Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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In which I mostly fuss about things that I wanted to be better

Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab

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Given the premise of the Cassidy Blake series (girl with ghost hunter parents can see and gets into trouble with real ghosts), it should be no surprise that the next city to be the setting of an adventure would be New Orleans, LA, USA. Bridge of Souls is on the one hand, better than its immediate predecessor, but on the other, still has some of the same problems. I should say that I do in fact realize this is middle grade fiction, and thus it […]

Crescent City

A Morning for Flamingos by James Lee Burke

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After being slightly disappointed with Black Cherry Blues, the third David Robicheaux offering from James Lee Burke, I found this a return to form even if it follows a similar formula: drugs, old acquaintances, and every Italian in south Louisiana being involved in the Mafia. What made this one an improvement, and hopefully a pivot to the series, is how Robicheaux develops a relationship with the head mobster in the middle of the maelstrom. Previously, they’ve all been two-dimensional antagonists but this time, he bonds with […]

Well, I’m goin’ to New Orleeeans…

Every Dead Thing by John Connolly

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This is book is something. A lot. Too much. Entertaining. Frustrating. It really runs the gamut. It would probably be easier to review it by listing the good and the bad… Good: -Deep sense of atmosphere. -Two twisty mysteries for the price of one. -Tries a lot of different genres and, for the most part, mashes them up well. -Uses art and history in an intriguing way, especially when describing the killings (I was getting Hannibal tv show vibes) -Really well-plotted for a first mystery book, especially […]

Ruby by Ruby

This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges

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This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges is a sweet book about a powerful event and time in history. Bridges own words show how it was to be the first one. How it was making history when you are not even double digits yet. She did not know what it all meant. She wanted to go to school. She did not understand why she was the only one in her classroom. She did not understand the toil it would take on her parents. And yet, […]

A Decade in the Life

The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

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The David Robicheaux series is beloved in mystery circles and it’s one I’ve always mean to come back to after having read In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead ten years ago. I liked the writing well enough and I especially enjoyed the south Louisiana setting. New Orleans makes for a great mystery location. But I don’t know; I just made excuse-after-excuse not to return to it. Yet I set those aside when I randomly grabbed the first one from the library. And despite a massive library […]

An Unexpected Reading Week

The Herd by Andrea Bartz

Cross to Bear by John Maginnis

Hiding In Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump by Sarah Kendzior

Quarry's List by Max Allan Collins

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This turned out to be an unexpected reading week for me as I knocked out four books between Monday and tonight. However, I worked a lot this week and was just too damn tired to log everything when I was finished so I’m dropping it all here. The Herd 3 stars I gave Andrea Bartz’s debut a weak 4-stars as I graded it on the new author curve. It was a fun New York tale but I feel like it could have been better. I was […]



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