Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A romance about audiobook narrators, by a queen of audiobook narration

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan

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Sewanee (pronounced Swanie, several characters call her Swan) Chester was a child actress on a popular sitcom, but a serious injury while filming her big break as an adult led to her losing an eye and becoming permanently scarred, so now she makes her living as an audiobook narrator. While it may not be as glamorous as acting, she’s very good at it and has won several awards. Early in her career, she also narrated romance novels, but now her cynicism makes it too hard […]

Love the family history, hate the ableism

Spilling the Tea by Brenda Jackson

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I’ve never read Brenda Jackson, though she’s been on my radar as a Black romance author and a well-loved author by many, and this sounded like exactly the kind of book I would enjoy with lots of family history and secrets. I did really enjoy the story and the family elements, and a part of me wants to go through the backlist for more about the Madaris family, but I also feel like I’m not the right audience for these books (and I’m sure a […]

A self help health book that isn’t terrible?

Outlive by Peter Attia

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I really wanted to hate this book. I picked it up exclusively to critique it from an informed perspective. I eat my words (and a high protein diet). The fact that Dr. Attia is in fact a doctor means little to me, because so is Dr. Oz. Working in a professional area with niche specializations has inoculated me from taking the word of a generalist in an area where specialization exists. Going into this book, I expected broad, decisive conclusions with little to no real […]

Two and a half cigarette men!

The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James

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I saw this recommended on reddit, bought it on audible and literally the next day zirza panned it on here. Sadly, zirza was right, it’s not great. A cross between a mystery and a ghost story, The Sundown Motel tells the story of nefarious things happening in the small town of Fell, NY, where Viv Delaney disappears after her night shift at the titular motel in the 80s, while her niece Carly investigates the case in 2017. The POV switches between these two women and […]

“Because I don’t like it when people try to crush something good in the world. There’s too little of it as it is. Too much horrible stuff that people could hate instead. Why don’t they just hate that instead?”

My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. I think this will be the last book I read by this author for some time, so take my review with a grain of salt. I love Charlotte Stein’s authorial voice, and this book was no exception. She can also be extremely hilarious, and has made me giggle and laugh out loud in all three books I’ve now read from her. But a couple things that seem […]

She had come to save this world and it was already dead.

The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe

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I wasn’t really looking for something dark and twisty, but I fell into listening to Ciaran Saward narrate Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Blighted Stars and it was exactly what I wanted. I knew nothing going in, so I’m going to try to say as little as possible while also getting you interested enough to go listen. Tarquin Mercator is a space Prince, the only son of one of the universe’s ruling families. He is an academic, a geologist, who has mostly not been involved in […]



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