Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Maybe You Shouldn’t Start a Series With the Penultimate Novel

X by Sue Grafton

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Despite enjoying plenty of grocery store detective novels in my younger years (James Patterson, Michael Connolly, etc.) I had somehow never read anything by Sue Grafton. I knew of her, of course, and her alphabet-themed series of detective novels, but for whatever reason had never picked one up. Well, for the 2024 PopSugar reading challenge, I had to read a book starting with the letter X. I had started reading a different book, and was struggling with maintaining interest, and decided to switch it up. […]

Sometimes all you need is a nosy, old lady

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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Once again, I was blindly looking for another audiobook to listen to in my car. This time I stumbled upon Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (2023) by Jesse Q. Sutanto. I had not heard of it, but it had some good reviews and I was a little desperate for something that was immediately available from my library. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. Although the mystery portion of the book was a little lacking, the characters and the storyline were engaging and fun. Vera Wong lives by […]

The past and the present walk into a bar

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

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Slough House: a grimy station across from London’s Barbican Estate, tucked away above a Chinese restaurant that’s perpetually closed. It’s where MI5-rejects are sent in the hopes that they will quit, thus saving the service the headache of firing them. Against all odds, it has been drafted in protecting a visiting Russian oligarch with whom the British government is interested in striking a deal, or at least set up some sort of connection the way governments do. Two Slow Horses are ordered to babysit, though […]

Can Travis master the Legendary Sword of Legends and fulfill his cosmic destiny? Without his parents learning he isn’t at fencing practice?

Travis Daventhorpe Powers Up! by Wes Molebash

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After a couple of more edgier titles, and a biography/memoir of Andy Warhol, I wanted something light to read. I found in my online reader copies Travis Daventhorpe Powers Up! by Wes Molebash. This is the second book in the series.  Since both volumes are currently available, I recommend reading them as closely together as possible, as there were several pieces I had forgotten about book one. Besides, it is fun to see how they pick up where we left off in book one. All the […]

To Vigil the Ante

Even the Wicked by Lawrence Block

Revelation by CJ Sansom

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Just as with Trump’s election last month dovetailing into subjects I read, the recent shooting death of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by a vigilante killer coincided with me reading two consecutive books on vigilante justice. Going to review both vis-a-vis how they speak to the moment. Even the Wicked Growing up, vigilante justice was always right wing coded. Dirty Harry. Death Wish. I still remember the popular “Beer For My Horses” song in which Willie Nelson and Toby Keith talk about public hangings and “putting […]

Family and Monsters

Family Force V: Book One by Matt Braly

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Part Power Rangers, part Transformers, part Voltron and all superheroes and space monsters is how I describe Family Force V: Book One. Matt Braly’s graphic novel (read via an online reader copy, due mid June 2025) will be worth the wait for you or your preteen/teen reader. This coming of age story is one we know (your destiny is forced on you, but you choose the path that takes) is not new, but the way it’s presented is fun, humorous and cute. It is not […]



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