Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There is a pay phone by a truck stop near the town of Leonard, Arizona. Sometimes at night it starts to ring.”

Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

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I was first drawn into Emily St. John Mandel’s world back in 2015, when Station Eleven caught my eye after popping up in a few “best of” lists.  It became an immediate favorite, and I know that love is shared here within our CBR community! I’ve read it twice since first picking it up, most recently in March, right as the world started to dip further and further into pandemic horror. I wrote in a previous review that I would not have picked up The Glass Hotel […]

Practice dating quickly evolves into the real thing

His Grumpy Childhood Friend by Jackie Lau

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I was given an ARC of this by the author. That has in no way influenced my review. Charlotte Tam doesn’t really leave the house unless it’s to meet her friends at the local cider bar and even then, she sort of resents having to change out of her pajama pants. She mainlines coffee and is clearly the grouchiest and most pessimistic of the friend group, but is starting to miss a more personal connection, having sworn off dating after her former boyfriend proposed to […]

Quite possibly Jackie Lau’s food-porniest book yet

Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau

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I was given a free copy of this by the author. It has not in any way influenced my review. Amy Sharpe always wanted to go to graduate school, but when her grandmother got sick, she gave up on those plans and stayed in her small home town to take care of her. After both her grandmother and great aunt has passed away, she has now inherited her great aunt’s house in Toronto, and despite the fact that her entire family seems to disapprove of […]

Pride and Prejudice in modern-day Canada

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

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Official book description: Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been overtaken by a demanding teaching job. Her boisterous Muslim family, and numerous (interfering) aunties, are professional naggers. And her flighty young cousin, about to reject her one hundredth marriage proposal, is a constant reminder that Ayesha is still single.   Ayesha might be a little lonely, but the one thing she doesn’t want is an arranged marriage. And then she meets Khalid… How could a man so […]

Another Jackie Lau that made me very hungry

The Ultimate Pi Day Party by Jackie Lau

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Official book description: If there’s one thing that might get my dad, a retired math teacher, to visit Toronto and have a real conversation with me for the first time in seventeen years, it’s a big nerdy Pi Day party. And hopefully this party—and seeing the tech company I built from nothing—will finally be enough to impress him and make him forgive me for everything I did when I was a teenager. But it’s got to be a really great party. That’s where Sarah Winters […]

Great mystery and setting hampered by repetition

In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White

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I’ve been in a bit of a book rut lately. I had such high hopes for the past few novels I’ve read, but they were all disappointing. I needed something reliable to give me a win.  A few months ago, I ran across Loreth Anne White’s In the Dark. I devoured the fast-paced thriller in a couple of days, and it left me eager to read more of her work. In the Barren Ground has rave reviews on Goodreads, so I thought it might be […]



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