Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Let’s Keep This Conclave Ragin’ Bros!

Conclave by Robert Harris

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: detente. A cardinal attempts to keep peace while the church world is suspended over who will be the next Pope, despite shenanigans happening on the side. Also, shoutout to Spencer Hall, whose tweet eleven years ago still makes me laugh and is the title for this review. When I saw the trailer for Conclave, I knew I would be reading the book it was based on no matter what. I have mixed feelings on Robert Harris’ books but they […]

Follow the nursery rhyme

Keisari Seisoo Palatsissaan (The Emperor Stands in His Palace) (1971) by Eeva Tenhunen

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Bingo square ‘Golden’: A famous author’s literary legacy looms large–and lucrative.  It is criminal that the work of Eeva Tenhunen (1937-2017) is out of print and untranslated. Described in her day (she published her novels between 1964 and 1987) as ‘Finland’s Agatha Christie’, you can see the influence of the English Golden Age of detective fiction: a country house and its rituals, a disruptive outsider, and a seething bubbling crucible of familial and marital tensions, class and political differences, and deep dark secrets. Tenhunen swaps […]

Processing

Peter and the Wolf: Wolves Come in Many Disguises by Gavin Friday

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I will be blunt. I have never understood the Peter & the Wolf story. However, with this graphic novel edition, things are shown in simple, mostly black and white illustrations by Bono (yes, that Bono). They are modern, awkward, smooth, abstract, realistic, beautiful and ugly. They are perfect for what is being presented. Peter and the Wolf: Wolves Come in Many Disguises by Gavin Friday finally allowed me to have a better understanding of the work. Not having to just hear the story with music […]

Ok I Will

Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: free space. Ok I will get to my thoughts about this book in a second. But… It’s probably been talked about before by folks in other spaces but I find it notable that so many female-written thrillers are based around a woman running away from her past. Could be because of an abusive ex or parents but it is often — as it is here — about a traumatic event that occurred when they were younger. I’m not trying […]

“You made a severed finger into a feckin’ snow globe.” “It was almost Christmas,” she says with a shrug. “It felt … festive.”

Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver

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3.5 stars CBR16 Bingo: Bananas   Lark Montague and Lachlan Kane have an unfortunate first meeting, when Lark during Halloween has had an “accident” and needs a car and a body fished out of a lake. Lachlan is the man forced by his employer to come help her do this. Lachlan is in scuba gear, Lark is heavily made up in a Halloween costume. Lachlan chooses to force Lark into the car of his trunk to transport her unseen away from the incident site, not […]

Campy

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

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Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: and also…This is a repeat of the dun-dun square since the book is a mystery Has America found her Tana French? Bold words to be sure. French is my favorite writer and the person I’d argue is our greatest living crime writer. Her character-driven mysteries are sumptuous masterpieces. The Hunter, her 2024 release, is an early favorite for my personal best book of this year. At the very least, I can’t imagine it falling out of the top 3. French […]



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