Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About elderberrywine

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Elder LOTR/Holmes fan girl/writer since forever.

elderberrywine's Reviews:

Marvel Comics has Nothing On This

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

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cbr16bingo liberate I had some vague memories of Ethiopia’s situation during WWII, so I went back to do some research after reading this novel by an Ethiopian author.  And as far as I can determine, I must rate it as mostly true and totally unbelievable. What I was unaware of was the back story.  Italy had invaded Ethiopia in the late 19th century, because they thought they should have some colonies too, and this African country seemed to be easy pickings.  They were absolutely wrong, […]

Not Your Normal Turgenev

On the Eve by Ivan Turgenev

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Now I love myself some classical Russian lit.  Not the big names, but more the second tier; not in quality, but more in popularity.  Gogol, Goncharov, and especially Turgenev, these guys are my jam.  They write of the lives of the Russian gentry, not in the cities, but out on their estates.  There is a certain calm and peacefulness that I am addicted to.  Granted there are serfs and peasants, but they seem to be agents of their own fate.  It all seems to work […]

Cast of *Checks Notes* 300? All Right, Carry On!

The Hive by Camilo Jose Cela

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Eons ago, my BFF and I were wandering through a museum in Bruges, Belgium, when we stumbled on The Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch.  We must have parked ourselves in front of it for a good half hour (museums weren’t particularly crowded in those days) and yokels from California that we were, we were impressed.  The details and clever use of bodily orifices was stunning.  This book struck me as a secular Spanish version of same. Cela was a Spanish Nobel Prize winner, and this […]

An Impressive Heroine, All the More So Seeing As She Is Still in Middle School

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

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In a small town along the cliffs of northern California, a young girl has disappeared.  Walk and his best friend, Vincent, are both teens and join in the search.  Walk wants to join the police force, like his dad, and when the girl’s body is found along the roadside, he forces himself to give evidence that implicates Vincent.  Vincent ends up in prison and after killing a man in a prison fight, ends up there for thirty years.  Walk does what he can to stay […]

Never Trust Oil Guys. Just Sayin’

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife by Erle Stanley Gardner

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I love it when Gardner kicks off his latest case by getting deep down into the legal weeds of whether deferred drilling payments can be cured at the very last minute before the property is sold by the widow title holder or not.  I know what he is referring to is very much a California property issue, and a fidgety bit of law, but dang, Erle, this is only eight pages into the book, and none of the characters have been properly introduced to us […]

Sometimes You Just Need a Good Time

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan

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Well. I picked up this book because it concerned my favorite hobby other than reading.  I used to sew all my clothes except for jeans (my machine balked at the crotch seam), even during all the years I worked in Corporate America.  And yes, I did sew my wedding dress, and that was a trip.  Day of the wedding, it’s still not totally finished, so there I stood in it that morning with my mother and sisters frantically hand sewing the lace around the hem.  […]



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