Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


A timely mystery written over 50 years ago

The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie

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The Mirror Crack’d is a Miss Marple mystery, and while I generally prefer Hercule Poirot, this is a story that made quite an impression on me when I first read it as a kid. I have thought of it often over the years but especially over the past few years for reasons that I cannot divulge since it would totally spoil the mystery. Let’s just say it’s timely and a fun, quick read. Christie published this story in 1962 and it has gotten the film/TV […]

What Comes Next

By Way of Sorrow by Robyn Gigl

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Read as part of CBR13Bingo: they/she/he. The author is a trans woman and the protagonist (as well as another main character) is also a trans woman.  Once again, I’m grateful for book bingos because they challenge me to read stuff that I’ve been making excuses to put off. It’s no secret that the mystery/thriller world is largely devoid of bestselling LGBTQIA+ writers, specifically trans writers. This is not for lack of talent, rather a lack of seeking talent on behalf of publishing houses. On the rare […]

Old Series Bingo: Garnethill

Garnethill by Denise Mina

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This is for my OLD SERIES bingo square. TW: Sexual assault survivor story I’ve been waiting a long time to read this book – it was one of the first books I added to my GoodReads list. It’s a murder mystery that takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, which are a few of my favorite things.  Maureen O’Donnell works at a box office in a theater. She doesn’t feel like she has much going on, besides a cute flat in the Garnethill neighborhood and a married […]

A mystery on the moon.

The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronaut, #3) by Mary Robinette Kowal

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This is my favorite of these books so far, but I will admit that there is just something about Kowal’s writing that doesn’t perfectly gel with my tastes. I’m curious enough to keep going to see how this series turns out, but I may need to rethink reading any more of her books (I also was pretty unenthused about the first book in her fantasy-Austen-pastiche series). We switch narrators from Elma York (who is on her way to Mars during the course of this book) […]

Everything bad will always happen in Three Pines.

Glass Houses (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #13) by Louise Penny

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Firstly, I’m glad I just gave in pretty early on and accepted that Three Pines is the improbable murder capital of the world, and now let’s also add on to that hub of weapons of mass destruction (from two books ago) and drug trafficking. If you suspend your disbelief, this series is a lot more fun. Which is really necessary for this book. You’ve just got to buy in at the beginning, otherwise it’s not going to work for you. Because in this one, Gamache […]

“The three of them sat there – a Ministry agent, a half-djinn, and a cat (likely), staring out past the balcony to the sleeping city they somehow had to find a way to save.”

A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn, #3) by P. Djèlí Clark

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Another book in this world, please! I continue to have a really good time with these audiobooks. I loved Suehyla El-Attar’s narration—even though she mispronounces some words, which would normally make me lose it, but that’s how much I love her voice—it’s so melodious it squashes my inner pedant. We’re back with Fatma el-Sha’arawi—agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities—in this first full novel (the first two were novellas) in this alternate-history, fantastical version of 1912 Cairo. Decades previously, a man named […]



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