Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“So this is merely romance,” she frowned disapprovingly. “I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least.” Ned laughed. “Darling, don’t worry, the story has just begun.”

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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Official book description, because I finished this book two months ago, and the plot is rather convoluted: Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up. Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is […]

ARRRgust Reads

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller

Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller

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Daughter of the Pirate King:       Alosa is only seventeen, but is one of the most feared pirates in the world. The only one more feared is her father, the notorious Pirate King. He has a third of a map to the legendary siren’s treasure, and sends Alosa to pretend to be captured by rival pirates so she can search their ship for another piece. She has a handy trick up her sleeve. Her mother was a siren, so she has the powers […]

“Bones is what they are now.”

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Family and friends recently took a trip down to the coast. I’ve always heard of beach reads, but I’ve never actually read anything while sitting on the beach. This was my chance! I loaded up my waterproof Kobo with some appropriate reading. Enter, Treasure Island. Somehow, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and I had always passed one another, like…TWO SHIPS IN THE NIGHT. But even though I missed this book in my childhood, it certainly had all of the danger and wonder that make a […]

The Childhood We All Wish We Had

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

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I have heard this book, the first of a series, referred to in discussions of classical British children’s lit for years, but had never read it.  I assumed it would be something along the lines of Enid Blyton’s Five series, which I adored as a child, but was surprised to find it predates that by a good fifteen years, written in 1930.  Well, I may be a little late to the party, but I am absolutely ready to dive in. The protagonists are four siblings, […]

Jane Austen but with Lady Pirates. With Flying Houses.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

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“It is violence that best overcomes hate, vengeance that most certainly heals injury, and a good cup of tea that soothes the most anguished soul.”  – Motto of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels Cecilia Bassingthwaite has been raised by her hypochondriac spinster Aunt ever since she was seven and her Father murdered her Mother and tried to kidnap her. Because of her father’s terrible reputation, the other ladies of the Wisteria Society don’t trust her enough to make her a full-fledged member, which vexes […]

Not for bedtime reading or the faint of heart or stomach

The Icepick Surgeon Murder Fraud Sabotage Piracy and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science by Sam Kean

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The Icepick Surgeon is not bedtime reading, unless you want really weird dreams. I enjoy popular science reading, especially when there’s some narrative, and this book is both those things. Basically it’s a review of mostly the past 275 years of medical history and the ugly things people have done and tried to justify in the name of science or helping people in the future. There’s a lot of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century piracy and grave robbing involved, a good bit of slavery and racial history, […]



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