Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Agatha Christie, in the parlor, with poison

A Mind of Her Own: The Story of Mystery Writer Agatha Christie by Robyn McGrath

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I was never a “OMG AGATHA CHRISTIE IS THE BEST!” but have appreciated what I have read. There were a few things I knew about her style, such as she was not going to be an easy read for someone used to contemporary writing and she would have references not really “okay” for today’s mindset. But what I didn’t know was how she got to be considered one of the greatest writers of mystery ever. This picture book by Robyn McGrath does a fantastic job […]

A promising debut novel

The Write Escape by Charish Reid

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3.5 stars Nowhere Book Bingo: A book with a BIPOC author and main character CBR16 Sweet Books: Cozy In very short order, Antonia Harper has lost her job and discovered that her fiancée was cheating on her, very shortly before the wedding. The honeymoon was supposed to be in Ireland, and Antonia decides to travel there by herself. Her spiteful ex has cancelled their original reservations, but she rents a cottage to stay in instead. With nothing else to distract her, Antonia decides to make […]

This book was seriously over-hyped

Funny You Should Ask by Elisa Sussman

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#CBR15 Passport Challenge: Books I Already Own 15-word review: Chani reunites with actor Gabe, the man she wrote about ten years ago. Sparks fly. Official book summary: Then. Twentysomething writer Chani Horowitz is stuck. While her former MFA classmates are nabbing book deals, she’s in the trenches writing puff pieces. Then she’s hired to write a profile of movie star Gabe Parker. The Gabe Parker–her forever celebrity crush, the object of her fantasies, the background photo on her phone–who’s also just been cast as the […]

Am I Too Dumb for this Book?

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

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Crystalclear listened to the audio version of Mr. Fox and wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but it’s speculative-leaning and maybe reading the actual book would be a different experience, so she suggested it to me. While I do think it was better to read it than to listen to it (Oyeyemi does a lot with fonts, blank space, and paragraph structures that make way more sense looking at it than listening to it), I also am not totally sure how I felt about Mr. […]

Surprisingly Approachable Writing Information

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

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In many self-help writing books and seminars, The Writer’s Journey appears again and again as a reference. After reading many dry and analytical structure books, I was pleasantly surprised at how readable this book was. It has a very conversational and relatable style, and I didn’t feel as if I was reading a class lecture or being talked down to. It discusses the various structures and explains how to fulfill each of the twelve steps of the writing “journey.” It includes familiar stages such as […]

I always had a soft spot for the ol’ spook

Who Was Edgar Allan Poe? by Jim Gigliotti

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Once you recommend one book in the Who Was series (Who Was, Who Is, even What Is) you have pretty much said everything you need about them. They are fun, simple, and while might not get “down and dirty” you do find a little dust here and there. I tend to like the books about people over the “things” or events (though the Ice Age was interesting as it showed that we are still learning about it, even though it seems like something that is […]



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