Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About esmemoria

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Eager to get back on the horse this year! In my walking around life, I miss my old, blind pug (the Ancient Mariner), help amazing college students become teachers, and tie an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: esmemoria's Quick Questions interview.)

esmemoria's Reviews:

Good Job, Pickle

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

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CBR Bingo: Font I picked Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder for the font square because the book has a lot of different fonts in the text. The book uses a variety fonts to indicate things like the main character Pippa’s interview transcripts, text messages between characters, hand-written notes about the crime, and a scary note that shows up in formal font warning Pippa away from her investigation. I have a fondness (font-ness! hahahaha) for handwriting fonts, and there are some good ones […]

Effervescent Holiday Mystery

The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall by Benedict Brown

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CBR Bingo: Holiday The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall is an absolutely delightful mystery by Benedict Brown. I’ve never heard of Brown, but he has a series featuring retired police superintendent Lord Edgington as the main detective, including in this book. Lord Mountfalcon has invited the Edgingtons and other individuals to his estate in Britain for Christmas. Accompanied by his teenaged grandson, Christopher, who is also the narrator, Lord Edgington sets off for the house. Edgington is a really engaging character. He’s clever, mischievous and loves […]

The One Where I Just Want to Quote the Whole Book

Welcome to Hell World: Dispatches from the American Dystopia by Luke O’Neil

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CBR Bingo: Series I also didn’t want to write a story from the neutered and dispassionate center that most mainstream publications require. I didn’t want to hear from a person suffering and then give space to the person causing that suffering to explain themselves. Something I wrote in one of the first newsletters I sent out was that my only promise to the readers is that I will never hear both sides and I think I kept that one. Luke O’Neil’s Welcome to Hell World: […]

Murderous Pasts, Stabby Presents

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

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CBR Bingo: Cozy Once a man is imbued with the idea that he knows who ought to be allowed to live and who ought not—then he is halfway to becoming the most dangerous killer there is—the arrogant criminal who kills not for profit—but for an idea. Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table is a pretty good cozy mystery. A Mephistophelean host, Mr. Shaitana, invites what he purports are four murderers who got away with their crimes to dinner. He also invites four sleuths, including Hercule […]

The Worst Time I’ve Ever Been Spoiled

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

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CBR Bingo: Elephant I am an Agatha Christie freak. I love everything she’s ever written and have read almost all of her books. One of her most famous books, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, is known for its ingenious twist. For many years I was excited to read the book. One day I was browsing my mother’s books, when I found a guide to all of Christie’s novels—basically a reading list, in the order they were written and in some cases the order they should […]

A Humane True Crime Recounting

The Ghosts that Haunt Me by Steve Ryan

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CBR Bingo: Snake Retired Canadian detective’s Steve Ryan’s The Ghosts that Haunt Me is a thoughtful, interesting look into cases that have stayed with him over the course of his career. I have read a lot of true crime, and this is one of the better books in the genre, particularly for its sensitive handling of victims’ stories and how their cases impacted the lives of their loved ones (as well as the investigators of their murders). Too often true crime can be salacious or […]



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