Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Smuggling, insects, and family drama surround this gay love story

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles

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Thank you, Emmalita, for this wonderful book and first exposure to KJ Charles!  In the 2023 Cannonball Book Exchange I put that I would like any book by KJ Charles and she graciously gifted me The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen. Kent and London had a good thing going.  They met up at the Three Ducks in London for some enthusiastic and anonymous sex.  But then Kent needs to do business away from the city and London, familiar with abandonment, decides to shut things down instead […]

The struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of three women in three time periods

Weyward by Emilia Hart

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My book club knocked it out of the park this month with Weyward.  Coincidentally,  Barnes and Noble chose it as this month’s speculative fiction pick.  Clearly we have excellent taste.  Emilia Hart has crafted a moving narrative across time by telling us the story of Altha Weyward in 1619, Violet Aryes in 1942, and Kate Aryes in 2019.  Altha, Violet, and Kate are Weyward women.  Born with the gift of being in tune with and connected to nature. For Altha, raised by her mother, another Weyward […]

The Last House on Needless Street Explores the Monster Inside Each of Us

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

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In the boarded up house at the end of Needless Street lives a man named Ted who drinks too much and loses time, a house cat named Olivia who sees it as her job to look after him, and his precocious daughter Lauren who never goes outside – not after what happened last time. Ted’s main hobbies are feeding the myriad songbirds who visit the backyard, and playing all the different games that Lauren makes up. That is, at least, until a murderer arrives on […]

Little Humans Have Questions About Death, A Mortician Answers Them

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty

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It’s a legitimate question for pet owners – will my cat or dog eat my body if I die in the house? Or, what actually happens when you’re cremated? Maybe you’re curious why bodies are buried six feet deep? Well, Caitlin Doughty – she of Ask a Mortician fame – has answers for you in this funny and informative book. The series of essays are all answering questions posed to her by children who, for those who don’t know, have a morbid streak a mile […]

Kill Your Darlings

Bunny by Mona Awad

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Bunny started out really strong for me, it ended okish…I think…but I mostly wanted to get off the ride once we hit the middle, and the middle is LONG. We follow Sam in her final year at Warren College (eyeroll for the cuteness there) as she’s finishing up her MFA.  Much like Mean Girls and Clueless have very clear cliques that don’t necessarily exist in the natural world quite so clearly, they exist here at Warren.  We have the sweet stoner poet Jonah,  Ava, Sam’s […]

An entertaining read for Women’s History month

The Alewives: A Plague-Era Tale of Murder, Friendship and Fine Ale by Elizabeth R. Andersen

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Another shout out to Narfna for putting this on my radar. I am your literary stalker! This was a very entertaining murder mystery set in an era that has always fascinated me and featuring a set of unusual sleuths. I’d never read any of Elizabeth Andersen’s books before, but I gather that historical fiction is her thing and setting a murder in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death had me from the get go. Even better, the sleuths in this novel, which I hope […]



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