Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


CBR15 Bingo: Guide (Double bingo)

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari

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3.5 stars CBR15 Bingo: Guide (it’s right there in the title) Official book description, because I’m still reviewing books I read in JULY): London, 1923. Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh attends a dinner party for the University College of London. While she expects to engage in conversations about the university’s large expedition to the Amazon, she doesn’t expect Mrs. Henry, one of the professors’ wives to drop to the floor, poisoned by an unknown toxin. Dr. Maxwell, Saffron’s mentor, is the main suspect, having […]

Horror Month 2023: #2

Holly by Stephen King

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I suppose I should address the conversation around the book before the book itself. There’s been a lot of grousing from center/center-right/right wing King fans about how political this book is. That all the villains are painted as MAGA doofuses. These comments usually have some variety of “King was never political until now!” To which I say…have you ever read Stephen King? His early books are steeped in 70s paranoia. He wrote a book about a man trying to assassinate a presidential candidate, the latter […]

Horror Month 2023: #1

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

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For October 2023, I’m going to read as many horror- and/or Halloween-themed books as I can. It’s my own personal reading challenge to clear some stuff off my shelf and engage with other stuff on my TBR list. A few years ago, there was the framework of a tweet that made the rounds saying Men will literally do X instead of go to therapy. “X” could be watching football or training for UFC or any other such thing. The roots of it were legit: men are conditioned […]

September 2023 Leftovers

Ex Machina, Book Five by Brian K. Vaughan

Windfall by Wendy Corsi Staub

The Big Bundle by Max Allan Collins

The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri

Guts and Genius: The Story of Three Unlikely Coaches Who Came to Dominate the NFL in the '80s by Bob Glauber

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Let’s please do something about climate change before it’s too late. I miss fall. And far more importantly: people’s lives are at stake. Ex Machina Book Five **** Mixed feelings on how this series ended. I think in many respects, the superhero stuff was handled better than the political angle through most of its run. That’s not something I thought I’d be saying after the first book. Making Mayor Hundred a contrarian centrist type was uninspired back then and comes off as even more annoying […]

CBR15 Bingo: Nostalgia

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

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In Men at Arms, there’s a series of mysterious deaths in Ankh-Morpork, and the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, strictly forbids Sam Vimes, the head of the City Watch to investigate, thus ensuring that he will do the exact opposite. Vimes, Carrot, Nobbs and Colon, who used to be the whole of the Watch have been joined by new recruits to diversify the Watch, Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll) and Angua (a werewolf, although Carrot believes it to be because she’s a woman). As the ragtag […]

CBR BINGO – SEX: Never meet your heroes.

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

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This book was wild, and I actually really enjoyed it! I love books that go down deep into the id, and I love books that talk about writing and the creative process, and this did both of those things very well. I really only have a couple reasons for lowering this book to 3.5 stars, but that’s for later. First, the title is pretty accurate here, it’s a book about a writing retreat. Four (now five for some mysterious reason) young women writers have been […]



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