CBR16 – Page 31 – Cannonball Read 17

Who Knew You Could Learn So Much About Tennis from a Novel?

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

March 1, 2024 by RouletteGirl Leave a Comment

What would you do to defend your legacy? How hard would you work to regain a lost record? For Carrie Soto, 37-year old retired tennis star, it isn’t a hypothetical. She’s just watched Nicki Chan earn her 20th Grand Slam title, tying the record that Carrie set five years prior. Carrie’s entire career was urged on by her drive to be the greatest, and she is not going to stand by and watch another take her place at the top. So, as the title says, […]

Saturday Night Live, But With Romance!

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

February 29, 2024 by RouletteGirl Leave a Comment

Sally Milz is a writer on the clearly-SNL-inspired show The Night Owlz, whose past heartbreaks have led to her to a series of f*ckbuddies and her emotional commitments reserved for her friends and her stepdad. For an upcoming show, she writes a sketch mocking the trend of average men dating women way out of their league, but the guest host – musician Noah Brewster – refuses to play the part she’s envisioned for him. The sketch gets greenlit anyway, with Noah in a different role, […]

The Only Unrealistic Thing is the Length of the Podcasts

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin

February 28, 2024 by RouletteGirl Leave a Comment

A modern day take on You’ve Got Mail, where online friends realize that they’re real-life business rivals, and drama ensues. Hana Khan is the adult child of immigrant parents, living with her family in Toronto and working part-time in the family’s halal restaurant, Three Sisters Biryani Poutine. Sure, the décor is dated, the name is weird, and Hana is the only one who likes the namesake dish, but the restaurant is a staple of the Muslim community and the rest of the food is beyond […]

A Great Second Entry to a Series

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

February 26, 2024 by RouletteGirl 5 Comments

I don’t understand how T. Kingfisher manages to build up so much dread in her Sworn Soldier novellas, but she’s done it again in What Feasts at Night. We rejoin Alex Easton a few months after the terrible ordeal in Ruravia, and Alex pretty clearly has some PTSD from almost being taken over by a sentient fungus. But their friend (and fellow fungus survivor) Miss Potter has asked to use their hunting lodge as a base for mushroom hunting in Gallacia, and so Alex and […]

a bold swing but a tough miss

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

February 25, 2024 by tiny_bookbot Leave a Comment

Tootle Tsamaase’s Womb City showed up on several lists for most anticipated 2024 science fiction, and the Afrofuturist dystopia angle of it sounded exciting and different. And clearly also a work with a feminist eye towards women’s autonomy, but providing a different angle than standard issue Western white feminism. I had really high hopes for this one; science fiction is such a potent genre for examining political questions and this looked so fresh and distinctive. The plot summary was also compelling: Nelah lives in a futuristic […]

Crime, suspense and romance in Regency England

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (The Ill-Mannered Ladies Book 1) by Alison Goodman

February 25, 2024 by ElCicco 1 Comment

Shoutout to Narfna for bringing this book to my attention! This was a very entertaining novel that contains three exciting adventures featuring a highly unusual woman in Regency England. Lady Augusta Colebrook is forty-something, single, and a member of the noble class. She and her fraternal twin sister Lady Julia are well connected and well liked in London society, but then again very few people know about their private activities. When we meet Augusta (Gus) and Julia, they are attempting to help a married friend […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

Help Our Mission