octothorp – Page 26 – Cannonball Read 17

Is it a secret if I figure it out less than halfway through?

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

December 20, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

That’s an awfully snarky review title from someone who quite liked this book, but there was a point where a character shows the tiniest hint of a dark side and immediately I thought “yep, there’s the plot twist. I bet REDACTED is actually REDACTED and at some point REDACTED.” And despite the fact that I was 100% correct, I still enjoyed finding out how it all came together, which is the mark of a pretty well-written book. I also read this book at what may […]

Apparently it’s analogies week here on Octothorp’s Review Page

Circe by Madeline Miller

December 20, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

I liked this book, but it’s my Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I liked it but everyone I know whose taste I respect LOVED it. It should tick all my boxes (and as this is a story about the Greek Pantheon, there’s plenty of box ticking if you know what I mean), but it was just good for me, not great. I love Greek Mythology, I love revisiting classic tales from an ancillary character’s perspective, and I really love feminist reworkings of classic works. So […]

Literally all sizzle and no steak

Gastrophysics by Charles Spense

December 18, 2019 by octothorp 1 Comment

I have a problem with books about food. Not recipe books, although that’s a thing too, books about cooking, flavors, culinary science. I’m fully aware that food writing could easily be subbed in for music in that Frank Zappa quote about how “writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” but I don’t care, I’m here for it. There’s a dozen tweets about how frustrating it is to pull up a recipe and be confronted with three pages of why the author loves the flavors; […]

Chasing the love of these humans who made you feel wanted

Shiny Objects by James Roberts

December 18, 2019 by octothorp 1 Comment

I was so excited to read this book based on the subtitle – Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy – but this isn’t about why people shop or the psychology of consumerism. It’s mostly just a condemnation of it, and I don’t need that. I get it. We buy too much stuff. There’s probably someone who needs to read a book telling them if you have to have a storage unit for your material goods, you have […]

More like lost lizard

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore

December 18, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

Follow me on this one. Sometimes I’ll turn on the radio and I’ll hear a song that’s either Panic At the Disco or Fall Out Boy. The only way I’ll know which band it turns out to be is whether I like it. If I like it, it’s Panic At the Disco. If I don’t, it’s Fall Out Boy. The songs sound essentially identical, there’s nothing to differentiate them, I can’t tell them apart, they have one song type. But if I hear that song […]

….And then everyone clapped

Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins

December 10, 2019 by octothorp Leave a Comment

My dad once told me of a movie he started watching about a WWII veteran presumed dead coming back into town to find his wife about to marry another man; the wife was beside herself and bemoaned her situation to her best friend “I know you always had a crush on (dead soldier), but surely you understand my impossible position,” whereupon my father turned off the TV as that one sentence rendered the rest of the movie irrelevant. I picked up this book, about two […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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