Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Happy International Women’s Day to Esther Green

The Keeper's Six by Kate Elliott

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First of all, Thank you, Emmalita, for The Keeper’s Six!  I’ve been rather bad about writing reviews but I want to share how awesome Esther Green is on International Women’s Day.  Esther is a badass, an adventurer, intelligent, determined, Jewish, a mother, a widower, a magical caster called a Lantern, is over 60 years old and still going on fantastical missions!  That’s the type of 60 year old that I hope to be. Esther Green is woken in the middle of night with an urgent call […]

Bill Hodges is Back!

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

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Stephen King introduced us to Bill Hodges in Mr. Mercedes, where the retired detective had found himself slipping further and further into ennui, until he received a taunting letter from a person claiming to be the Mercedes killer, a madman who had driven his car into a crowd six years prior killing 8 and injuring dozens more. Finders Keepers brings us back into Bill Hodges’ life, where he works with Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson as private investigators, mostly catching bail-jumpers. Until Jerome’s little sister […]

Take a Small Character from The Odyssey and Make Her Shine

Circe by Madeline Miller

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You know how girls get lumped into groups based on their interests as a child? Like, you had horse girls, or gymnastics girls, or gemstone girls. I was a Greek mythology girl. I inherited my copy of D’aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths from my older sisters and read it so many times it fell apart. When we were assigned The Odyssey in high school, I read all of it. Willingly. And then did it again in college. The Firebrand was one of my favorite books […]

Lucky Leap Day – A Cute Romance That Fumbles at the End

Lucky Leap Day by Ann Marie Walker

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This was a solid 3 star romance. Would have been 3.5 except for the epilogue. You’ll know what I mean when you get to it. Anyhow, Cara Kennedy and Finn Maguire meet on Cara’s whirlwind trip to Dublin, and on her final night – after far too much whiskey – Cara decides to partake in the Irish tradition of women proposing on Leap Day. The next morning Cara wakes up with a hangover and a husband. With a flight to catch and no additional vacation […]

Golden Girls with Guns

Killers of a Certain Age: A Novel by Deanna Raybourn

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Back in 2010 a Bruce Willis movie called Red (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) came out. I don’t especially love action movies but this one was great — a comedy action movie with a load of outstanding actors in it, including John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren. They all play retired secret agents whom Willis convinces to come out of retirement when he finds himself targeted by mysterious forces. Helen Mirren was my favorite as a bad ass weapons expert who has been running a genteel […]

Choosing to create a full life despite being imprisoned by circumstances

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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A Gentleman in Moscow was my book club’s pick for February, otherwise I likely would never have picked it up.  Amongst our tiny group one person noped out, one person was struggling 100 pages in (unknown if they finished it), but I found myself curious and kept going.  While the writing could ramble, sometimes giving asides that have no pertinence to the story, I found myself drawn into the tiny world of Count Alexander Rostov sentenced to live the rest of his life at the Metropol […]



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