Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Carriejay

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Many moons ago I took part in Cannonball Read II, under the name Teabelly. A lot has changed since then, and I now have five year old twin girls. I'm not getting as much reading done, but I'm hoping to make a half Cannonball at least.

Carriejay's Reviews:

“Life isn’t that messy if you stay away from mess.”

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

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Film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane, returns to her old boarding school of Granby to teach a couple of classes for two weeks. Being back in the familiar grounds brings back memories of her time there, and how she felt like she didn’t fit in. The wrong clothes, little money, quiet and closed-off, Bodie eventually found a friendship group that she carried into adulthood. But her junior year roommate didn’t get to grow up. Thalia Keith was murdered their senior year, and Bodie starts to […]

“For the rest of my life there would be a splinter in my being, stinging from the moment my mother died until it was buried with me.”

Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner

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In her mid-twenties, Michelle Zauner gets the call that her mother is sick. It’s cancer, and it’s bad. She heads home to help look after her mother through her treatments, and until her death. Entwined around these recollections are essays about her relationship with her mother, childhood memories of holidays spent with extended family in Korea. Meeting, or failing to meet, parental expectations. Coming of age, moving out, trying to make it in music. And always coming back to her mother and the effect losing […]

The Woods Have Teeth

Wilderlore: The Accidental Apprentice by Amanda Foody

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Barclay Thorne is happy with his very uneventful life as an apprentice to his town’s mushroom farmer. His parents were killed by a Beast when he was seven and he’s been mostly on his own ever since. But one afternoon in the Woods looking for a specific mushroom, he runs into Viola, a Lore Keeper. These are people who bond with Beasts of various sizes, and use their lore magic. During an encounter with a Beast, Barclay accidentally bonds with one of them, and is […]

“She might be less than what she had once been, but she was still worth a hell of a lot.”

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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Billie and her three colleagues – Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie – are gearing up for retirement. After forty years of being international assassins, it’s time to hang up their weapons. Their organisation, The Museum, sends them on a fabulous cruise as part of the send off, but in the midst of the festivities they discover they’re being targeted by one of their own. Only the top level of the Museum can order a hit, and once they get our of their sticky situation, they’re […]

Butterflies with a side of murder

A Dangerous Collaboration by Deanna Raybourn

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Lured to an island by the promise of rare butterflies, lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell finds herself delving into another mystery. The charismatic Lord Templeton-Vane is a friend of Malcolm Romilly, whose wife disappeared shortly after they said their wedding vows. After his loss, and the subsequent gossip, he retreated into his secluded world, which includes a castle with lots of delightful hiding places. As part of the invite, Lord Templeton-Vane (Tiberius) asks Veronica to pretend to be his fiancee, for propriety’s sake. Nothing to do with […]

“I never wanted to be a hero, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let you turn me into a villain”

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

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Cora has returned from the Moors but feels the Drowned Gods whispering to her. They want her back. Feeling too close to open doors at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, she asks to be transferred to its sister school. There, students are not searching for their doors or a return to other worlds. They are being taught to fit into this one, to leave all that behind. Seeing how determined Cora is, Eleanor reluctantly lets her go. But Eleanor knows how awful the Whitethorn […]



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