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:

Books in Their Time

Beast in View by Margaret Millar

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Margaret Millar’s mystery, Beast in View, initially puzzled me. The language used and various formalities made the setting sound like the 19th century, only there were modern features like cars. It also reminded me of English mysteries set in small towns where everyone knows each other, but this was set in the sprawling LA area. The plot moved slow as the mystery unfolded, and seemed derivative of other more famous books and short stories. A woman in her 30s, Helen Clarvoe, is being stalked by […]

Hot Kylo Ren, Toxic Relationships, and Dull Writing

The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster

The Last Jedi by Jason Fry

The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson

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I am obsessed with Adam Driver. If you are not obsessed with Adam Driver, I know not your constitution. I’ve become obsessed with the Star Wars movies episodes IX through XI and the sexy, tortured, full lipped character of Kylo Ren, who is the villain. I originally wrote “hero” by mistake, which shows how twisted my love is. So enamored of Kylo, Rey, and the movies in general, I somewhat abashedly bought the books based on the movies. And boy do they kind of suck. […]

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

The Steel Kiss by Jeffrey Deaver

by 3 Comments

I didn’t like the last Jeffrey Deaver book I reviewed, yet I went right ahead and picked up The Steel Kiss. This is another strangely inert suspense novel with multiple plots that don’t have much to do with each other. I’ve read a ton of Deaver’s books and every time I read a more recent one I hope it will have the same fast pace, ingenious plotting, and stellar twists of his earlier work. It’s not that the plots are so terrible, but they are […]

An Inside Look at the Nuremberg Trials

Nuremberg Diary by G.M. Gilbert

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This review should more accurately be called an inside look at the defendants of the Nuremburg trials. Nuremburg Diary is a series of in-depth observations and conversations between author G.M. Gilbert and the Nazi defendants, presented in diary form. Before each diary entry, Gilbert sets the trial context. In brief italicized passages, he provides a synopsis of what the trial focused on that day, and follows the passages with detailed accounts of his conversations with the accused. This book was fascinating. The defendants reveal themselves […]

Diamonds are a Reader’s Worst Friend

The Cutting Edge by Jeffrey Deaver

by 3 Comments

I have read Jeffrey Deaver’s suspense novels on and off for 20 years. I remember in the beginning I loved his ability to raise tension and throw in plot twist after plot twist. Those glory days are over. Deaver’s The Cutting Edge is easily his most boring, flaccid, unsurprising book. The plot is a convoluted mix of international intrigue, diamonds, conspiracies, environmentalism, and of course, murder. The gore is fairly light, although there is a ludicrous scene where the villain forces a victim to swallow […]

The Monster of Grief

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

by 8 Comments

It took me three-quarters of the way through A Monster Calls before I began to appreciate it. Throughout much of the book I was repelled by the protagonist’s unlikability, and his bottomless anger at everything and everyone in his life. But then my view changed. The main character is a boy named Conor. His mother is sick with cancer, he rarely sees his father who lives in another country, and his mother’s mother is cold to him. Conor is plagued by an unspeakable dream every […]



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