Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“My dear chap, this is a bookshop. There’s never anywhere better to be.”

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

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CBR14 Bingo: Snake (SPOILER: being a thoroughly disreputable sort, Kim also turns out to betray Will at least once during the story) Will Darling has inherited his late uncle’s bookshop and is grateful for the fact. After serving in World War I, most of his skills involve killing swiftly and efficiently, not really a commodity on the post-war job markets back in England. Now he just needs to get some idea of all the books actually in the shop and get on with being a […]

‘The ocean was exactly as she’d imagined it’

Summer Sisters (1998) by Judy Blume

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CBR14 BINGO square: Shadow. (Holiday would be too easy.) Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters (1998) is a mood, a vibe, an energy, rather than a novel. It’s the salty taste of chips (or fries) and the soft sweetness of ice cream and the sharp chill of a vodka and cranberry with ice. It’s a long slow afternoon by the shore, a long slow stare into the shadows of the past. It’s strawberry lipgloss and windblown hair and new yellow swimsuits and singing along to ABBA and holding […]

So are you glad I plunged in after you now?

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

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CBR14 BINGO: Camel/Adapt Square (Adapting to a family chock full of magic when you only have a drop/Adapting to a new job and a whole magical world you did not know existed. A whole lot of adapting going on.) Witty banter, slow burning spiciness and magic make for a great little book. Edwin, a member of a powerful magical family, is the runt of his lineage. Born with just a little spark of magic, Edwin makes do as a liaison between the British government and magical […]

…you don’t have to be single to be independent. And you don’t have to be married to be loved.

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes

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CBR14 BINGO: Cozy Square (I slated this one for the New Square, but when I thought about how reading this book made me feel, Cozy hit the spot. Also, it includes a cozy little mystery.) I read and really enjoyed Holmes’ debut novel Evvie Drake Starts Over. I appreciated the small town, Bull Durham-y, messy but realistic romance of it all. This novel takes place in the same Maine town and references a handful of characters from her debut novel. It’s not necessary to read the first book […]

…they’ll eat us if we’re convenient.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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CBR14BINGO: Monster Square (Kaiju=monster for the most part but a handful of monstrous people involved as well. This would have never been something that I would have picked up but when Cannonballers recommend, you listen. Perhaps I should have used the Rec’d square for this one, but Monster is too perfect.) A recently downsized tech worker, Jamie, starts delivering app-ordered food during the Covid pandemic. When the delivery is to someone that Jamie talked to once a party in college, a whole new world literally opens […]

A tale of war with no heroes

Bolla: A Novel by Pajtim Statovci

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Cbr14bingo Serpent I found this book while on vacation at the beach. Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach Delaware, is a wonderful independent bookstore and I highly recommend a visit if you find yourself in the area. Their “staff picks” section is large and always yields some interesting reads I might not otherwise have found, including this book. Naturally, I went in looking for books to help fill bingo squares and the winged serpent on the cover grabbed my attention. This is an incredible novel but […]



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