andtheIToldYouSos – Page 23 – Cannonball Read 17

cbr12bingo – Money!

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

August 25, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos 3 Comments

Another square down, and another trip down (also up, under, and through) the Thames (looking at you, Rivers of London). The Thames is the titular river of Once Upon a River another story about telling stories from Diane Setterfield (The Thirteenth Tale). A mysterious man and a young girl come crashing through the doors of The Swan, an inn on the river that is well known for it’s story and for it’s story tellers. The man is grievously injured; the girl is stone dead. The […]

cbr12bingo – Cannonballer Says

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

August 17, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos 6 Comments

Y’all really got me with this one! Bothari43 first grabbed my attention with an excellent review/cat pic combo, then Bea Pants increased my interest with promises of broad swords and dirty magazines. I don’t usually read much Science Fiction/Fantasy, but after the surprise hits of new favorite Becky Chambers (whom I would not have found without the help of Cannonball), I decided to give it a go! I was wary at first of the breakdown of Houses; I am often scared off by complex mythologies, […]

cbr12bingo – Fresh Start

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

August 17, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos 2 Comments

I have a confession to make: I judged this book by its cover. I remember the frenzy of press around this book, the series, and the *mysterious* author. I also remember seeing the cover and being completely uninterested. It is, in my opinion, a dreadful cover. It looks like it was cobbled together to act as a prop. It looks like a poorly thought out passion project. I still think the cover is awful, but I am glad that I changed my mind around shunning […]

cbr12bingo – Yellow (and the close of a ten-part series)

Stop in the Name of Pants! by Louise Rennison

Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison

August 10, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

Well friends, we have come to the end of my re-adventures with the misadventures of Miss Georgia Nicolson! I thought, incorrectly of course, that it would be a fight to finish this series. I bought it during an “online shopping under the influence” session, and I thought that it would be a bit of a laugh down memory lane- but one that ended far short of the destination. When the ten-book set bounced onto my porch one morning, my first thought was “what have I […]

“He breathed in my face the coffee he’d just drunk, mingled with the odor of his gums.”

A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

August 10, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

1970s Naples: a thirteen year old girl of privilege is suddenly removed from her seaside home and returned to a cramped and dirty apartment outside the city. The key word here is “returned”; our heroine has been sent “home” to a place that she never knew. She spent her entire life living with her glamorous mother and policeman father, only to have that reality shattered in one afternoon when the man she knew as her father bundles her and all of her belongings into the […]

“There are albino peacocks kept in the garden at church. They hide their babies on the roof. When the mother bird escapes onto the street she is occasionally lured back with dog biscuits. One day she didn’t return. In a dream, I stuff her in my backpack. The peacock’s periscope neck peeks out.”

Imaginary Museums by Nicolette Polek

August 3, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

This collection feels like rifling around in your bag for your phone, but finding a rabbit instead. Did you put that rabbit there? Were you really looking for your phone? Where did the rabbit come from? Why can’t you remember why you went to look in your bag in the first place? Is that your bag? I enjoy very short fiction, and much like Sing to It, this collection is also crammed with very short stories. Nicolette Polek has a gift, and she can say more […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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