Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Blinded by the Glitter

A Most Efficient Murder by Anthony Slayton

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When the body of a strange young woman is found in the Earl of Unsworth’s garden during a party, his capable secretary Mr. Quayle is tasked with keeping the family from scandal during the investigation – a task only made harder by the secrets everyone is keeping. This is a cozy sort of mystery in 1920s England, with the vibe you’d get if you blend the adventurous plots of Sherlock Holmes and the humorous domestic drama of PG Wodehouse. I liked how the author built […]

Keeping Hope in the Jungle

Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris

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The passengers of the Vyner Brooke are pitched from the frying pan to the fire when the ship upon which they have been fleeing the Japanese invasion of Singapore is sunk off the shores of Indonesia. The women and children, musician Norah Chambers and nurse Nesta James among them, must survive in jungle camps until the end of the war. I am continuing my informal journey through the Pacific theatre of World War 2 with Sisters Under the Rising Sun, which chronicles the lives of a […]

The Autobiography of a Narcissistic Psychopath

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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Coriolanus Snow’s only way to rebuild his family’s legacy is to have his tribute make a good showing in the 10th Hunger Games. But when he starts to become interested in Lucy Gray, he wonders if it might be possible for her to actually win them. I put off reading this book for a long time, scared off by mixed reviews from other fans of the Hunger Games series. It’s certainly a different type of story, but I ended up appreciating this new perspective into […]

Long drawn-out pining, really not my cup of tea

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

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Nowhere Bingo Card: A book that’s been on my shelf for more than a year Prince Kiem, a minor royal in the Iskat Empire is called before the Emperor and told in no uncertain terms that he will be getting married to secure a valuable political alliance. The Empire is about to renegotiate its treaty agreements with all the planets in its dominion, and the representatives all have to be married to be accepted (that bit wasn’t entirely clear to me). So Kiem has to […]

The Truth Doesn’t Matter

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

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Five years ago, Lucy was found wandering the streets, dazed and covered in the blood of her best friend. No one knows what happened, but everyone believes that it was Lucy who killed Savvy – until a podcaster comes to town to dig up the whole case again. I generally avoid the recent spate of mystery books that use podcasts as plot devices. For one, I’m not even a fan of investigative podcasts, and it’s always seemed more like a framing gimmick than anything else. […]

Selkies are hard to resist

Selkies Are a Girl's Best Friend by Molly Harper

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I love the Mystic Bayou series and picked up the fourth audiobook, Selkies Are a Girl’s Best Friend Goodreads synopsis: Sonja Fong isn’t afraid of a little chaos. As director of the league’s research center in Mystic Bayou, a tiny town in Louisiana that’s home to supernatural creatures and humans alike, she’s responsible for making sure things run smoothly. It’s not an easy task when her daily memos include lines like, “New equipment is needed because the old equipment was destroyed by a temper tantrum […]



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