Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Christmas in Paris

A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories by Georges Simenon

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This is the first Maigret that I have read, though it is not the first Simenon that I’ve read. I’ve read this after watching the Rowan Atkinson version of Maigret. And those are great. This book is actually three stories – one of which stars Maigret and his wife, while the other two use characters from the Maigret series. The first story is the title story and is about Maigret solving a mystery on Christmas day when he is at home with his wife. No, […]

Je t’aime

A Year in Paris by John Baxter

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Non-fiction book for Feb 2019 My Book Box. If anyone writes more beautifully about Paris than John Baxter, I’ve yet to read them. This book is supposedly about Paris throughout the year. It loosely follows this (there are some jumps in season, time, and place) as well as a brief history of the Revolution’s desire to change the calenderer. It is best to think of this book as part memoir of seasons of his life in Paris, as well as seasons of Paris. Each chapter […]

Prince Sebastian would like to introduce you to himself, Lady Crystallia

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

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The Prince and the Dressmaker most likely was pretty cutting-edge when it came out last year. We were started to talk about sexual identity and gender fluidness and the issues that come from that. Using the graphic novel format also is a bit different. But this publishers imprint seems to be the one to go to for cutting-edge stories in this usually more approachable format. However, a year later, having a young man dress in woman’s clothing as sometimes he feels male and sometimes female, […]

#CBR10Bingo: AlabamaPink – The Dud Avocado (First bingo!)

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#CBR10Bingo: AlabamaPink Sally Jay Gorce is a young woman of independent means, thanks to the benevolence of a rich uncle. He’s given her enough money to live comfortably abroad for two whole years, no strings attached, as long as she comes back and tells him about her adventures at the end of the two years. Not needing to hold down a job or really do anything at all for the money, means Sally Jay spends her time flitting about Paris, taking a lover, drinking and […]

The Parisians Used to Poison Each Other With Menstrual Blood, and Other Weird Facts

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Nicolas de la Reynie has the distinction of being Paris’s first police chief, a position he stepped into during the reign of King Louis XIV.  Paris was a nasty cesspool full of criminals at the time, and de la Reynie turned things around by putting lamps up everywhere (which is how Paris came to be known as “the City of Light”). But not everything in Paris could be cured with a well-placed lamp.  During de la Reynie’s tenure, people in Paris were getting poisoned left […]

In which I figured out what romance I should write

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Well, okay, this wasn’t my least favorite Florand, but it didn’t blow me away either. It also took me over a week to read (bad in Romance Standard Time.) Caveats: I have been in a romance slump for awhile, and I may have just poisoned my own well too badly both in general mood and specific experience with this author. And now that I am reviewing it basically a month later, I have the arduous task of even trying to remember it (she said, rolling […]



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