Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It’s kind of like if Harry Potter was destined to destroy the world, crossed with the Hunger Games, and Hogwarts was actively trying to kill you

Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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Naomi Novik burst on the scene with her Temeraire series but around book 4 or 5 I lost interest.  Then last year I finally read Spinning Silver and was reminded what a good author she is and was excited to find out that a new book was forth coming in the Fall, Deadly Education.  Attending one of her virtual release events whetted my appetite and I have been eagerly waiting for Deadly Education to rise to the top of the TBR, I’m happy to report it lived […]

Don’t you hate when a book starts out strong only to disappoint you?

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

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I so thoroughly enjoyed 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Stuart Turton’s latest novel, a mystery set aboard a 17th century East Indiaman trade ship sailing from Batavia (now Jakarta) to Amsterdam. Within pages of meeting Sammy Pipps, a detective or “thief-catcher” of Holmesian perception, and his bodyguard/Watson/Boswell Arent Hayes, I was hooked. That’s the difficulty of strong openings: The rest of the novel has to live up to them. Now I’m sadly in the position of […]

Stand Tall and Reach Deep

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

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Wishtree is a lovely and charming story for children ages 8-12, but I’m 56 and adored it. I heard about this book from a friend whose little girl loves it and reads it repeatedly. I can totally understand why that is. Wishtree is about friendship, community, diversity, and acceptance of those who are new in our “messy garden.” It’s full of delightful characters, gorgeously detailed ink illustrations, and an important message about speaking up for your neighbors. The narrator of Wishtree is a 216-year-old red […]

Not a bad way to spend a few hours, but I really could have done without those last few pages.

Later by Stephen King

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Like The Colorado Kid and JoyLand before it, Later is one of King’s Hard Crime Case releases – paperbacks made to look like pulp paperbacks with vibrant cover art (that doesn’t always match up to the story), that all come in on the short side for King, maybe about 250 pages. The main reason that I don’t think this one was quite as successful as the other two is that this one takes place pretty close to now. The main character, Jamie, is a young […]

Sloppy editing, battle that just kept going, and an egregious character death: Peace Talks part B

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

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Jim Butcher said it was a publishing decision to break apart Peace Talks and Battle Ground into two books due to length and the sharp turn between the two halves of the story.  However, I’m not certain this was justified or needed.  Last year I read two books that were longer than the combined length of Peace Talks and Battle Ground.  And I suspect had the two been published together that the overall book would have been smaller, had the story not needed to be padded out to fill two […]

I believe it involved pie.

The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn

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Just when you thought I was finished here. Prepare the fainting couch, because there is more. MORE. Turns out (a surprise to no one who has already read these books, I imagine) that fans had been anxious about the future fates of the beloved Bridgerton clan after finishing the books so Quinn decided to “answer” their pleas with a series of 2nd epilogues. The epilogues published with each book were mere tidbits and demanding readers were not satisfied! I believe that these 2nd epilogues were […]



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