Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This memoir legitimately deserves 5 stars, but I’m too angry to give it a rating yet

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

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CBR 17 BINGO: “G” (for Glass) Back in 2019, I recommended Educated to my sister. After she read and enjoyed (not sure that’s the right word) it , she asked me whether I’d ever read The Glass Castle. “In some ways, it’s worse,” she told me. I finally got around to reading The Glass Castle, and I understand now where she was coming from. While Tara Westover’s parents were consistently ignorant and controlling, the parents of Jeanette Walls were people of dichotomy. Her father was […]

I’m glad the author is enjoying international success

Stargate - en julefortelling/Brightly Shining by Ingvild H. Rishøi

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Nowhere Book Bingo 25: Local author (the story takes place about 15 minutes from where I work) The full review of this on my blog contains spoilers so if you don’t want to know how the book ends, and why I can’t rate this book higher, skip the paragraphs I’ve highlighted. Ten-year-old Ronja and her sixteen-year-old sister Melissa are used to disappointments, living alone with a father who only occasionally sobers up long enough to hold down a job for a month or two. They’re […]

More romance in Swedish

En enda hemlighet (Falling) by Simona Ahrnstedt

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The readers met both the protagonists in this novel briefly in the first book in the series, En enda natt, which is also where they first ran into each other. At the beginning of this book, idealistic doctor Isobel Sørensen is angry and stressed because the organisation she works for most of the year, Medpax, is struggling for funds, and she’s becoming convinced that it’s her fault. On the previous occasions when she has run into Alexander de la Grip and he’s tried to flirt […]

Seeing the Masterpiece

Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block

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When I first read through the Matthew Scudder series, I couldn’t appreciate Eight Million Ways to Die for what it is. I had avoided the Scudder series for a long time because alcoholic ex-cop PI held no appeal for me. I learned that Matt grows with the series over time. And I did as well. It’s documented in other reviews, I won’t rehash here. Just check the tag. But this one is always considered his best work. And when I read it…I mean, it was good. I […]

February-March 2024 Leftovers

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Alexander the Great by Phillip Freeman

Nero: Matricide, Murder and Music in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt and Roddy Ashworth

Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James

A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block

The Killing Kind by John Connolly

Shōgun by James Clavell

Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman

Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Woolraich

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Rain, rain, go away. I thought my reading count looked too low and then I realized I didn’t do leftovers for February, so here’s Feb-March combined. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and Rise of the Tudors ***** Jones is such a talented historian. Gets all the important stuff of the Wars of the Roses in great detail and lets the story entertain. His Templars book will soon be on my radar. A Lowcountry Bride**** Had to read this for a library […]

I used to care when men called me difficult. I really did. Then I stopped. This way is better.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Art doesn’t owe anything to anyone. Songs are about how it felt, not the facts. Self-expression is about what it feels to live, not whether you had the right to claim any emotion at any time. Did I have a right to be mad at him? Did he do anything wrong? Who cares! Who cares? I hurt. So I wrote about it. ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six It’s funny. At first, I think you start getting high to dull your emotions, […]



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