Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Readers bring a lot of baggage to their reading material

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

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I wish I had listened to the age-old adage: don’t read the comments. But that’s exactly what I did after I finished reading The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein; I opened the book in Goodreads to see what others had to say. Of course, a lot of people don’t like to read books that have unlikeable, or less than perfect, main characters. (I feel a bit weird using the word ‘character’ about a biography, but let’s go with it anyway.) I knew this already, but I […]

And then there were…

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

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I’m not really into classic detective fiction. While I definitely enjoy a mystery and a puzzle (ooh, and a murder!) in whatever I read, I’ve not once had the urge to pick up a Sherlock Holmes novel, and only vaguely know about Agatha Christie’s famous stories. In fact, while The Decagon House Murders is loosely based on Christie’s And Then There Were None, I only knew about the latter’s infamously racist original title, nothing about the story itself. Decagon is, as I learned, a prime example […]

Sorry, guys, this just wasn’t for me

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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I was excited when I saw this in one of my local little free libraries, because I remembered seeing several very positive reviews on CBR. Sometimes, though, things just don’t work out. On paper, it sounded great: love story between enemies; strong women kicking ass in battle; time travel triggering alternate histories. I wanted to love this. The execution just didn’t work for me. Red and Blue are agents in opposite sides of a war. Red’s side, “the Agency,” is a technotopia, and Blue’s side, […]

James Bond is alright, I guess.

From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming

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I have never been a huge fan of James Bond movies, so unsurprisingly Ian Fleming’s books never pinged my reading radar. My dear friend describes himself as a Bond scholar, so when he asked me to read From Russia with Love with him, I figured, why not? I enjoy a good espionage tale and after recently reading The Spy and the Traitor, the true story of a Russian double-agent for MI6 during the Cold War, the timing for doing so was impeccable. For a Bond […]

His wife is acting different and it smells like infidelity

Full spredning: en legeroman (Natural Causes) by Nina Lykke

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Elin has worked as a GP in the centre of Oslo for more than two decades. She’s married to Aksel, an orthopedist who seems obsessed with either cross country skiing in the winter and roller skis in the summer. They met during med school, and have lived in the same house long enough to see the little residential area that used to be full of idealistic and progressive residents become distinctly upper-middle class (as have they). They are now empty nesters after their two daughters […]

You’re not just lucky, you’re brilliant

Not Just Lucky by Jamila Rizvi

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If you’re a women – or know a woman – who is still early in her career and is struggling to advocate for herself, or has to deal with the rampant sexism and misogyny that is still — pause for a sigh — everywhere, then I wholeheartedly recommend Not Just Lucky. Written by Jamila Rizvi, a young woman with an awe-inspiring career, this book is part analysis, part memoir, and part self-help book. If that last part turns you off, I get it – but […]



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