Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Not Bad

Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block

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About ten years ago, I spent a summer working an internship and living with three other people. During the week, I bided time until the weekend, when I could go hang out with my then girlfriend, who lived about an hour away. But until then, there wasn’t much to do where I was at and the four of us were all broke interns. So I killed time reading and doing other stuff. The job I was at had a cart full of random books. One day, I grabbed a Lawrence Block novel to waste away an evening. Wasn’t bad. Didn’t […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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9/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:88 |

She’ll Take Manhattan

Dope by Sara Gran

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Dope is such a solid crime novel that it makes me want to immediately clear my TBR pile and read Sara Gran’s entire catalogue. The problem with that is I’ve tried to read Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead so many times and have never been able to get into it. I just can’t connect with the inner monologue of the titular character. Which sucks because it’s doubtless that Sara Gran is a talented writer. I picked this one up when I saw it on a list and devoured it. It pained me to put it down. This book effectively fuses […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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8/25/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:85 |

It’s Chinatown

China Trade by SJ Rozan

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In a context-free vacuum, China Trade is a fine, entertaining mystery. I liked the characters, especially the lead and her partner (though the “Will they or won’t they?” aspect was annoying), the plot is fine, the Chinatown setting done well. It’s a good start to a series that would potentially lead to more. But… It’s really tough to get over the idea of a white person (SJ Rozan) writing a first-person perspective novel from the POV of a Chinese woman. Now don’t get me wrong: I think it’s fine for people to write from the perspective of characters who don’t share their […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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8/18/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:79 |

When the Big Apple is right in front of you

Nelly Takes New York: A Little Girl’s Adventures in the Big Apple by Allison Pataki

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There are a lot of literally pieces to the story Nelly Takes New York: A Little Girl’s Adventures in the Big Apple that I am not sure about or sure that I liked. These are things like Nelly wandering around modern New York City at about age eight or nine with only a cheeky beagle dog as a companion. And none of the adults think this odd. Now, I get that the vendor on the same street as Nelly would be someone she could speak with and visit solo, but going all the way to Central Park by herself? And […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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6/28/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:251 |

Dead Dogs and Radium Girls

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum

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The Poisoner’s Handbook is one of those rare non-fiction books that reads more like fiction. The basic narrative follows the head medical examiner of New York City and his chief toxicologist as they essentially help invent forensic science during Prohibition. Each chapter focuses on the problems, mostly murders, that revolve around a particular chemical compound including chloroform, wood alcohol, arsenic, radium, carbon monoxide, and thallium. There’s a lot of chemistry involved but it’s explained in a way that someone who hasn’t taken the subject since high school in the late 90s can still follow. Most of the tension in the […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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5/5/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:26 |

Where Brooklyn At.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

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I don’t know what it’s like to have Tourette’s Syndrome, nor do I know the specifics of how it manifests in human behavior. As far as I know, neither does Jonathan Lethem. There is a troubling history of able bodied people using illnesses and non-ableness to become magical healers and special problem solvers. So maybe this book is complete trash because Jonathan Lethem gets those aspects wrong. But from an ignorant perspective, I liked this one. And I liked it not because he had Tourette’s but because it showed how someone with Tourette’s might navigate a difficult situation such as […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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4/3/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:36 |

Cold Case

Walking The Perfect Square by Reed Farrel Coleman

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As an avid book reader who appreciates a good series to dive into, it’s fun when you discover a writer whose voice you really enjoy. Though there are many issues with Walking the Perfect Square, I liked this one a lot. Reed Farrel Coleman has a great sense of time. His version of 70s New York City feels real and lived in. His main character, Moe Prager, is an interesting one. An Jewish ex-cop moonlighting here as a private eye for a high profile mystery case, Prager makes for a fun tour guide throughout the world Coleman is building. The mystery […]

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12/17/2018 's CBR10 Review No:58 |

So Perfectly Harriet

Harriet the Spy; The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh

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Harriet M. Welsch is such a gem. I’ve read both of these books, particularly Harriet the Spy, many, many times in my life because I so enjoy spending a little time with her. They both focus on Harriet (11 in Harriet the Spy, 12 in The Long Secret), a sixth-grader at an exclusive private school in New York City. She wants to be a writer someday, and has an insatiable curiosity that she feeds by writing down everything she observes in her notebook. She has a “spy route” of certain people in her neighborhood that she spies on regularly, but […]

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12/16/2018 's CBR10 Review No:51 |


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