Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Lawyer by day, voracious reader by night. So many books, so little time!

Wanderlustful's Reviews:

Harry Potter in the upside down

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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I really wanted to love this but ended this more meh. It’s definitely trying to channel later instalment Harry Potter, but with more diversity and less heartwarming-ness. Our protagonist is El, short for Galadriel, who is in her next to last year school at the Scholomance, an international wizard high school. Unlike Hogwarts, the Scholomance is self- taught (no Dumbledores or Snapes) and brimming with danger day to day, mostly in the form of magical monsters (Mals, short for maleficaria). In this world, the surges […]

Didn’t seduce me into joining the Brene Brown cult

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

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Brene Brown comes highly recommended by a few girlfriends, so I picked this one up at the library to see what all the fuss is about. I suspect seeing or hearing her speak may be part of the magic, as reading this was fine but not life changing. The book itself is a slim 160 pages, with the first half outlining the core ideas and the last half digging into 10 ‘Guideposts’ about things to move away from/closer too. The title of the book -The […]

Twisty fun thriller

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

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Lucy Foley has become one of the big names in chick-lit thrillers- you’ve probably seen the cover of this one on some of Goodreads ‘best of’ lists or the eye-level shelf at Indigo (The Guest List, The Hunting Party, The Paris Apartment- think out of focus black and white photos with bright colorful (hot pink, electric yellow, bright red) titles). This was the first of hers I’ve read, and it was fun (and tense! The woman knows how to dial up the stress level. The […]

There once was a girl from Nantucket

A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

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This was my first Elin Hilderbrand novel and I’m not sure I’m sold on reading more of her (I’m not a hard no but I’m not a hard yes either). Part of that was expectations- with a name like The Summer Affair, I was expecting a fun juicy summer romance. Full warning to anyone who hasn’t read this (or who hasn’t read Hilderbrand- I suspect if you have you might have other expectations already) that this book is not that. The titular affair is almost […]

A real sense of place

The Ghostway by Tony Hillerman

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Tony Hillerman mysteries are my jam. I love the sense of place he captures, the mood he creates and the characters we watch develop. That Hillerman is a white man writing about Native American people and places gives me pause, but what I’ve read suggests that he is knowledgeable on and accurate about the indigenous traditions and background he includes. And I just love these books! The Ghostway features Sergeant Jim Chee, a Navajo Nation detective who features in most of Hillerman’s novels. At the […]

Our Mothers, Ourselves?

The Push by Ashley Audrain

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I’ve been hearing the buzz about Audrain’s novel since last year so was excited to pull it out as a summer vacation read. It did not disappoint! I had the impression that the novel was a horror but psychological thriller is more accurate. The protagonist, Blythe, is a forty something divorced mother of two writing a long letter to her ex-husband. She weaves together the story of their marriage with snapshots of her childhood, particularly her relationship with her mother. The letter is a narrative, […]



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