Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The cowboys are Librarians who work with more than books

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

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Upright Women Wanted has a really interesting set-up: take your standard Western setting, and instead of cowboys, substitute a group of women called Librarians, whose supposed job is to delivery Approved Materials for reading and pick up the old or worn out materials for fixing up. Esther wants to join the Librarians to get away from her past and she stows away in a Librarian wagon. Obviously she gets caught and reaches a tentative agreement with the Head Librarian Bet about apprenticing. The novella follows […]

The old west gets fenced in

The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry

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This slight and swift-moving novella follows Wyatt Earp and his best bud, Doc Holliday, around an increasingly settled west. In addition to these two main characters, who do little but gamble, drink and very occasionally get into some gunplay, we meet Wyatt’s wife, Jessie, a rancher, Charlie Goodnight, a madam, San Saba, and an intrepid lady reporter, Nellie Courtwright. Several of the other Earp brothers are mentioned but exist mostly off-screen, as impetus for the plot (Virgil become sheriff, Morgan opening a new saloon). McMurtry’s […]

“My whole life I had hated the magic world. I knew grigoris were unreliable and dangerous, if not outright evil. Now I was surrounded by the very thing I hated. But I’d gotten myself into this fix. I had to get myself out.”

An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris

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In one word: Surprising Cannonball Read Bingo: Rec’d At the last Cannonball Read Zoom, we did the ol’ “what are you reading” merry-go-round, and our fearless organizer, MsWas mentioned this book. I read and enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse series and as recommenders go, she’s got high marks so I immediately put this one on the reserve list at the library. Firstly, look at this cover? Young lady gunslinger? YES PLEASE. I was excited from page one and this book held my attention and enthusiasm almost […]

“The wind blows itself out, and dawn comes to the window cold and still in a clear gold-green.”

The Searcher by Tana French

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I waited to pick up a Tana French novel even though she is highly regarded around these parts. Late last year I commented on narfna’s review that I was hesitant to pick up another author who writes an ongoing series (I’ve got the Inspector Gamache books to contend with) and that’s true enough. But I think another component was that I knew French wrote gritty, hard-boiled crime novels and I just wasn’t in the mood for those, no matter the quality of the writing (the […]

Make sure you know what the ingredients in your bread are

Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale

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While still fun, Calamity Jack, the sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge is not as strong as the first graphic novel. Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale this time show the world of Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk fame. We see (in a quick flashback) how the goose came into Jack’s possession; why the magic beans were important (no cow in sight) and that we should watch out for Mother’s who know how to back some crazy bread. Then we jump forward to “now” where […]

In many ways, this is every bit as important to speculative fiction as The Lord of the Rings

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Born in 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs worked a number of odd jobs until, at the age of 35, he decided to pick up writing. Recalling in 1929 that, “if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten.” So, in 1911, he started writing what would go on to become A Princess of Mars, the first book in his Barsoom series. Shortly thereafter, he would go on to create Tarzan – […]



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