Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I was more afraid of the truth than the lie. The truth would change the circumstances of my life. The lie was static. The lie was peaceful. I was happy with the lie.”

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

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It’s always an interesting time when authors who write literary fiction decide to play in genre sandboxes (note: literary fiction is also a genre, and not one with more merit than any other, just so we’re clear on my position here). The Unseen World, the author’s previous book, is one of my favorite books I’ve read in the last several years. I liked it so much that I put all of the author’s published work on my TBR (which I have of course since ignored). […]

Slow Burn

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

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Best for: Anyone who enjoys quality journalism, excellent writing, and people in power starting to be held accountable. In a nutshell: Journalist Farrow starts investigating Harvey Weinstein and uncovers not just confirmation of his predation, but the people in power who repeatedly covered up his crimes — and the crimes of others. Worth quoting: “Later, employee after employee would tell me the human resources office at the company was a sham, a place where complaints went to die.” Why I chose it: Given all that […]

So many trigger warnings

Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks

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I actually finished this book weeks ago but have been struggling to articulate my thoughts enough since to write a review, mostly because I found it so……..ugh. And while I don’t want to spoil the twists for other readers, I feel it would be remiss not to mention that this book features alcoholism, child endangerment, rape and sexual assault, coercive control and emotional abuse. Sanctimonious and spineless Daisy has been married to alcoholic Simon for years. They have the perfect ballet dancing daughter, Poppy, and […]

The Wrestler

Bucket Nut by Liza Cody

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I found this one on a list of unusual crime novels. It definitely fits the bill. I think this book is kind of tricksy. It’s billed as a crime novel, and it is. Eva, the protagonist, works for folks in the London underground and there is a crime at the center of the story. But really, this is a character study about a low class English woman who just wants to wrestle and live her life the best way she can. It’s as much about […]

A Gut-Churning Good Time

The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman

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What a ride! Big thanks to badkittyuno for putting this gem on my radar. Or, in the parlance of this book, allowing me to seek of the poisons of this tome via unicorn horn. We, as humans, have done some pretty vile things to ourselves and others since…pretty much the dawn of time. The Royal Art of Poison illustrates-in graphic detail- the poisonous things that people (mostly royalty, but the common man is capable of critical nastiness as well) have been doing intentionally and accidentally to […]

Dirty Jobs

South of Heaven by Jim Thompson

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The Year of Jim Thompson continues…with my least favorite version of his novels: the semi-autobiographical one that describes a job in granular detail and tries to shoehorn a crime story in. A great example of this is Nothing More Than Murder. I thought learning more about how the business of movie theater ownership worked in the 1940s would make for a compelling tale. I was wrong, very wrong. I don’t remember much about the crime story in that one but I do recall a lot about handling […]



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