Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

She died for the third time in a week and a half

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen

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Tanrian Marshal Rosie Fox dies in chapter one of The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, but that’s not her biggest problem. Her biggest problem is that she comes back to life. She’s immortal and she doesn’t like it. Rosie’s death happened when she tried to touch something inside a malfunctioning portal device. The portal device also died in the incident, requiring Dr. Adam Lee to visit Tanria to fix the portal. Marshal Fox and Dr. Lee met five years earlier, and she bound his wounded […]

I don’t do torture

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

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I’ve read Cop Town by Karin Slaughter, which I appreciated for a number of reasons. So when I found Pretty Girls (2016) by the same author under “popular audiobooks” at the library’s website, I downloaded it almost immediately. Slaughter seems to write gritty, violent books, but I was unprepared for this one. Knowing what I know now, I would not have chosen to read it. Although I did finish it, the violence and darkness was too much for me. I did think it was well-written, but I would not […]

Together we can be worth more than the sum of our parts

Grown Women by Sarai Johnson

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Sarai Johnson teaches writing and literature courses at Howard and American Universities in the DC Area, and apparently wrote Grown Women, her first novel, in her free time. In my free time I do things like sleep, or sit around and do nothing, or make lists of things I should be doing. Okay okay, I also read the product of other people’s free time. Which bring us full circle to Grown Women, a novel about four generations of women, with the story beginning in 1974 […]

Every time we hear a song, it’s both old and brand-new. That’s the point of music.

Back in the Day by Katrina Jackson

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I love Katrina Jackson’s writing, and her 2021 novella, Back in the Day, is one of my favorite pieces of writing in any genre. I finally bought the audiobook version narrated by Jakobi Diem. His narration is perfect, and he found new ways for this book to make me cry. I really didn’t think I could fall more in love with Jackson’s writing, but the richness Diem brought to her words proved me wrong. I am literally crying right now just thinking about the way he […]

A most dangerous game

Under The Dome by Stephen King

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The thing about chess is, all the action happens on the board. There’s nowhere to hide. No extra $100 bill of Monopoly money stashed under the table. Every piece is in plain sight, every move accounted for. You might not always understand the consequences in the moment—but the game is visible. Transparent. Brutal. That same dynamic sits at the heart of Under the Dome. Then the dome falls, and the game begins. In Chester’s Mill, the players are already in place. Big Jim Rennie—second selectman, […]

Nat Cassidy is one of the best horror writers working today.

When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. In an attempt to catch up on my life—which was laughably behind even before I had surgery to get my gallbladder out two weeks ago—I am now reviewing one of my favorite books of the year so far. Reviewing favorite books is something I hate doing, but I foolishly accepted an ARC so now I have to anyway. I should have known this would happen, because I have […]



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