tip by Alafair Burke

The Devil in Her Way by Bill Loehfelm

by Leave a Comment

In sleep debt and haven’t had time to write reviews like I’ve wanted to the last few weeks so here are a few things I’ve read lately… In the Cut **** It’s tough to talk about this one. The writing is superb, bordering brilliant. The scenes are rich. The ending…good but not good? I don’t know. I liked it a lot but I can’t really say why except to say it’s well-written and thrilling. Erotic in a messy way. It addresses the way physical attraction […]

Strangers On A Train-Stranger and Strangerer

Strangers On A Train by Patricia Highsmith

by 1 Comment

Every once in a while I get a yen to read the source novel for one of my favorite classic movies. My most recent read (actually listen) is Strangers On A Train, by Patricia Highsmith. I have seen the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, featuring Robert Walker and Farley Granger, many times. There are some indelible, memorable scenes in that movie – the two men crossing legs and crossing lives on the train, the gold lighter which incriminates and absolves, the final deadly and hair-raising sequence […]

Little Grey Cell Comfort Food

Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

When I can’t think of anything else to read, or just want something comforting and familiar, there is always Agatha Christie. And although I have read (I think) most of her books by now, I am still drawn most frequently to the ones featuring the inimitable Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. He of the meticulous ways and fantastic mustaches. With his obsession with detail and as Ben Franklin says, “a place for everything, everything in its place,” he has to be a Virgo, like me. And […]

Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair

Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran

by Leave a Comment

Unlike Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, I wasn’t able to down this one quickly like I thought I would. I had to sit with certain parts of it. It’s more personal and raw than the first one…and just as good, if not better. It’s tough to describe Gran’s writing style. It’s this mix of absurdism, postmodernism and hardboiled. Usually, people who write that way are trying way too hard. For Gran, it’s effortless. And it makes every dialogue exchange an adventure. Sometimes, I […]

Ol’ Hollywood

Windhall by Ava Barry

by Leave a Comment

Sigh. Why can’t books like this be easier to review? There’s so much to like about Ava Barry’s debut novel Windhall…and so much that grated on my nerves. I really wanted to push this to a charity first-book-4-star review and I just couldn’t. The book kind of feels like the version of the decaying mansion at the center of the story: beautiful and glamorous but uninhabitable and far past its prime. Probably easier with this one to pull out the old good/bad formula: Good: -The book […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo