Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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An Alien Murder Mystery Set in Chicago

Awaken Me Darkly by Gena Showalter

December 14, 2019 by teresaelectro Leave a Comment

I hadn’t read anything from Gena Showalter and decided to take on Awaken Me Darkly. The salacious cover reminded me of the Silk Stalkings series on USA Network, which I adore and own several seasons on DVD. I didn’t know anything about the Alien Huntress series but I was game to dive into the audiobook. In this first book of the series, we meet Mia Snow, a rising star in the Chicago PD. She runs the Alien Investigation and Removal team of agents. They hunt alien […]

Filed Under: Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction Tagged With: Alien Huntress, Aliens, awaken me darkly, book 1, Chicago, gena showalter, police detective, sexy romance, silk stalkings

teresaelectro's CBR11 Review No:16 · Genres: Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction · Tags: Alien Huntress, Aliens, awaken me darkly, book 1, Chicago, gena showalter, police detective, sexy romance, silk stalkings ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

A First Lady to Remember

Becoming by Michelle Obama

December 1, 2019 by teresaelectro Leave a Comment

Michelle Obama’s Becoming was an inspirational memoir to experience. I gave the audiobook to my mom for Christmas, but ended up borrowing and reading it myself! I had very high expectations for this book. It ended up being more of an emotional journey than I imagined. The Former First Lady recounts her childhood and her family. She goes into great detail of all the sacrifices her parents made for her and her brother in Chicago. My parents are both from nearby Indiana and  Chicago is […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, History Tagged With: #memoir, Barack Obama, Becoming, black culture, Chicago, First Lady, first lady of the united states, Michelle Obama, politics

teresaelectro's CBR11 Review No:14 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, History · Tags: #memoir, Barack Obama, Becoming, black culture, Chicago, First Lady, first lady of the united states, Michelle Obama, politics ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Where the Gin is Cold

Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins

October 15, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read this one with my wife. This is our co-review. I liked it well enough for a first book in the series, though I’m not sure I’ll continue. Susanna Calkins gets the era well enough without having to resort to too many cliches. I like the world she builds and the mystery is interesting enough, if not overly complex. After a rocky start, it really catches itself and I was engaged to the end. The problem I had with the story, and the reason why […]

Filed Under: Mystery Tagged With: Chicago, Gina Rizzo, Murder Knocks Twice, mystery, prohibition, Susanna Calkins

Jake's CBR11 Review No:107 · Genres: Mystery · Tags: Chicago, Gina Rizzo, Murder Knocks Twice, mystery, prohibition, Susanna Calkins ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

My Kind of Town, Chicago is…

In A Pig's Eye by Robert Campbell

April 8, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

In a time before both Amazon and GoodReads reviews became omnipresent, a person would pick something off the shelf because it interested them. They didn’t cross consult a third party to see if it would be worth their time, they just grabbed it and hoped for the best. I confess that I sometimes miss living in the stone age. I took a chance on this one after seeing it for $3 in the discount section at my favorite bookstore: The Mysterious in lower Manhattan. Rarely […]

Filed Under: Mystery Tagged With: Chicago, In A Pig's Eye, Jimmy Flannery, mystery, politics, Robert Campbell

Jake's CBR11 Review No:38 · Genres: Mystery · Tags: Chicago, In A Pig's Eye, Jimmy Flannery, mystery, politics, Robert Campbell ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

A Must Read if you live in, have been to, or are interested in Chicago

February 15, 2018 by cheerbrarian 4 Comments

A little over a year ago I left the balmy southern United States for the snowy Midwest, Chicago suburbs to be specific, so, this book quickly climbed to the top of my “to read” pile. How could I live here and not tackle Larson’s fantastic telling of such a pivotal point in the city’s history? I knew I had made the correct choice when I found no less than seven copies at my local library.  Definite move toward further acclimation to my new home, though […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: Chicago, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City, World's Fair

cheerbrarian's CBR10 Review No:5 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: Chicago, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City, World's Fair ·
Rating:
· 4 Comments

The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.

December 30, 2017 by borisanne 12 Comments

I feel incredibly robbed not to have found this book when I was mid-adolescence, when I would have reveled in empathy with Esperanza, the beautiful, awkward, sad, scared, bold, shy, lonely, social narrator who is coming-of-age through the course of the year during which The House on Mango Street takes place. Cisneros writes this book as an extended series of short vignettes: portraits of people, places, and things in Esperanza’s life; all the things that make up the tapestry of her youth. With these vignettes, […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: boys, cannonball, cbr9, Chicago, cisneros, cousins, esperanza, high heels, immigrant, language barrier, little sister, mama, nuns, puberty, Sandra Cisneros, sex

borisanne's CBR9 Review No:52 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: boys, cannonball, cbr9, Chicago, cisneros, cousins, esperanza, high heels, immigrant, language barrier, little sister, mama, nuns, puberty, Sandra Cisneros, sex ·
Rating:
· 12 Comments
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