Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Not exactly Little Red Riding Hood

Big Bad Wolf by Suleikha Snyder

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Disclaimer! I got an ARC from NetGalley. That has in no way influenced my review.   In a dystopian alternate reality, where the 2016 election led to the USA becoming a tightly regulated surveillance state, pretty much at the same time as the existence of a number of supernatural beings were revealed, several big cities, including New York, are now a Sanctuary City for supernaturals. Joe Peluso, an ex-soldier turned werewolf through military experimentation, is in prison for murdering six bear shifters with ties to […]

A very put-down-able novella

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

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Amanda, a young woman, lies in a hospital. We don’t know how she got there, or what’s wrong with her. Sitting on her bed is a young boy, David, who is not her son, but who nonetheless seems to know a lot about her. David is urging Amanda to tell her story, to be observant, but to be quick, as she doesn’t have much time left. What follows is a somewhat suspenseful story that touches on a few interesting themes, including parenthood, but ultimately doesn’t […]

Rugby stories I couldn’t put down

What a Flanker by James Haskell

Loose Head by Joe Marler

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I’m an armchair rugby fan, and have been for nearly 30 years, but its only in the last few that I’ve read some autobiographies of coaches and players.  The two books I’ve just read back to back are by two England players, one former and one current, and were both so good that I read each one in one sitting. The first, What a Flanker, was written by the retired James Haskell.  I’m going to openly admit that I had bought into the public image […]

Steampunk Cairo!

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

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I only recently became aware of award-winning author P. Djeli Clark, although he has been writing sci-fi/fantasy novellas and novels for at least 5 years. Novels that involve djinn are especially interesting to me, and when a couple of different folks (including our own Emmalita) mentioned Clark within days of each other, I decided to check him out and I downloaded EVERYTHING!! These first two offerings feature not just djinn and magical entities but also Cairene investigators whose backstories and interactions will, I hope, be […]

Isn’t it nice to discover we’re not exactly what we thought we were.

Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

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Ah, yes! Thankfully book four helped to sweep book three under the rug. Benedict, I am happy to report, is nowhere to be found and I hope that he stays in the country painting his watercolors, or whatever, for the remainder of the books. For those of you reading prior to watching, this is the book where the whistle is blown on Whistledown. I’m glad that I have put off watching the Netflix series until reading at least this book as I hear that Lady […]

In which I recommend an exceptionally good movie in place of this book

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

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Scroll all the way to the bottom for movie recommendation! Is anything quite so disappointing as picking up a book that you fully expect to be a five-star read and being met with something you can only generously call mediocre? I was so excited at the prospect of learning about octopuses, those wonderful invertebrates, that I sat down with my beloved book darts, certain that I’d want to permanently tag many interesting passages. Now a few golden embellishments stare up at me from the pages, […]



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