Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Put the Needle on it

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

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Like about half the people I know, I have a father with an inexplicable fondness for all things World War II. Particularly films like A Bridge Too Far (which is a total snoozefest), but documentaries, too. Because I’ve spent one too many nights having to watch Hitler’s Secret Love Nest on the Discovery Channel I tend to steer away from the subject, particularly the dry, yes-it-was-all-rather-horrid approach of the British which they employed at least up until the 1980s. I do, however, have a subscription […]

What are you worth?

84K by Claire North

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Theo is an average citizen in a fairly average dystopia. You know the kind: human rights violations are normal, everyone is scared, and the government wields unilateral power with virtually no opposition; or, to be more accurate, The Company (a mega corp) runs the government, which wields power with virtually no opposition. Everyday, Theo gets up, goes to work, calculates the financial costs of crimes to society, slaps a bill on the perpetrator, bothers absolutely no one, stands up not even for himself (to the […]

Hell Hath No Fury

Widows by Lynda La Plante

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Widows the movie was perhaps my favorite film of 2018. A crackling crime thriller with polished dialogue and sharp social commentary, it’s the best crime movie I’ve seen in recent years. I didn’t know until after seeing it that it was based on an English time show created by famed auteur Lynda La Plante. The book is a tie-in to the show. La Plante’s Prime Suspect was one of my least favorite reads in 2018. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, but the writing felt static. I later […]

I spent New Year’s Day in Hogwarts.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) by J.K. Rowling

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First of all I have read this book more times than I can count, literally. I know I’ve read this first one at least twelve times because that’s how many copies of it I own, but that is a gross underestimate because many of those copies I have read multiple times (especially the battered paperback I still have from 1999). I also used to re-read every year, and every time a new book in the series came out, so I’ve read this one the most. My OCD […]

Well worth the re-read

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I first read The Age of Misrule trilogy decades ago and seem to remember thinking it was only OK, but since then I’ve found my mind often returning to some of its scenes and ideas and so decided it was high time for a re-read. Based on the first book, so far my re-read has discovered that, while it has its flaws, my younger self was far too scathing in my initial assessment. In World’s End, we meet five strangers drawn together to try and […]

I was drugged up when I wrote this.

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NB: I received a gratis copy of this book, but that has not affected the content of my review. This is a fact which you will quickly believe once you read the review. Thanks for my free copy, publishers!!!! I’ve been trying to write this review for a little while now, just staring at the blank screen, but I’m on some drugs right now that are making me diiiizzy*, so I apologize in advance if this review doesn’t come out as coherent as I’m thinking […]



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