Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dad Energy

A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block

by Leave a Comment

I try hard to avoid books that are marketed specifically for older white guys. You know the type because they’re everywhere: lone wolf alpha male, usually with some military or police background, goes on the prowl in a specific terrain to vanquish the bad guy in defense of someone, most commonly a woman. Basically, they’re westerns with different topographies. While I’ve occasionally enjoyed the works of authors such as Lee Child, these books really aren’t my thing. Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series fits the mold […]

Book to Film: The Talented Mr. Ripley

by Leave a Comment

Patricia Highsmith wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley in in 1955. She based it loosely on Henry James’s The Ambassadors (which I now have to add to my to-read list). The lead character, Tom Ripley, proved so popular, that she brought him back for four more novels. When the reader first meets Tom he is living close to the bone in New York City, subsisting on his “friends,” or running various schemes, including mail fraud. But Tom isn’t really great at his schemes, and he doesn’t like […]

“The world was fragile. One day, growth; the next day, kindling.”

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

by Leave a Comment

The best horror stories are already frightening before the monsters even show up. The doomed Donner Party has always been the quintessential example of the harsh realities for pioneers trekking West to the promise of California, and most already know the tragedy awaiting the group at the center of The Hunger. While bringing their wagon train across the country to find new fortunes, the infamous Donner Party made many key mistakes, and found themselves staring down the barrel of the harshest conditions the West had […]

Another rather forgettable Harris book

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

by Leave a Comment

Official book description: Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town. There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his […]

Let It Snow

Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand

Home For The Holidays by Gary Reilly

by Leave a Comment

For the first time, I’m reviewing two books at once! Fortunately, both were solid 4-star reviews so I guess I don’t have to note that. Available Dark I read Generation Loss, the first book in the Cass Neary series over the summer and it absolutely knocked me off my feet. I don’t know what I expected but I didn’t expect that. I think it goes to show how the idea of having to “root for a character” in order to be invested is a crock of […]

It is a romance!

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

by Leave a Comment

After reading so many re-tellings of Sherlock Holmes over the past couple of years, I vowed to start reading the source material. It took until a few months ago to actually get that quest off the ground. My hesitation was partly due to the fact that I figured the real Sherlock Holmes would not be my cup of tea. The particular cup of Sherlock-y tea that I had been sipping and enjoying was via PBS, the Lady Sherlock Holmes book series and Alexis Hall’s WONDERFUL “The Affair […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo