Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When having nosy neighbors is a good thing

Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

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A murder mystery where the victims are authors of murder mysteries! This one had to be fun to write. It’s the second book with detective Harbinder Kaur (after Stranger Diaries), but I don’t think you have to read the first one to jump in. This was a great example of “group of nosy civilians gets involved and digs up clues while making the actual police officer’s life more complicated” genre. The civilians are a nurse at a care home, an 80-year-old resident of that care […]

A touch of science and romance

Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood

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After finding Ali Hazelwood through a recent book club book, I’ve been reading her trio of romantic STEM novellas. Below Zero (2022) is the second novella that I’ve read, and it has what I’ve come to expect from Hazelwood. There’s a smart science-y woman, a hunky hero, friendship, a misunderstanding, and in the end: a happily ever after. This one I listened to on Audiobook. Hannah has always known that she wants to work at NASA, and that knowledge has motivated her to succeed through a lot of schooling–even […]

Allergic to an audiobook.

Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2 Book 26/30 I’m sad that I’m rating this three stars, but it’s representative of my experience listening to the audiobook. If/when I re-read, I think I will like it better. Also, when I see where the story is going in book three. Sad face. My biggest takeaway from this book is that I found it extremely difficult to make everything that was happening cohere into a story in my mind. Everything felt so disconnected, and so I was […]

“By making me a bitch, you have freed me from the trite, sexist, bourgeois prison of ‘likability.’ Any idiot can be liked. It takes talent to scare the crap out of people.’

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2 Book 23/30 This was great. I’m not normally a fan of celebrity memoirs, because in my experience the books are often being written just because the celebrity wants to write a book, and there’s no literary reason for the book to exist. I don’t mean that in a snobby way, but more in the way that said celebrities just don’t have anything to say, or they think they have something to say but they are often wrong. Alison Arngrim […]

Full of grace

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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Project Hail Mary is a science fiction novel about, you guessed it, the end of the world. The novel begins with a man in a room, hooked up to a machine. He is disoriented and unaware of his own name. Through scientific discovery – trial and error – he discovers that he is on a spaceship and is the lone survivor of a mission to another star system. Gradually, his memory returns and he recalls that is name is Ryland Grace and he is on […]

Books, Friends, and… Murder?

The Tuesday Night Survivors' Club by Lynn Cahoon

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After surviving cancer, Rarity Cole moves to Sedona, Arizona, opening a bookstore and starting a book club for fellow cancer survivors. When a new member, Martha, disappears, Rarity, her best friend Sam, and the other book club members start investigating the case. I’m not one much for cozy mysteries, as in a way I can find them oppressive when they part too much from reality. But I was drawn to The Tuesday Night Survivors’ Club because of the unusual focus – a group of cancer survivors – […]



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