Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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“She was probably wearing real Chanel Vamp nail polish, not knockoff Revlon Vixen”

Justine by Forsyth Harmon

February 3, 2021 by andtheIToldYouSos 3 Comments

Ali is bored, lonely, and smitten. Justine is bold, aloof, and irresistible. The girls meet in a Long Island Stop & Shop in the summer of 1999. I’ve been quoting from this song a lot lately, but as John Darnielle said so perfectly in “Old College Try”: Things will shortly get completely out of hand There is something visceral about peeking back into the mind of a suburban tri-state-area teen. This book stuck with me like the frequently mentioned feeling of bare thighs sticking to […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books Tagged With: adulthood, ARC, bad decisions, Forsyth Harmon, illustrated, summer vacation, tin house, tin house galley club

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR13 Review No:19 · Genres: Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books · Tags: adulthood, ARC, bad decisions, Forsyth Harmon, illustrated, summer vacation, tin house, tin house galley club ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments

monologuing at the mouth of madness

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell

January 11, 2021 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

A strong opening pulls us directly into the spooky fold; a seamstress with a secret hurls herself from a very important man’s very high attic window. The House on Vesper Sands has all of the hallmarks of a Victorian throw-back; mazes of manners, decrepit mansions, and gin-soaked police populate a scuzzy world of destitute working girls, complicated family histories, and genteel young men all-aflutter. The Spiritualist movement is in full-swing and a cloaked and creepy group of “Spiriters” may be responsible for a rash of […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: ARC, crime, detective, galley, gothic, historical fiction, murder, Paraic O'Donnell, paranormal, tin house, tin house galley club, victorian england

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR13 Review No:5 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense · Tags: ARC, crime, detective, galley, gothic, historical fiction, murder, Paraic O'Donnell, paranormal, tin house, tin house galley club, victorian england ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“She wondered, for the thousandth time, who got to decide one tradition was right and another was wrong.”

The Butchers' Blessing by Ruth Gilligan

November 16, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

What makes a tradition a tradition? How and when do we pass from routine to ritual, and ritual to sacred rite? How do we decide what it kept, what is left behind, and what must be destroyed for the good of the future? Ruth Gilligan knows, but she will not give us any easy answers. Instead, she gives us snapshots; a literal photograph  sets us in motion, but glimpses into the life of “modern Ireland” connect the pieces by stringing one red knot to another. […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: 1996, animal husbandry, ARC, art, celtic tiger, end of the 20th century, folklore, gothic, historical fiction, Ireland, irish gothic, murder, mythology, photography, poverty, prejudice, rural poor, ruth gilligan, shankill butchers, the butchers, the butchers' curse, tin house, tin house galley club, tradition

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR12 Review No:120 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense · Tags: 1996, animal husbandry, ARC, art, celtic tiger, end of the 20th century, folklore, gothic, historical fiction, Ireland, irish gothic, murder, mythology, photography, poverty, prejudice, rural poor, ruth gilligan, shankill butchers, the butchers, the butchers' curse, tin house, tin house galley club, tradition ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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