Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Good evening, everyone. I'm Leslie Monster, and this is Nightline. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: narfna's Quick Questions interview.)

narfna's Reviews:

A Brit among the cactuses.

Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah

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I’m posting my review featuring the British version of the book, which has the original (and MUCH better) title of Did You See Melody? rather than the sanitized and bland as hell US version of Keep Her Safe. YAWN. What were you thinking, US publisher? This is one that’s been on my shelves since spring 2018 when Sophie Hannah came to the Tucson Festival of Books as part of promoting it, and I got to escort her around campus. I’d never read any of her […]

My first five star read of 2022. I did not expect this!

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

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So I’ve been bemoaning this all over Goodreads for a couple of weeks now, but I’ve been in a five-star drought since 2022 started. (I wonder if it’s because the last book I read in 2021, Harrow the Ninth, was one of the most five-star books I’ve ever read, and the universe is just balancing itself out . . . ) I’ve been waiting, impatiently, to see what book would capture my emotions enough for me to slap that coveted five-star rating on, as I’ve […]

A Do-It-Yourself Mystery.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

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This was a pretty unique reading experience! I picked it up because of the pretty cover (the American one is shit, so yes I did buy it from the UK) and because it sad ‘Sunday Times Bestseller’ on it, and it’s a mystery. I am basic. (In my defense, the last time I did all of that, I ended up with The Thursday Murder Club, which everyone who loves mysteries should read immediately.) For all y’all Americans, the appeal in question is not a legal […]

“Peterson remembered with a smile that the US Department of the Interior had made a thorough prediction of trends in 1937, and had missed atomic energy, computers, radar, antibiotics, and World War II. Yet they all kept on, with this simple-minded linear extrapolation that was, despite a bank of computers to refine the numbers, still merely a new way to be stupid in an expensive fashion.”

Timescape by Gregory Benford

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The world is dying and some some scientists make a literal last ditch effort to send a message back in time in an attempt to avert the present day ecological crisis. We follow both the present day scientists in their attempts to save the world, and the scientists in the past as they try to decode the strange interference that seems to be coming from nowhere. I had such good luck reading classic sf in 2020, but in 2021 and now 2022 my choices have […]

This book is bubblier and more playful than the cover would indicate.

The Neighbor's Secret by L. Alison Heller

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I liked this, but except for two elements that set it apart, this is kind of just a Big Little Lies clone. So, this three stars is a more positive three stars. I really did like the experience of reading this book. The writing is very playful, and the characters have depth to them. There’s also a satirical edge to some of the goings-on, like the neighborhood book club meetings the novel revolves around, which each feature, excepting Lolita, what I’m pretty sure is a […]

This metaphor is a metaphor for my metaphor.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

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This is a really tough one for me to review, and not because of the subject matter. I wasn’t drawn to this one on my own, but picked it up because one of my real life book clubs chose it for January. I did the audio because it was available on SCRIBD, a service I already pay for, and I didn’t have time to do the hard copy with my already packed January TBR. This turned out to be a mistake, I think, though not […]



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