Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Escobar minus Escobar

Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

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One of the first things this book made me realize was that I had watched Narcos all wrong. I’d thought that the title referred to the DEA agents, I guess I was thinking “narcs” or “narcotics officers”. But the word narcos stands for narcotraficantes – the traffickers. Makes sense. The show was about Pablo Escobar, not the other guys. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is the story not of the agents or the traffickers, but of the Colombian citizens caught in the crossfire. In her debut novel, […]

What do I read next, hivemind? (I Love This)

The Trespasser by Tana French

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I’m so in love with Tana French’s murder squad series that I temporarily convinced myself that I liked mysteries (keep a lookout for my Not In My Wheelhouse pick, which is almost certainly going to be one of two remaindered books I bought because I wanted more Tana French and have run out of her writing to read). I don’t know that I do, I just really like good writing, and French is amazing. So yeah, my “I Love This” isn’t the genre or the […]

It Is What It Is

All That I Have by Castle Freeman Jr.

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In rural Vermont, Sheriff Wing has to deal with a break-in at a luxury home owned by Russians, a local small-time criminal who is in big trouble, and a deputy that wants to usurp his position because he feels that time has passed his boss by. It sounds like a pretty ordinary mystery novel but it’s not, because it turns out that the mystery is not much of one, and the book is not really even about that. It’s about the sheriff, through whose eyes […]

In a Galaxy Far Far Away

Burning Chrome by William Gibson

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William Gibson’s Burning Chrome is a collection of 12 science fiction short stories that were written in the late 70s and early 80s and have been published together.  I would almost certainly never have picked up this book on my own- it joined my book collection after being abandoned by an old roommate, who had herself picked it for a college Science Fiction Literature class (which hints at how long this book has been knocking around my apartment).  Despite this not being my usual jam, […]

A Knight’s Tale

The Firedrake by Cecilia Holland

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Read as part of cbr11 bingo: Travel. I can’t remember on what suggested list I first heard of Cecilia Holland’s The Firedrake. It was probably when I was searching for stuff related to William the Conqueror. There are oceans of works that cover the Tudor Kings and the Wars of the Roses, but very few touch upon the birth of the English monarchy. The story of William’s rise is told from the perspective of Laeghaire, a wandering Irish mercenary knight. Holland does a great job of making the […]

No, her name ain’t baby, it’s Charlotte. Sherlock Holmes if you’re nasty!

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

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Cbr11bingo Remix This remix of Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet is clever and ingenious. It’s a fun read with interesting and sympathetic characters, most notably a female Sherlock Holmes. Sherry Thomas does an amazing job of reimagining this classic. Those familiar with Doyle’s first Holmes mystery will recognize certain traits of Sherlock and plot points in common, but this is a story with something original to say about women, class, justice and independence. It’s also a fine mystery. Charlotte Holmes is about 25 […]



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