Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


When reading replaces all of your plans for the weekend

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

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I picked up The Family Upstairs one morning intending to read a few pages to see what it was like. I put it back down again 200 pages later only to go to sleep, and the carried on in the same fashion the next day. Libby has just turned 25 and has inherited a house in Chelsea from the family she never knew – as a baby she’d been found in a crib with the bodies of her birth parents and another adult apparently dead […]

“Men are everywhere. If I ran away from here, there would be more men all over the world.”

Dead Girls by Abigail Tarttelin

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Wow. I tell you what, wow. That’s a reference to the 1997 animated film Anastasia that I am pulling out now as a special occasion, because this book deserves it. I mean, wow. So before I get to why I’m wowing all over this review, the plot: It’s spring 1999 in a small English countryside village. Eleven year-old Thera and Billie have been best friends (“best, true, forever friends”) since before they were even born. Thera and Billy are imaginative, playful, and clever, and right […]

Eastern Promises

The Blood-Red Dream by Michael Collins (Dennis Lynds)

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A reminder that lost classics are usually “lost” for a reason. When I read Act of Fear a few months ago, I was so excited to discover a new series. A character heavily inspired by Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer but set in New York City. I never expected these books to rise to the level of Macdonald’s work but I thought they would scratch the itch. They do not. Instead, I’m reminded of why I don’t often read a full series of books, especially mysteries. While Macdonald […]

Such a Perfect Wife by Kate White

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        Such a Perfect Wife is about the abduction and murder of Shannon Blaine…and then it isn’t…at all. True Crime writer Bailey Weggins comes to Lake George to write about the unfolding mystery of the disappearance and possible death of Shannon Blaine, 34, gorgeous, wife, mother, and physically fit runner. She disappears while running, which is why I don’t run. I kid, I kid. I don’t run because I ran so much in high school sports my knees are shot. And no, […]

https://cannonballread.com/2020/01/such-a-perfect-wife-melina/

Sis Boom Bah

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

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I wanted to read this one in advance of watching the new show, which I’ll now make every available effort to do because the book itself would make for a good translation to visual media. And it helped me understand why I like Megan Abbott so much. I’ve been going through Abbott’s catalogue for most of the last few years but it wasn’t until I read Dare Me that I realized why I like her so much. Abbott is a very sensual writer. She’s good at filling […]

GET OUT OF THERE!!!

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

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Jules Larsen just needs a break.  On the same day, she loses her job and comes home to her boyfriend having sex with another woman on the couch.  Up to her eyeballs in college loan debt and nowhere to live, she’s elated when she sees an ad on Craigslist offering $4000 a month to stay in the Bartholomew, a very fancy NYC apartment building that caters to the rich and famous as an apartment sitter.  When she’s shown the space she’s also told the rules:  […]



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