Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What’s the opposite of taking it easy? This book is that.

The Art of Taking It Easy by Dr. Brian King

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Dr. Brian King, academic psychologist and aspiring comedian, shares his thoughts on how to live a life with less stress. Overdrive selected this one as their Big Read for the spring. I’m going through a fairly stressful season in my own life, and hoped this would have a takeaway or two that I could use. Y’all. It has been a while since I’ve quit a book so completely fully as I did with this one. How does a book about reducing stress result in a […]

Chosen Ones By Veronica Roth

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

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I unfortunately wasn’t clicking with this book, about 45% of the way through. I think I was, first off, expecting something a bit different? I actually kept thinking about The Hunger Games while reading this, and the other books in the trilogy, as examples of PTSD done really well. Far be it from me to judge the realism of PTSD description, but in comparison to that series, I think Roth misses the PTSD mark and jumps to what reads as moodiness. I think this book would have […]

The ones that I couldn’t finish (NOT my double Cannonball!)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Trelegemeproblemet (The Three-Body Problem) by Liu Cixin

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

American Demon by Kim Harrison

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Dear readers, I’m not going to lie, I’m racing against the clock to get all of my reviews finished in time for the CBR12 deadline (12 noon EST – or 6 pm Oslo time). I also need to finish 25% of the final novel I’m reviewing, co-parent my autocratic, demanding, and rather clingy almost-three-year-old, plan and prep a three-course New Year’s meal, and possibly do some last-minute shopping. No pressure, right? So when fellow Cannonballer Pixifer posted a review with all of her DNF’s for the year, […]

Hate at first sight #Adaptation

Dune by Frank Herbert

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This might be the first review I’ve ever written for a DNF (I got about 20% through). My fantasy book club chose Dune because of the adaptation that was originally coming out later this year (even though it’s actually sci fi). (I’m going to skip the blurb because at this point, I think everyone knows vaguely what it’s about. If not, I’m sure there are many more lovingly written reviews here that can blurb it for you.) I have possibly never hated a book so […]

I don’t know how these characters had friends

To Have and To Hoax by Martha Waters

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This is the author’s first novel, so I’m going to try to be nice… After reading half of the book, nevermind.   The main characters, Violet and James, married quickly, were wildly in love for a year, and then they had an argument that halted their happy marriage in its tracks.  The couple live in the same house, but they have a cold marriage where they try to avoid and ignore each other.  We haven’t learned what the argument was about a third of the […]

How Did This Get Published? WHY Did This Get Published?

Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson

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Y’all, I think I’m about to leave my first hate review. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say a bewildered review, because I cannot fathom how anyone gave this book the green light to get published. I thought I was starting another cute YA romance, but nope. Here’s the description of the book on Amazon: When a guy named Martin Nathaniel Munroe II texts you, it should be obvious who you’re talking to. Except there’s two of them (it’s a long story), and Haley thinks […]



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