Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About TheShitWizard

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Drinking tea, reading books, petting cats. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: TheShitWizard's Quick Questions interview.)

TheShitWizard's Reviews:

A killer debut

Killed It by Lulu Smith

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Ally Brown is a mess. Having once harboured dreams of being a stand-up comedian, lately she’s been finding herself avoiding performing and then lying to her boyfriend about it. Meanwhile, at the day job given to her by his wealthy parents, her boss has disappeared and left her at the mercy of an absolute ogre of a replacement. Frustrated and angry, Ally lashes out and accidentally kills a rude jogger in Central Park, and from then on one bad decision leads to another. Killed It […]

Maybe I don’t wanna visit a Stephen King kinda town after all…

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

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In my very long Stephen King reading history, it’s a rare book of his that I don’t enjoy (The Talisman, The Dark Half and The Regulators are the only books so far to really hold that distinction). While Bag of Bones doesn’t quite rate as one of his best for me, it’s definitely up there – I read this big, fat book in just two sittings, with Sara Laughs and the residents of the TR being so vividly rendered that I even dreamed about it […]

“Well-behaved women seldom make history”

Cranky Ladies of History by Tehani Croft Wessely, Tansy Rayner Roberts (editors)

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Cranky Ladies of History is an anthology containing 22 fictional snapshots of the lives and deeds of exactly what it says on the cover – ladies who refused, whether for good or ill, to conform and live within the confines of the roles set for them by society and found their names echoing through the ages for it. Inside we have women from around the world: royalty, criminals, nuns, spies, warriors and more – some I’d heard of but many of whom were entirely new […]

Getting back where he belongs

The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian

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The Letter of Marque is the twelfth book in the Aubrey/Maturin series, and I don’t seem to be enjoying it any less as time – and the series – stretches on. Here we catch up with Jack after he’s been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime on the stock exchange that he could never have understood enough to commit. But he’s not without a boat, The Surprise having been surreptitiously bought by his now rather minted best friend Stephen, and given a […]

“Remember, never take no cut-offs and hurry along as fast as you can”

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown

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The Indifferent Stars Above is the gripping tale of the Donner Party who in 1846 set off from their homes in the east of the United States of America to travel overland to California, only to discover that the ‘shortcut’ they’d been promised was no such thing, leaving them to flounder in a hostile landscape as winter set in. As the months passed and with no thaw in sight, a small number of the party would attempt to reach civilisation and get help, leaving the […]

I’m gonna need more musicians to write children’s stories

Stories for Ways and Means by Jeff Antebi (creator)

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From the Waxploitation label comes Stories for Ways and Means, a gorgeous collaboration of artists and musicians that feature ‘grown up’ children’s stories with the majority of the proceeds going to organisations promoting children’s literacy.  Featuring lots of musicians I like as well as others I’ve never heard of, the 29 collaborations in this book range from the whimsical to the weird, with my particular highlight (coming as no surprise to anyone who knows me) being Nick Cave’s The Lonely Giant. Other stories that also […]



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