auntadadoom – Page 2 – Cannonball Read 17

I’d say they should marry other people but they are both annoying aholes so …

The Transformation of Philip Jettan by Georgette Heyer

June 8, 2022 by auntadadoom 1 Comment

I think this is my last Heyer for a while. I feel like such a curmudgeon when I read what’s intended to be a light-hearted romp and find every character revolting. So Georgette Heyer is mainly known for her regency romances, but she also wrote many murder mysteries (one of which was the first and last Heyer I actually enjoyed this year) and some books set in the earlier powdered wig era … and The Transformation of Philip Jettan is one of those. In fact […]

Sophy is fine, Charles is a pill

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

June 1, 2022 by auntadadoom 3 Comments

You realllly need to sell the plus side of a crabby-Darcy character type, or my reaction to any reasonably nice woman ending up with him is gonna be “Ehhhh … I don’t get it.” I enjoyed A Christmas Party earlier this year, the first time I’d read one of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries, and the jacket quotes on The Grand Sophy persuaded me that this would be a fun comical romance. And the setup is indeed fun — Sophy, raised from a young age by her diplomat […]

For the OG Sex and the City fans, if Samantha was the writer

Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King

May 23, 2022 by auntadadoom 2 Comments

Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer is a sweet, sex-positive collection of essays by Rax King. The author frames each essay as “about” a particular pop cultural artifact — Hot Topic, America’s Next Top Model, the Cheesecake Factory — and uses that as a jumping-off point for personal memoir. First, the good: she’s a very skilled writer, and even the chapters that are about cultural moments that I didn’t personally experience (e.g. Degrassi) are well-handled enough that I was able […]

Fun world, solid structure and writing, stop after two “Whys”

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

March 31, 2022 by auntadadoom Leave a Comment

When you’re a student at a school for spies, which is disguised as a tony all-girls academy, and by the way your mom is the headmistress … falling for a townie is a little tough. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You is the first in a series about the students at Gallagher Academy — the Gallagher Girls. I’m not sure if all the books in the series focus on the same protagonist (Cammie, the daughter of the headmistress), but […]

Like a Hallmark Christmas movie but playful and there’s a murder

A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer

March 30, 2022 by auntadadoom 3 Comments

I had read a couple of Georgette Heyer’s romance books — Frederica is a favorite — but A Christmas Party is the first mystery of hers that I’ve given a try. It’s solid! As the book opens, Joseph Herriard is busy preparing the house for a Christmas party. It’s not his house — it belongs to his crotchety brother, Nathaniel, but Joseph is determined to gather the family for a festive cozy time. Unfortunately his family includes all kinds of confounding characters — besides the […]

Mother-flipper thinks everything is a mother-flipping joke

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey by Richard Ayoade

March 26, 2022 by auntadadoom Leave a Comment

If you are familiar with Richard Ayoade’s acting (or, as he would say, ‘acting’) from The IT Crowd, Apple & Onion, or The Mighty Boosh, you just might hear his distinctive voice and cadence in your head as you read every line of Ayoade on Ayoade. The book, ostensibly an artist “in conversation with himself” as he “reflects on his cinematic legacy” is a collection of Ayoade being weird with and to and about himself, in front of readers, in different prose forms. There are […]

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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