Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Revenge Killing or Just Another White Guy Killing His Family as A Result of Economic Despair?

The Dry by Jane Harper

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Bingo Square: Far and Away I wish I had been more creative with this square and done something other than physical distance but I was in the mood for a murder mystery, and Australia is definitely one of those places I have never been close enough to seriously considering visiting.  Throw in rural Australia, and it’s even farther away. After twenty years away from his home town, Aaron Falk is back.  Tragedy forced him out of town, and tragedy has brought him back. Twenty years […]

Big themes in a fun read

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

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This is the book that the acclaimed tv series is based on, and although I haven’t watched the show yet (it’s on my to-watch list), the novel makes a quick and entertaining read. Set in a quiet coastal suburb in Australia, the book centers on three mothers whose children are all starting kindergarten together.  Madelaine (Reese Witherspoon’s character in the show) is a feisty and entertaining center to the trio; she takes up battles against other playground moms while dealing with the frustrations of living […]

Imagine a Studio Ghibli film as an 80s novel

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The Nargun and the Stars won a Hans Christian Andersen medal, I’m assuming sometime in the seventies when it first came out.  My copy is the 1988 reprint and you can really tell based on the cover.  I can’t remember at all why and where I picked this up, but I’d bet it was because of the title, not the cover art.  Post-reading, I am, as usual, mostly bugged by the inaccuracies.  Oh well. So, based on the title, I’d have guessed this book would […]

Racism is Racism, No Matter What Time Period

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Last summer I helped my boss chaperone his student study-abroad trip to Australia, and the class read this book on the plane going over. I was far more enticed with Air New Zealand’s extensive on-flight entertainment package, and so I spent my plane ride in the iron-a** challenge watching all six (extended) Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films instead.  Since returning, my boss has been passively placing The Secret River in obvious places on my desk, which I’ve learned is his silent way of […]

Hungry like the wolf

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3.5 stars Alexander Price had an unusual upbringing and has been trained from childhood to deal with all sorts of dangerous situations. Nevertheless, one of the scariest things he ever had to face was a werewolf outbreak. So when his girlfriend Shelby asks him to come to Australia with him to help her and her family stop a werewolf outbreak there, he really really wants to say no – but of course he agrees. If werewolves were to get a proper foothold in Australia, it […]

To quote Kesha, this place’s about to blow

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I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for a while and it did not disappoint. Especially for a debut novel, it’s a very well put together story. I’m a bit retroactively disappointed that it didn’t win the Goodreads choice awards, but I suppose that’s to be expected. Aaron Falk is a Federal Agent working for Australia’s government, ferreting out financial criminals. He doesn’t live the most exciting life, but he’s comfortable and good at his job. When he gets called back to his hometown […]



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