Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Shocking News, Classic Author Wilkie Collins Wrote Another Good Book

The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins

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CBR15Bingo: Dwelling (the secret in the house is a major part of this book, and the house itself is a sort of character) I continue my tradition of one Wilkie Collins book a year with The Dead Secret, a fun and fast-paced read that cements Collins as probably my favorite Victorian writer (besides George Eliot for Middlemarch, but I’ve struggled to read Daniel Deronda about four times, whereas I’ve enjoyed every Collins I’ve read). I was especially impressed to note on the back cover that […]

“…evil is always essentially small and petty and mean and depraved, and in a limited life it represents a portion wasted, misused, and that can never be regained.”

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman

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CBR15Bingo: Sex (a lot of this book revolves around issues caused by sex) I found out about this book through Jo Walton’s monthly roundup of the books she reads, which I always enjoy. It’s fascinating seeing what goes into the mind of a favorite author, and she’s always reading things I’ve never heard of. I’m not usually a mystery person, but the plot and concept behind this one seemed interesting, so I picked it up. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late follows Rabbi David Small, the […]

Pre movie viewing friend homework

Blue Beetle, Volume 1: Metamorphosis by Tony Bedard, Ig Guera (Illustrator), J.P. Mayer (Illustrator), Ruy Jose (Illustrator)

Blue Beetle, Volume 2: Blue Diamond by Tony Bedard, Ig Guera (Illustrator), Marcio Takara (Illustrator)

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One of my friends asked me to go with her to see the new Blue Beetle movie and I agreed, knowing nothing about the character. She knew that, as I’m notoriously not a comics reader, so she handed me two volumes of the comic when we went to see Across the Spiderverse together last month. I put it off until the last minute, but as we’re going tomorrow, I figured I better get to it. All I can say is that I hope the movie […]

Unnecessary back story

Shift by Hugh Howey

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Bingo Square: Politics (senators, congressman, terrible people bringing about the end of the world) In 2049, congressman Donald Keene is recruited by Senator Paul Thurman to help build a containment system for a new nuclear waste facility. Donald has known Thurman for years, dating his daughter Anna in college. She will be on the team too, along with Donald’s friend Mick. The Democratic National Convention takes place at the site, just as nuclear bombs are detonated over the US. Those present file into the silos […]

Violating the Status Quo

Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema by Anne Helen Petersen

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CBR 15 Bingo – Dwelling: All the people discussed in this book work and live in Hollywood – both town and concept – which for better or for worse casts a long shadow across their lives. Hollywood has always banked on its stars and their stories as a promotional tool, so heavily that when actors openly diverge from their public personas it often causes backlash among the public. Especially in the first half-century of Hollywood, stars were marketed with particular stories and personas, often as […]

That Feeling When Your Dog Retrieves a Dismembered Leg

Flight Risk by Cherie Priest

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CBR 15 Bingo – North America: This book is set in rainy Seattle, Washington, and we see plenty of the splendor of its nature as well. Leda, a travel agent and part-time psychic, gets swept up in the case of a dual disappearance when a couple is reported missing in seemingly unrelated circumstances. This is the second book in The Booking Agents series, which follows Leda and a skeptical police detective, Grady, as they solve confounding crimes. I read the first book a few years […]



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