Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About LadyStardust

CBR 9
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant

Chicago part-time artist with unfulfilling day job misses writing book reports.

LadyStardust's Reviews:

And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

by Leave a Comment

The first of the Southern Reach Trilogy is probably very familiar to most Cannonballers, so I won’t spend too long summarizing. A group of four women experts are sent in to investigate Area X, an environmental anomaly that has subsumed and remade a section of coast and wilderness and seems to be expanding. Theirs is the latest in a string of failed expeditions, after previous groups of men have either never returned, or come back changed. The women are given no names, only titles, and […]

Investigating the Texas Yogurt Shop Murders

by Leave a Comment

I am probably one of many who picked this up after it was name-checked during My Favorite Murder’s discussion of the Texas Yogurt Shop Murders, and I found it to be incredibly informative, not just concerning the crimes, but also the factors that have made it so notorious, and so hard to solve. Beverly Lowry’s detailed account explores the facts of the horrifying crime, from the girls’ lives and families, the landscape of Austin before and after, through the decades long investigation. But it isn’t […]

I’m still so mad at this book.

by 2 Comments

This was terrible. I finished it, because I had to, because I started it. But guys. I’m so glad I didn’t pay for this book. I’m gonna not shy away from spoilers here, because I doubt anyone is considering reading this, and if they are, they shouldn’t be. So yea, spoilers will abound from here out. This book is not worth your time. The central mystery is the disappearance/murder of Charlotte Broden, as investigated by her sister, Ella. The biggest issue is that Charlotte and […]

Who do you run to when there’s no one to trust?

by Leave a Comment

Daniel hasn’t heard from his parents in months, since they moved to an idyllic farmstead in Sweden to retire. When his father calls and tells him that his mother is sick, that her mind has failed her, it’s a shock. Even more so when his mother calls and says that his father is involved in a criminal conspiracy, and is trying to have her committed in order to keep her quiet. Daniel’s mother runs London to him to tell him her story of terrible crimes […]

“Nothing good happens in the middle of the night, right?”

by Leave a Comment

Elizabeth receives a call late one night, and it’s the worst news she can imagine. Her son, Tommy, has vanished into the local woods without a trace after spending the day at his usual hangout, a large split boulder deep in the woods that the boys have been calling Devil’s Rock. The friends he was with seem to be hiding something and there are no other leads on where he might have gone. As the official investigation into his disappearance stalls, Elizabeth begins to see […]

Kinda missed the Big Revolution

by Leave a Comment

I’ve had a pretty mixed go of things with the Kindle First free book selections, and this one falls slightly above the middle for me. I was in the mood for something with an historical footing, and the off-beat structure of this drew me in very quickly, though it disappointed in the ultimate execution of the story. The story takes place over two timelines, one short afternoon in the present, and over several weeks as recalled by the main character. Yoona, our narrator, is being […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo