Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

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This, as many other reviewers have noted, is really not a book about Jack the Ripper. He barely comes into it at all, which certainly seems to be the author’s intention. Instead, she focuses all her time on researching the lives of his five most likely victims. Each woman and her family has an entire section devoted solely to her story. “It is for them that I write this book. I do so in the hope that we may now hear their stories clearly and […]

“We repeat what we don’t repair”

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

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This is a very sad book. It’s well-written, and I definitely wanted to find out what happened to each of the characters, but it was just such a beat-down that I would not say I enjoyed it. “There was no predicting where life would go. There was no real way for a person to try something out, see if he liked it…because you try it and try it and try it a little longer and next thing it’s who you are.” Ask Again, Yes starts […]

3 Star Thrillers

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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(3 stars) An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena This was probably two and a half stars, but I’m rounding up. The story was decent but pretty predictable. An Unwanted Guest takes place in a small family-run inn on a night when the weather is so bad that all the guests are trapped inside. They lose power and the roads are unpassable. Unfortunately, that’s right around when people start dying. First, the beautiful engaged woman falls down the stairs. Everyone suspects her fiance until an author […]

Their Own Voices

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

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If anyone needs a book for the Own Voices Bingo square next year, these would all make excellent choices! (4 stars) Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha I was certain I’d added this to my TBR after reading a Cannonball review on it, but I can’t find one so maybe not. Maybe it came from Goodreads best of list for 2019? Regardless, it’s a relatively new book but I’m betting we’ll start seeing it everywhere. Your House Will Pay starts out in L.A. in the […]

History, huh?

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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Oh my God I loved this book. I waited forever to get it on audio and I totally recommend getting on your library’s hold list right away if you have not yet read it. It is so smart and funny and sweet and snarky. Casey McQuiston had one hell of a debut. Alex, his sister June, and their best friend Nora (granddaughter of the VP) have spent most of their teenage years in the White House. Now Alex and June’s mother (the first female president) […]

Two non-fiction books about death: one very serious, one much less so

Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come by Richard Preston

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

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(4 stars) Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come by Richard Preston My best friend and I were obsessed with The Hot Zone in high school. I wrote a damn book report on it at one point. The combination of the horror of the disease and the power of the science fighting it struck a chord with us (more so with her maybe — she’s a scientist now!) and we continued reading books […]



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