Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Jake

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I love reading! (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Jake's Quick Questions interview.)

Jake's Reviews:

Cold as Hell

The Ice Beneath Her by Camilla Grebe

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Read as part of CBR14Bingo: series. This is the first in what’s referred to Stateside as the “Hanne Lagerlind-Schon” series. It’s also part of a series of popular “Nordic Noir” and/or “Scandinavian Noir” tales that have made it to the United States. I don’t really know what to make of Camilla Grebe’s interesting, sometimes frustrating, always compelling The Ice Beneath Her, except to say that I enjoyed it. It’s twisty to be sure but I always felt like the twists were grounded in the pathos of […]

Hell Is Empty

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

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Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: verse. This book frequently quotes the “Hell is empty, all the devils are here” passage from “The Tempest”, as well as verses from a fictional short story inspired by that passage.  This left me with the same feeling I felt when I first read Tana French’s debut novel In the Woods: good but I feel like it’s missing something to prevent it from being great. I really liked the first half of the book: getting to know the three POV characters, […]

Stoner

New York Dead by Stuart Woods

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Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: funky. This one is tough. I picked this for “funky” because Woods is descriptive of the fetid scents of Manhattan air. There’s also some funky stuff that happens later in the book, which I won’t spoil. I was able to be clever with my other choices but am tapping out with this one. I’m always on the look out for fun New York tales, especially ones set in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Despite the bad reviews, I was tempted […]

New York S—Y

Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by Maggie Haberman

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Read this as part of cbr14bingo: time. Maggie Haberman connects Donald Trump’s presidency to his upbringing, rise, fall, and rebirth in New York City. By covering one aspect of time, we learn how the city and the country made the man…and how he would eventually remake the country. An aside: The cover art is from The Washington Post’s review of Haberman’s book. I loved it, though I’m out of free articles and have no idea who to credit with it. Ever since his presidency mercifully ended, I’ve had a […]

Ice Ice Baby

The Ice Coven by Max Seeck

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Read as part of CBR14Bingo “cold” for multiple reasons: it has “ice” in the title, the cover is a woman standing on a frozen body of water outside of an island covered in snow, and it’s set in Finland in November. All of this shouts: cold cold cold! This is why book bingos are great. I picked up this book in a Target of all places because I read good things about the author. But knowing it was the second in a series, and seeing […]

Forevermore

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

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Read as part of cbr14bingo: gaslight. This book took place in gaslight era New York state. There’s even a gaslight on the book cover!  Most of the time, I ditch the vaunted 5th star from an otherwise excellent book due to the ending. I’m usually disappointed by endings and even if I try to be graceful, I still can sometimes get disappointed by one. I can’t recall ever bumping a book from four stars to five due to the ending, yet here we are. I’m not […]



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