Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Ellesfena

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I mostly read nonfiction (especially public health-related), mysteries, and fantasy. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Ellesfena's Quick Questions interview.)

Ellesfena's Reviews:

“Your life is the biggest bargaining chip you have. Before you choose where to spend it, be sure you understand what you’re getting in return.”

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

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This is the 4th book in the Wayward Children series. Last year, I read the first several books in the series. These are all so short, which is nice for the ones you don’t like as well but makes the ones you DO like a bit disappointing as it leaves you wanting more. I read these while on a trip, and intended to continue reading them once I was home but I never did. But, In an Absent Dream just stuck with me. In an Absent […]

Better than Fourth Wing

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

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The story: I think this has been reviewed here a million times, but here goes: Feyre kills a wolf who’s actually a faerie in disguise, and another faerie prince type guy named Tamlin comes calling to collect his revenge. He takes her back to Faerie and then just kind of leaves her alone in his giant castle. Eventually they fall in love (I guess? I am skeptical), she learns more about what’s really happening in Faerie, and decides she has to try to save Tamlin […]

Escapist Fun

The Expats by Chris Pavone

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The Story: Kate Moore’s husband is offered a cushy job in Luxembourg, so they pack up their life in Washington, DC, and go. What no one in her life knows is that Kate–who up until the move seemed to be a pencil pusher at firm in Washington DC, and in Luxembourg is a stay-at-home mom–wasn’t just any pencil pusher but was in fact in the CIA. And soon enough, weird things start happening in Luxembourg that ping her CIA-dar. Another American couple moves to town, […]

A Personal Story of Deconstruction

The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon

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The story: The Exvangelicals is a nonfiction book written by Sarah McCammon, who grew up in the white evangelical Christian movement in the 80s and 90s. As an adult, she deconstructed (began examining and questioning her religious beliefs), and discovered that many others who had grown up in the same circumstances as her were doing the same. The book includes recollections from her childhood and her deconstruction process, interviews with others who have left the white evangelical church, and information on the history and current status of […]

My Favorite Maisie Dobbs So Far

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

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The story: Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator in London in the time period between the world wars. In An Incomplete Revenge, an acquaintance hoping to buy some property in a small village asks her to investigate a series of mysterious fires in the village. The mystery is complicated by the fact that the town is full of non-residents who are there for hop-picking season–Londoners like Maisie’s assistant Billy and his family, as well as a group of Roma (be warned that in the book, Roma […]

Unlikable Characters Doing Inexplicable Things

Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna

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The story: Dr. Caroline Strange is a psychiatrist in Brooklyn. She has a very inflated sense of self-worth, believing she knows what’s best for everyone, and gives all of her patients cutesy, cringy, cruel nicknames like Tawdry Twyla and Weepy Jasmine. One morning a new patient arrives, tells her, “I’m going to kill someone, and I know who you really are,” and walks out. This sets off twin storylines, narrated by three different characters–1) Caroline in the present, trying to figure out who this guy […]



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