Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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the december rush

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates

Your Fathers, Where Are They? And Your Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens

The Lightness by Emily Temple

The Very Nice Box by Eve Gleichman, Laura Blackett

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

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Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens take special joy in disobeying their mother’s rules. They wear red shoes and black clothes. They read books about magic. They fall in love. It’s the Lower East Side in the 60s. Who can blame them? I didn’t realize this was a prequel. I just picked it up at an airport bookstore when I had 3 hours to kill and a low phone battery. I’m grateful this is the only book that called out to me. I’m always drawn to […]

Aggressively fine one-sitting read

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

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A woman goes missing in a close-knit neighborhood in Shari Lapena’s Someone We Know. Her husband is clearly a psychopath, but then again, the woman has committed the grave sin of being an attractive flirt. Shortly into the novel, the woman is found in the trunk of her own car, kicking off a a pretty straightforward whodunnit. Told mostly from the perspective of a neighbor of the murdered woman, the plot adds a wrinkle right off the bat: the neighbor’s son has been breaking into […]

Completely unlikeable characters ruin a great premise

An Unwanted Stranger by Shari Lapena

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An Unwanted Guest is a closed door mystery involving a group of strangers trapped at a luxury hotel during an ice storm. I may have squeed with excitement when I read that description. Sadly, that was the only time this book delighted me.  Mitchell’s Inn in the Catskills Mountains is a gorgeous hotel, deep in the woods, with no cell phone service or internet. Guests enjoy gourmet meals, unlimited alcohol, and outdoor activities such as cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Three couples, a pair of friends, […]

3 Star Thrillers

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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(3 stars) An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena This was probably two and a half stars, but I’m rounding up. The story was decent but pretty predictable. An Unwanted Guest takes place in a small family-run inn on a night when the weather is so bad that all the guests are trapped inside. They lose power and the roads are unpassable. Unfortunately, that’s right around when people start dying. First, the beautiful engaged woman falls down the stairs. Everyone suspects her fiance until an author […]

A Thousand Nos

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

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    Sometimes you read a book that you can’t believe is so bad you just keep reading it. This was one of those books. The shifting narratives don’t work, you pretty much know who did what it’s just a wait for the cops to figure it out. The only reason why I didn’t zero star this thing was the ending which made me go, huh. “The Couple Next Door” follows Anne and Marco Conti. A happily married couple (or it appears to be so) […]

Who’s the stranger in this house?

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

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This book was a fast read for me.  I’m not saying that because I think it was good, it just kept the momentum going.  I was just talking to my friend who I borrowed it from, and I said that the writing was a little simplistic.  It seemed like the writing wasn’t pretty enough or something?  Like: “Tom was upset.  He got in his car and drove away.”  I don’t know, it could’ve used a little more emotion maybe.  “Tom angrily slammed his car door […]



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