Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Do You want to Build a Snowman (I Hope Not)

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

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I usually like to start a series from the beginning, but I had already seen the movie The Snowman with Michael Fassbender, so decided to just try the novel by Jo Nesbø and see how they compared. It probably would have been better if I had done those two things in reverse order, but that’s how it was. This is the seventh book in Nesbø’s series featuring Norwegian Detective Harry Hole. Harry, like all good, classic detectives, has his issues – he’s an introvert, but […]

Lost in the Noir of Iceland (And Liking It)

The Dark Iceland Series (1-6) by Ragnar Jónasson

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After reading the Martin Beck novels last year, I decided to continue with Nordic noir. I had heard about a series set in Iceland, specifically the remote area of Siglufjörður, and featuring  a young detective named Ari Thór Arason. I read these novels on Kindle and on Audible, where it helped to hear the correct pronunciations of some of the more challenging (to me) place names. Then author is supposed to be a big fan of Agatha Christie (as am I). He has translated fourteen […]

Stoner

New York Dead by Stuart Woods

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Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: funky. This one is tough. I picked this for “funky” because Woods is descriptive of the fetid scents of Manhattan air. There’s also some funky stuff that happens later in the book, which I won’t spoil. I was able to be clever with my other choices but am tapping out with this one. I’m always on the look out for fun New York tales, especially ones set in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Despite the bad reviews, I was tempted […]

Gruesome and Grotesque but also Wow!

The Wolf and the Watchman: 1793: A Novel by Niklas Natt och Dag

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Cannonball! I think I was only able to finish this novel, which really is extraordinary, by cheating on it with The House in the Cerulean Sea. I tend to be “monolibrous” — I word I am coining to mean one who does not start a new novel until having finished the one they’re already reading. The Wolf and the Watchman was so intense, and so gritty and disturbing, that I had to take breaks from it. It is to the credit of Swedish author Niklas Natt […]

Ice Ice Baby

The Ice Coven by Max Seeck

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Read as part of CBR14Bingo “cold” for multiple reasons: it has “ice” in the title, the cover is a woman standing on a frozen body of water outside of an island covered in snow, and it’s set in Finland in November. All of this shouts: cold cold cold! This is why book bingos are great. I picked up this book in a Target of all places because I read good things about the author. But knowing it was the second in a series, and seeing […]

Forevermore

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

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Read as part of cbr14bingo: gaslight. This book took place in gaslight era New York state. There’s even a gaslight on the book cover!  Most of the time, I ditch the vaunted 5th star from an otherwise excellent book due to the ending. I’m usually disappointed by endings and even if I try to be graceful, I still can sometimes get disappointed by one. I can’t recall ever bumping a book from four stars to five due to the ending, yet here we are. I’m not […]



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