Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Decent Mystery

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

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After wiping my emotional resources out with a book about the Native American genocide, I decided I needed a mystery to give myself a break from the emotional weight. Louise Penny’s A Rule Against Murder fit the bill. Quebec Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is celebrating his anniversary with his wife at a luxurious lodge edged by a lake deep in the forest. A family there is also having what appears to be an uncomfortable reunion. The Morrow matriarch is married to her second husband, and […]

It’s A Bummer When Loads of People Could be a Suspect in Your Murder

Murder on Lake Garda by Tom Hindle

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Best for: Fans of cozy mysteries. In a nutshell: Laurence and Eva are getting married in Italy. The bride is running late to the ceremony and then we hear a scream. So … what’s happened? Worth quoting: N/A (though the writing is good, just nothing stood out to me). Why I chose it: Working my way through Hindle’s back catalogue Review: Third book of Hindle’s that I’ve read and probably my favorite so far. This book is 360 pages long and the murder in question […]

Big Brother is watching Part Two

1984: The Graphic Novel by George Orwell and Fido Nesti

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When I saw the cover for 1984: The Graphic Novel adapted by Fido Nesti, I thought I would enjoy reading George Orwell’s book this way. I requested it via interlibrary loan. I did mention that there was another one done by  Matyás  Namai,, but I would prefer Nesti. So, what did I get? Both! I started with Namai’s just because it was due first. After reading it, I was not impressed by the style. It was too busy. Yet, it was an experience I was […]

Big Brother is watching Part One

George Orwell's 1984: The Graphic Novel by George Orwell and Matyas Namai

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Even though I was an English major in college, my contemporary classic reading was minimal. Going to a small school meant I repeated professors and they repeated the authors and texts they liked, therefore I did not always get the most expansive exposure to a variety of classics. Because of this 1984 missed my radar. When I found free time for reading, the classics never appealed to me for two reasons. The first, the language was not contemporary and therefore was lofty. It was not […]

Topsy turvy and then some

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel by Jason Walz

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The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel is an unusual book that has all the feelings, but not the ones you might think of at first. They are the ones that we can share simultaneously, but at the same time, each of us have our own way of dealing with them. The first is grief and the second fear. Jason Walz shows us this through the eyes of two main characters. One, a boy who lost his best friend to (assuming) cancer (or other similar illness), […]

Small-Town Drama Under a Microscope

The Murder Party by Tom Hindle

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Best for: Fans of Agatha Christie-style mysteries. In a nutshell: Will is hosting a murder mystery party on New Year’s Eve, and a few town folk are attending. In the background looms a fight over the use of a lighthouse that was the scene of a tragedy. Worth quoting: N/A Why I chose it: I thoroughly enjoyed his book Death in the Arctic. And while it didn’t figure into my choice, I saw that the blurb on the front was by Ragnar Jónasson, one of […]



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