Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You get used to marvelous things. You take them for granted. You can try not to, but you do. There’s too much wonder, that’s all. It’s everywhere.”

Later by Stephen King

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I really had a good time with this one. I finished it over two months ago now, but unlike my experience with Eternals, I remember it vividly and fondly. I just have one tiny beef with it, and it’s a beef I’ve recently had with King before, but more on that later. Jamie Conklin is our narrator, a kid who can see dead people (King wisely acknowledges the Haley Joel Osment shaped elephant in the room). It’s a talent he (and his mom) have mostly […]

And As We Age

Killer Content by Olivia Blacke

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I recently discovered the term “geriatric millennial.” That’s apparently a catch all for millennials who were born between the years 1980-1985. Damn whoever invented in. I know I’m far out of the target audience for BRANDZ these days but I’m far from geriatric. Yeah I got a bad back and student loans and can’t afford a house and don’t have the energy to stuff… BUT! Anyway, I was thinking about that term recently because this is one of the first cozy mysteries I’ve read. I […]

“We are never feckless”, I told her coldly. “We are full to the brim with feck.”

An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn

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Spoiler warning! This is book 6 in an ongoing series. There will be minor spoilers for earlier books in the series. You can read these without having any background, but it’s always best to start at the beginning, which happens to be A Curious Beginning.    Intrepid lepidopterist and sometime crime solver Veronica Speedwell and her grouchy partner and now lover Revelstoke Templeton-Vane (goes by Stoker) are working on preparing a memorial exhibition at the Curiosity Club for one of its recently deceased members, pioneer mountain climber […]

A dark topic, but ultimately not as depressing as you might expect

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

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*WARNING, THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS.  NOT REALLY MAJOR ONE BUT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BEFORE READING THE BOOK, SKIP THE REVIEW I read three Lisa Jewell books in succession more than ten years ago.  They just seemed to pop up a lot in my  favourite second hand book store.  From what I remember, they were more or less “chick lit”, some twists but mostly focused on romance.  They were light, fast reads, and I liked them but was not totally wowed by […]

…but you can’t pick your family.

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

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After immersing myself in the Bernie Madoff story following his death, I was kind of caught off guard at a character that, while probably not based on Madoff given the timing of publication, certainly resembles him. This was probably my favorite Inspector Gamache novel so far. It also reminded me of what frustrates me about the series. I’ll share what’s good in the paragraphs below and then post a spoiler alert to express my frustrations, which will mostly be for longtime Gamache readers. Both the […]

this book has been kicking around for 30ish years and I just picked it up NOW?!

Possession by A.S. Byatt

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…and it’s been sitting in my own collection for a good decade or so? How did I keep stepping around this one? This book was written for me- or at least the me of ten years ago. DEFINITLEY the me of twenty years ago. 14-year-old-me would have swooned myself into an early grave with this one! A youngish academic is sinking further and further into classic British gloom. He’s in a dead relationship, putting in time in a dead-end job, researching crumbs on a long-dead […]



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