Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“Because I know the day you come here to tell me that she’s dead will be the worst day of my life.”

Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jeff Jensen (Writer), Jonathan Case (Illustrator)

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Reading Doomed sparked a push for more true crime reading and I hit up my TBR and put in a slew of library requests. First in was another Read Harder choice, Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case. Before this year I was unfamiliar with the existence of this book, or the decades long investigation it chronicles. But such is the reward of hitting up library lists for challenges, particularly banned books. (The challenge task was specifically banned comics […]

“How many Reenas are there in this goddamn world?”

Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk by Rebecca Godfrey

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This is a very well written work of non-fiction. The author is in fact a writer of fiction, but she spent years investigating the crime at the center of the story (now a series on Hulu) and interviewing the many people involved. She attended trials and spoke with legal and law enforcement agents. This story of the murder of a 14-year-old girl by her peers is both chilling and difficult to put down. Godfrey paints a vivid picture of a community rocked by the shocking […]

April 2024 Leftovers

X = : Poems by Stephen Berg

Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

The Hurricane Blonde by Halley Sutton

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais

Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird

Sleep With Strangers by Dolores Hitchens

The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn by Josh Young

One of Us Is Wrong by Sam Holt

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker

The Second Murderer by Denise Mina

Blackmailer by George Axelrod

The Darkest Glare: A Story of Murder, Blackmail, and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles by Chip Jacobs

Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith

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Happy April, y’all! X = : Poems**** This is why library book bingos are necessary. I only checked this one out because I needed to read a book of poems and I wanted to check the nettlesome “X” off the A-Z reading list. A convoluted reason to begin with and this wasn’t even the book I thought I was getting! I thought I’d get a different X by a different author. I’m glad I got this one. Some of these really spoke to me, including […]

In A Summer Swelter

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

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I sort of came to this book backwards. I had made it a point in life to learn as little about Charles Manson as possible. I knew he was some sort of specifically evil serial killer, responsible for the deaths of Sharon Tate and others. I knew what he did happened in the 60s. I knew he was considered the modern day boogeyman. But when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood prepared to hit theaters five years ago, I decided it was time to learn more about […]

Muuuurrrrrdeeeer

Women Who Kill by Sarah Tanat-Jones

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Women Who Kill by Sarah Tanat-Jones has its pros and cons. The biggest cons are the triggers. I took this from another review: use of the words ‘trans*xual’ and ‘transv*stite’ instead of transgender, mentions of rape & sexual abuse, violence, death.  Now I take issue with the use of death as it’s a book about women killers, and therefore, death is implied. However, it is the way that some deaths are mentioned or who the victims were that I am assuming they are referencing.  Afterall, […]

February-March 2024 Leftovers

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Alexander the Great by Phillip Freeman

Nero: Matricide, Murder and Music in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth

Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

The Killing Kind by John Connolly

Shōgun by James Clavell

Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman

Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Woolraich

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Rain, rain, go away. I thought my reading count looked too low and then I realized I didn’t do leftovers for February, so here’s Feb-March combined. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and Rise of the Tudors ***** Jones is such a talented historian. Gets all the important stuff of the Wars of the Roses in great detail and lets the story entertain. His Templars book will soon be on my radar. A Lowcountry Bride**** Had to read this for a library […]



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