Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About cheerbrarian

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I am a born and bred southerner and transplant to the Midwest. I read because I NEED to (as a former English major, it's in the DNA) and because I'm possibly ignoring frigid temperatures. Until summer, and then I'll just be reading outside. I also enjoy cooking, witty banter, and cheese. All the cheese. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: ardaigle's Quick Questions interview.)

cheerbrarian's Reviews:

“It’s terrifying when you consider that every thought we have, every choice we could possibly make, branches off into a new world.”

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

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I had been telling people for years that I didn’t like this book. Recently when I asked a friend for a recommendation of something I could read when I ran, she suggested it and I again gave it a “meh, didn’t love it.” Imagine my surprise when I figured out I had not, in fact, read this book at all. (My sincerest apologies to Blake Crouch). I conflated this book (cover on the left) with Geek Love (cover on the right), about a family of […]

“Everyone who dies is alive. We call people “dead” because we need a word for it, but “dead” just means that time has stopped moving forward for that person? You understand? No one dies, not really.”

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

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I LOVE THIS BOOK AND BOOK SERIES AND YOU SHOULD READ IT. Yup. All caps. Yelling right out of the gate. I mean serious business. This joy is not a drill! This book is the fourth in the series, so if you haven’t read The Thursday Murder Club you should begin at the beginning and prepare to nearly swoon with delight in each installment. Osman has created a quartet of characters that I cannot wait to visit when I finally travel to England, because duh […]

“Just because I’m a librarian doesn’t mean I have to dress like one.”

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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I am delighted to get to write this review on International Women’s Day. It’s an amazing story about a woman, written by two other women and it’s SO FREAKIN’ GOOD. Go get this book! (Seriously. Go get it. I’m going to sell you on wanting to read it during the rest of my review, I promise, so you might as well “add to cart” now). This book is another great selection of the Schaumburg Library book club so SHOUT OUT to the public library for […]

“They have vegan cheese.” “No, they don’t. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for.”

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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I was looking for something light after a few dense reads and this came recommended by a friend as a fun romp for the brain, or in the author’s own words, a “pop song” of a book. Scalzi had me at page 21, with this hilarious exchange. “They have vegan cheese.” “No, they don’t. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for.” And yes, I know that vegan cheese certainly exists, but as a person who unabashedly loves […]

“A dilemma, my father used to say, is nothing but two bad options.”

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley

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I started this book with minimal expectations, having never heard of the book or the author, and I can now say this book wasn’t for me. Overall it was paced too slow and the book was too long for me to find it enjoyable or gripping, but it wasn’t so bad that I stopped outright (plus, it was for a book club and I tend to see book club picks through to the end). The subject matter of this book is heavy and for me […]

“We didn’t call the police right away.”

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

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This book is the “One Book One Community” pick for my local library this year and is the story of a family frantically searching for their missing father, told from the perspective of his 20-year-old daughter, Mia. From the opening sentence, “We didn’t call the police right away” I was gripped with Kim’s novel and Mia’s storytelling. I found this book to be very readable and hard to put down, and specifically catered to my literary and personal interests. First of all, done well I […]



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