Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Honky Tonk

The Fallen by Ace Atkins

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I’ve accepted the fact that Ace Atkins is basically going to write the same book each time with the Quinn Colson series. Over-their-head gangsters with connections to Tibbehah. People swooping in from Quinn’s past. A bunch of random references to vaginas. Some dirty dealing Mississippi pols and crooks. And overall, mostly fun southern fried crime stories. I don’t know if I would have gorged on this series so hard had it not been for quarantine. But I’m glad I am. They’re enjoyable. Atkins knows how […]

A satisfying heroine; not Sherlock Holmes

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

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CBR12 BINGO: Red A Study in Scarlet Women has been on my radar since last year’s “Classics and Retellings” book club, when a number of Cannonballers reviewed it as an adaptation/retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous work. I was excited that CBR12 BINGO gave me an excuse to pick it up from my library. My enthusiasm arc for this novel can be visualized as a bell curve: I went from “hmm, ok but. . .,” to “wow, this is great!” back down to “mildly positive” […]

An Unexpected Reading Week

The Herd by Andrea Bartz

Cross to Bear by John Maginnis

Hiding In Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump by Sarah Kendzior

Quarry's List by Max Allan Collins

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This turned out to be an unexpected reading week for me as I knocked out four books between Monday and tonight. However, I worked a lot this week and was just too damn tired to log everything when I was finished so I’m dropping it all here. The Herd 3 stars I gave Andrea Bartz’s debut a weak 4-stars as I graded it on the new author curve. It was a fun New York tale but I feel like it could have been better. I was […]

A bit of a bummer after the high of #9.

The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #10) by Louise Penny

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Actually, I’ve slept on it, and this book makes me angry. My initial review was a little wishy-washy, because for 95% of this book, the writing is like an experimental offshoot of the normal series. There is no crime to solve; Gamache is retired. Instead, Peter has failed to come home on time after his and Clara’s separation, and Clara wants to find him, so Gamache, Beauvoir, and Myrna accompany her on an investigation road trip to basically follow in his footsteps. Only, pretty much […]

Guinness book of world records, record for least Miss Marple in a Miss Marple book.

The Moving Finger (Miss Marple, #4) by Agatha Christie

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This was fun, but it felt much less like a whodunit than I wanted it to, and Miss Marple came in late to the story even for Miss Marple. I think it may be a record of some sort, how little and how late she was in this book (and her parts were the best parts). Our narrator is actually Jerry Barton, a man who has moved to the small village of Lymstock on the advice of his doctor. Jerry is recovering from a plane […]

A dream is a wish your heart makes (Cannonball!)

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

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#CBR12 Bingo: Orange (would also work for Fresh Start) This is the start of a new series, so it stands alone. You don’t have to have read Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle series, starting with The Raven Boys, but it gives a lot of useful background to Ronan and the other Lynch brothers.   Official book description: The dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming – they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their […]



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