Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Each of us has a monster we must confront, a monster designed to test our personal weaknesses.”

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

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This book has been on my list since I read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Hendrix takes on another staple of the horror genre here: the slasher. But in this case, the focus is on what happens to those Final Girls after the credits roll. Lynette Tarkington is a final girl. As a teen, she survived a Christmas Day massacre that saw her entire family die. Lynette is older now, but she is definitely not okay. She is a creature of caution […]

Fun Behind-The-Scenes Stories

The Office BFFs: Tales From The Office From Two Best Friends Who Were There by Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey

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Best for: Fans of either The Office TV show, or The Office Ladies podcast In a nutshell: Jenna ‘Pam’ Fischer and Angela ‘Angela’ Kinsey share stories of their time on The Office, which led to them becoming best friends. Worth quoting: N/A (audio book) Why I chose it: It was suggested by Audible and sounded fun Review: I didn’t watch The Office when it was on – I mean, I’m sure I saw episodes of it at the time but it wasn’t a show I […]

Anti-Semites Get Theirs

Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America by Michael Benson

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CBR 14 Bingo: Bodies Bodies hit the floor a whole lot of times, if not permanently. With Nazism on the rise in 1930s America, protected by free speech laws, a Jewish judge sets out to deal with them in the only way he knows how – by setting gangsters on them. I’m not big on WW2 stories, mostly because I feel like the market is rather oversaturated. But rather perversely I’m still always on the lookout for unique stories in this setting, because those stories […]

A Potted History

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling

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It seems ridiculous to pen a review of the first Harry Potter novel. This is a world-wide smash hit, everyone has read it (some numerous times – myself included). Everyone knows the story of The Boy Who Lived, and his tumultuous first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. So why am I reviewing this book? Because my family, including my husband, five year old son, and two corgis drove 3,550km across Australia to play in the snow at the Snowy Mountains. We chunked […]

Talk philosophy to me, baby

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Shur

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Michael Shur, creator of (among other comedies shows) The Good Place, has applied the research he performed to write that series and laid it out, in layperson’s terms, in How To Be Perfect. This non-fiction book, which I digested in Audiobook format read by Shur himself, was an informative (if surface-level) look into the world of ethical and moral philosophy. It’s peppered with funny asides and illustrative anecdotes throughout, with quotes by notable philosophers read by members of The Good Place cast. Shur sets out […]

An unintentional Mercy Thompson reading binge.

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

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CBR Bingo: Series I usually take my time with my urban fantasy series. I like to savor them and read a few worlds at a time. To not let the reviews pile up (again), I usually read one or two books in a row. Not this go round. I’ve read five in a row for the OG Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I’ve also fallen in love with the first three books in the spin-off Alpha & Omega series. Once I got going, it […]



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