Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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 […]

Review of the Alibis Collection

Death Row by Freida McFadden

The Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth

False Note by David Lagercrantz

The Skydivers by Chris Bohjailian

Good Neighbors by Chad Zunker

Small Things by Wanda M. Morris

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4 stars for this one. I thought the first story in the “Alibis Collection” was really strong and honestly the best out of the bunch. I thought that McFadden actually stretched herself in this one in a good way. I didn’t see the twists coming and loved how she tied things up her. “Death Row” follows a woman named Talia Kemper has been on death row for years after being convicted of the murder of her husband. We find Talia remembering things before she was […]

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger

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Whelp, this was bad. I mean not Trump starts a war with Iran bad, but it was not a good book. I think that a lot of authors are trying this destination thriller sub-genre and it’s not a great read. It doesn’t help that Unger has I think 7 different points of view in this one (Adele, her two kids, Maverick, Maverick’s girlfriend, another player, and I know I am forgetting someone else). There’s no character development of anyone due to this and the ending […]

“Shiloh isn’t haunted – men are haunted. Shiloh doesn’t care.”

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

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I am just not sure if I can see what the big deal is with this book. I know some people find it incredibly frightening: a co-worker stole my mother’s copy of this book off her desk and then didn’t come to work for four days because she was too scared to get out of bed; I just found it slightly boring. I know I didn’t find anyone in it the least bit likable. I felt like I had wandered into the middle of a […]

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, […]

Reliving the Past Doesn’t Always Work Out

Blitz by Daniel O'Malley

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Blitz is on the one hand pretty good with the characters and world building, but on the other less amazing with trying to combine two plots. The gist is that there is a group of ladies who are all Checquy members during the WWII bombings of London (hence the title) and then a modern day new recruit to the Checquy and her struggle to learn a new world, new abilities, and figure out how to also keep her family together. Both by themselves are interesting, […]



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